Chapter 12
The Internet: Moving Toward WebBased Learning Environments
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441
How to Read This Chapter
• I have organized the chapter around several themes: student
experiences using the Internet—a collection of activity structures
describing different ways the Internet can be used in the classroom;
telecommunications projects and student inquiry—case studies and
examples of Internet-based projects that involve students in authentic
inquiry and social action; Internet-based science activities – the nuts
and bolts of designing web-based science activities. You can start your
exploration at any one of these three points. If you are interested in
finding out how you can use the Web creatively, you might want to
start with the student’s experiences section. On the other hand if you
are interested in involving students in collaborative inquiry projects,
look at the section on telecommunications. If you are interested in
designing online learning experiences you might want to start with the
last section of the chapter.
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Invitations to Inquiry
• What is the nature of an online classroom?
• What kinds of student’s experiences using the Internet will lead to the
active construction of science knowledge?
• How can the Internet be used to foster student inquiry, creative activity
and problem solving?
• How can collaboration and research investigations lead to socially
responsible actions at the local and the global levels?
• What principles from research should affect the use of the Internet and
related technology resources in the science classroom?
• What design elements foster the integration of the Internet resources in
classroom instruction?
• How would you design or select Internet-based science activities for
the science classroom?
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Chapter 12 Map
Chapter 12
The Internet
Creating a
Web-Based
Class
Inquiry
12.1:
Designing
Activities
Web-Based
Tools
Interpersonal
Telecommunications
Projects & Inquiry
Information
Collections
Case Study:
Global Lab
Problem
Solving
The Internet
Web-Based
Activities
Inquiry
Activity
12.2:
Network
Science
Inquiry
Activity
12.3:
Designing a
Web-Based
Activity
442-443
Inquiry Activity 12.1: Designing
Web-Based Science Activities
• In this inquiry you will become
familiar with 8 web-based tools,
anyone of which you can use to
design a web-based science
activity.
• Read through the tools that are
listed in Table 12.1 (you’ll find
details on each one on pages
443-447.
• Identify an STS or science
inquiry goal and design a webbased activity using one or
more of the Web-based tools.
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443-447
Web-Based Tools
The following slides present information
about these web-based tools
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443-445
Interpersonal Exchange Web
Tools
• Interpersonal Exchange
tools bring people together
for sharing, asking
questions, discussions and
problem solving. Three
structures or tools do this:
• Keypals & Global
Classrooms
• Online Discussions and
Chats
• Telementoring (Experts
and Question-and-Answer
Services
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The web enables students and teachers from
around the world to establish global classrooms
for interpersonal exchanges. Shown here are
schools that participated in global project. Students
used email (keypals) to communicate.
443-444
Keypals and Global Classrooms
• Students can send
email to each other, to
a bulletin board, or a
list.
• What kinds of
activities could this
structure support?
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444-445
Telmentoring--Experts and
Question-and-Answer Services
• Bringing experts into the
classroom can be
facilitated by using an
“ask-an-expert” site, such
as the Pitsco site shown
here.
• Design an activity for a
middle school life science
or high biology class that
makes use of this site.
Augment your research by
contacting the Scientific
American Ask the Experts
The Internet
site.
445-446
Information Collections and
Resource Web Tools
• Two types of structures
are presented here:
– Pooled Data Analysis
(Network science)--students
collaborating and
generating information and
knowledge
– Virtual Field Trips--students
collaborating with experts,
museums to make use of
information on the web to
construct knowledge
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Citizens in the Cleveland, Ohio area
pooled data to learn about the quality
of the air by monitoring ground-level
ozone at the sites shown on the map.
445-446
Pooled Data Analysis
Network Science
•
•
•
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This structure involves students not
only in science inquiry, but it also helps
students get involved in social action
projects.
Students pool data with cooperating
classrooms, and use the data to draw
conclusions, and take action on a
relevant issue, such as the quality of the
air, watershed quality, soil properties,
and so forth.
Identify four to six topics that you
would want to involve your students in
with other schools.
445-446
Pooled Data Analysis
•
•
•
•
•
Identify phenomena
Schedule observations
Share Data
Analyze results
Publish conclusions
Pooling data at the global level
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Pooling data at the local level
446
Virtual Field Trips
•
•
Instead of actually taking students
on a field trip, say, to a stream,
virtual field trips take you on a trip
via the Internet…to a museum, or
along with a scientist and her team
of researchers.
Design an virtual field trip to one
of your favorite online museums.
What activities will you develop to
engage the students? You might
check the activity in the Art of
Teaching Science, p. 446, which is
designed for groups of students to
evaluate their favorite online
museum. How could this activity
help you design your own?
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446-447
Problem Solving Web Tools
• The web can be used to help
students become problem
solvers. Three structures are
presented here. How are they
different?
– Net Publishing---have the
students be the publishers
– Social Action Projects--have
students identify the social
issues they want to work on
– The Virtual or Online
Classroom---especially for
teachers to develop an fullfledged or “hybrid” online
course.
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447
Social Action Projects
• Endangered species
• Air, water and soil
pollution
• Population growth
• Sustainable
development
• Food and nutrition
• Poverty and hunger
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Visit the IEARN website to explore
the wide range of social action
projects designed by teachers around
the world. A few are listed here.
447
The Hybrid Virtual Classroom
• The hybrid approach to a virtual
classroom combines online and
face-to-face activities.
• What elements of your course
would you put online in a
hybrid variety. You might want
to refer to Table 12.2.
• Several online managements
systems can support your work.
