Introduction
This paper is intended to generate thought and reflection on a powerful Internet networking tool--the World Wide Web (WWW). Furthermore it is the authors' intent to offer practical guidance for teachers and students to extend the use of the Internet in classrooms by illustrating a powerful new way to use the World Wide Web.
The Power of the World Wide Web
There is little question that the Internet has grabbed the attention of educators across the nation, just as it has become a focus in the spotlight of the mass media. The World Wide Web, or just Web as it is frequently called, is of particular interest as an educational tool because of how it extends and transforms knowledge. The World Wide Web is a powerful Internet tool because of its ease of use, interactivity and powerful graphical interface. It is our belief that the Web offers a powerful vehicle for changing teaching and learning and for restructuring what happens in schools. However, if the Web is going to become the tool that it might be--if it is going to be more than a technological fad in schools, it has to be understood and used in the optimum manner possible. Much has been made of the Web's ability to help locate and access information from other Web sites around the world. It can do this astonishingly well, and we should encourage its use as a vehicle for accessing information for learning. However, another significant, long-term capability of the Web is how it can help teachers and students to create information resources and then to share them. This knowledge creating/sharing aspect of the Web is important for at least four conceptual reasons:
The Web supports a constructivist perspective on learning where learners create meaning. That is, students learn through the process of building and acting upon information, the most powerful way to learn. From this perspective, knowledge cannot be "poured" into students' brains, and the best learning does not take place through the presentation of facts or requiring the recall of information. The use of networking allows a shift away from the teacher-as-the-expert model to a learning model where there is a pro-active, shared responsibility for learning which arises from the use of computer-based communications. The interactive nature of the Web helps to support this active communications and learning process. There is a long line of educational researchers and practitioners, including Dewey, Piaget and Bruner that support this kind of learning approach.
The Web supports the notion of collaborative learning, where dialog or discourse takes place between students and teachers, and between students themselves. This discourse helps learners to interact, to share and to constructively criticize each other as they work together. The social construction of knowledge (based on the research of Vogotsky and others) is an important part of the learning tradition in the university, but is usually ignored in most K-12 schools. Too often student learning in school is thought of as an isolated, individual experience, although once students graduate they are expected to collaborate to solve problems in the real world of business. The construction of a Web provides a powerful means for this teacher and student collaboration.
The Web provides for more authentic learning experiences because learners can work with real world, up-to-the-minute sources and reference materials. The environment of the global Internet allows learners to interact and share without regard to location or age-level. This environment allows younger students to work on real-world issues with other adult scientists and researchers. The Internet provides for a real world context for learning. This real world context for learning also requires the social interaction and active pursuit of patterns and understanding which is part of constructing knowledge. Rather than working with static, possibly out-of-date text books in building their Web, students work with original source materials and struggle with the same requirements of adult learners--identifying, selecting, organizing and presenting information. For example, developing skills in the selection of appropriate information, from the myriad of sources on the Internet, reflects one of the most critical, real-world skills necessary for the 21st century.
The Web is based on hyperlinks between various sources and types of information with strong graphical, multimedia capabilities which truly motivate and capture students' attention. Students today experience more through an interactive, multimedia perspective which does not rely solely on text. The Web brings a rich set of multimedia information tools to the learning experience, including video, sound, animation and text.
The Creation and Sharing of Knowledge via the Web
These four points provide a strong conceptual context for the use of the World Wide Web in schools that are seeking to change teaching and learning. Given this conceptual context of knowledge creation and sharing, the authors would like to offer a concrete model for schools to put into practice this notion of knowledge creation/sharing based on the World Wide. We believe that to bring significant change to classrooms requires practical strategies which can be established from the bottom-up, building ownership from a single teacher to a grade level, to a school, to a district, to a region, and beyond. These knowledge-creating strategies have to have meaning and impact to those involved, and must draw others in because of some common thread or shared context. This common tread or shared context is the beginning point for developing a unique Web in the school.