I’ve included three in the text.
How are they different?
– Blackboard
– Nicenet
– WebCt
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Nicenet is a free online management
service which allows you to organize
elements of your course online. The
next few slides show some of its potential.
To open an account got to Nicenet and click on “create a class.”
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Home page
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Home for an Honors Chemistry course. Note the
Online elements, conferencing, link sharing, etc.
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This screen shows the conferencing page, where
You can conduct online discussions among your class.
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Link sharing or Internet resources page in which
You can build a “hotlist” (see ahead) of the sites
You want your students to use in your course.
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Inquiry Activity 12.2: Network Science--Exploring online projects
•
In this inquiry you will investigate
four network science projects:
–
–
–
–
•
•
Global Thinking Project
GLOBE
Hands-On-Universe
Journey North
Use the jigsaw cooperative learning
method and divide the work up in
your class to research these
projects.
How do these projects contribute to
the students public understanding
of science?
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Two Russian students sitting on The bank of
a stream in the state of Georgia monitoring
the quality of the water and sharing it with
others in their network project.
450
Key Principles: Network Science
•
•
•
•
•
The Internet should be used to
broaden the context of locally
grounded inquiry.
The classroom, not the online
community, should be the primary
learning environment.
Teachers and students should have
multiple entry points for using the
technology and the curriculum.
Students should be helped to find
productive Internet resources.
The data the project produces
should be used to deepen student
inquiries.
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American and Russian teachers at
A conference to discuss how to
Improve the implementation of
Network science projects.
453-458
Web-Based Science Activities
Hotlist
A collection
of links
related to
your online
course.
Scrapbook
A collection
of Internet
sites
organized
around
specific
categories
such as,
photographs,
maps,
stories,
facts,
quotations,
sound clips,
videos,
virtual
reality tours
Structure The links
Students
should be
make use of
organized
the
into
collection to
subcategories use the
based on the scraps to
content of
create a
your course. newsletter, a
Webpage or
a digital
presentation.
Purpose
Hunt
To help
students
construct
knowledge
based on
several
inquiry
questions
and related
sites.
Sampler
Design ed
to impact
the
attitudes
of
students
on a
science
topic.
The hunt
is
organized
into
inquiry
questions,
Web
resources
(pages,
images,
sounds,
Four or
five
Websites
are
identified.
For each
site, two
or three
inquiry
questions
guide the
•
•
Using Web Resources
Use the resources of the web to
create four types of online
resources for your students:
–
–
–
–
•
•
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The Hotlist
Scrapbook
Hunt
Sampler
Develop a hotlist for an area of
science and put it on the web as a
webpage and have peers review it.
Under what situations would you
use a scrapbook, hunt or sampler?
455-457
Sample Lesson 12.1: Mission to
the Blue Planet
• This a lesson developed
using the constructivist
Web-based Lesson model
(Table 12.6). You can go
to an online version of the
lesson as well as view the
one in the Art of Teaching
Science.
• What are some topics you
are considering to develop
online lessons?
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Investigating Impact Craters
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Mission to the Blue Planet: a
hands on component
• Hands-on inquiry should
be part of online activities.
Here you see an aluminum
cake pan filled with flour.
Small objects (rocks,
marbles) are dropped into
the flour to simulate
asteroids hitting the
surface of a planet to
study impact craters, one
of the phenomena studied
in the Mission to the Blue
Planet.
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Webquests
•
Webquests are inquiry-based
activities in which most of the
resources are located on the
Internet. Webquests should focus
on knowledge acquisition and
integration thus supporting a
constructivist approach to learning..
At the Webquest site, you will find
training materials to help you
construct Webquests.
– B. Dodge developed the
concept of a Webquest. See
the Webquest site at:
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webq
uest.html
– Use the template shown here to
design Webquest activities.
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Inquiry Activity 12.3: Designing
a Web-Based Activity
Web 101 is a collection of web-based
activities that I’ve “collected” from the
web. Take look, and use as models or
actual activities in your class.
• In this activity you will design a
constructivist web-based
activity.
• Select goals from the NSES to
form the focus of your activity.
• Use the model lesson (12.1) and
the information on each phase
(Table 12.6) to develop your
activity.
• Drop your activity into your
website. Ask peers to review it;
then try it out with students.
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Problems and Extension
•
•
•
•
Prepare a Web-based lesson using one of the
following Web-based tools: key pals, online
discussions, chat, tele-mentoring, pooled data
analysis, tale-field trip or social action project.
Include the goals for the lesson, and how students
would be active learners in the lesson.
Discuss the implications of using the Web to make
your teaching environment a “global classroom.”
What do you think will be the outcomes and benefits
for your students, and colleagues?
Locate a science museum on the Web, and design a
tele-field trip using the museum as the basis for your
project.
Design a pooled data analysis project for a group of
middle or high school students in any content area of
science. Visit some of the examples of pooled data
analysis projects identified in the chapter. After
studying these projects, outline a new project by
working with a group of peers. Share the project by
putting it on the Web, and presenting it to a group of
peers.
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Science Teachers Talk
•
•
How do you use technology
(including the Internet) in your
science lessons? Why do you, and
what do you see as the benefits for
your students?
Find out what the following
teachers say about these questions.
How does it compare with your
thinking:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Rachel Zgonc (a first year teacher)
Ben Boza (Botzwana)
Carol Myronuk (Canada)
Barry Plant (Australia)
Tom Brown
Michael O’Brien (a first year
teacher)
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A web-based activity in action