We also believe that over time, many of these seemingly unique and individual efforts to build Webs can be joined together into much broader regional, state, national and even international efforts. Just as electronic discourse on the Internet has grown from local interaction into international exchanges between students and teachers, so too can the creation and sharing of knowledge in the work of a World Wide Web structure. However, as exciting as it might be to discuss these kinds of global learning opportunities, we are absolutely convinced that schools need to start with much smaller, more locally focused efforts if they are to be successful. Individuals don't start by professing ownership of the universe, only a small, shared part of it. This means that in the development of projects, you must walk before you run. Once learners of any age experience the power and the exhilaration of creating and sharing knowledge, once they "buy in" in a personal way, it is very easy to broaden out into other areas. It is not easy to start in this broader arena, however.
In this vein, we would posit that every school could (and hopefully will) identify at least one unique web server structure which would provide for a common learning focus in the school, and would be of wider interest outside the school and the individuals involved. The goal, in fact should be that a school builds at least one Web structure which is an unique resource, shareable with the widest possible audience. When we say web server structure, we are talking about a assemblage of facts, multimedia resources, other web sites and people, organized in the hyper-linked format of the World Wide Web, and designed to be shared with others. This Web structure would build on some unique characteristic or interest of the school and surrounding community, and would serve as the basis for participatory design and implementation. It assumes the school or community as the context for thinking and learning, for acting and producing knowledge. We believe that a Web structure can be identified to generate and hold the attention of each school community. Furthermore, we believe that this Web must be designed and used as a "sharable" resource which will be of significant value to a much wider learning community. Given sharable resources from individual school Webs, it is conceptually possible to put together a group of individual school web resources into a large set of learning resources with broad appeal and learning value. Schools thus benefit in two ways--first in the process of constructing and sharing their knowledge resources, and second in the process of using knowledge resources from the wider learning community.
Before we talk about the specific process schools can use in building knowledge resources, we want to share some examples of schools which have built their own web structures using this approach of starting with something of unique, local interest and then expanding it. We will talk about how they came to see their unique structures and identify a few things which they did to be successful. We will also describe the underpinnings of each school's web server project--what it took to make it happen from both a technology and a human resource perspective.
The Fayetteville-Manlius "ClayNet" Project
Fayetteville-Manlius (F-M) is a suburban school district near Syracuse, NY, serving approximately 4000 students. The district has a long history of technology use and over the past year has become very involved with the Internet and World Wide Web development. The Fayetteville-Manlius Web grew from the successful integration of technology into a ceramics art program run by Bob vonHunke, the chairman of the art department. The use of HyperCard within the ceramics program was almost as unique as the ceramics class itself. Each student, upon completion of a clay product, captured it as a single-frame video image in digital form on a computer. The image was then included within a "portfolio" that consisted of a HyperCard stack created by each member of the class. This activity, which offered numerous student exemplars of best work, meshed with a HyperCard-based syllabus created by Bob. Simultaneously, Bob was working with the Everson Museum, a small Syracuse-based museum known for its extensive ceramics collection. In recognition of Bob's efforts, a network of 25 Macintosh Computers, was installed near his ceramics lab. In 1994, this cluster of machines was added to an existing network of IBM Computers housed within the business department's classrooms and the library. This larger school network was subsequently attached by routers to the Internet where it was used at the outset for electronic mail.
Most of the pieces necessary to create a unique Web structure existed within this art program. First, there was a teacher familiar with both subject matter (ceramics) and technology (hypermedia production and design). Secondly, there was connectivity being brought into the building to extend the local area networks to wide area networking via routers and high speed digital phone lines. Next, there was outside support offered by the authors, representing NYSERNET for the Internet connectivity issues and the Central NY Regional Information Center for the staff development and curriculum integration issues. Missing were two pieces: a machine to house the Web data and programs, and a team to design and reformat the local program and resources so they could be disseminated to the widest possible community. Using knowledge of these resources at F-M, one of the authors (Dan Lake) contacted Apple Computer to see if a machine could be loaned to the site for the duration of a "Web" project as a Web server. A Quadra 700 was located that could supply enough hard drive space to allow a Web structure to be built.
Next, the team was created from a core of students who comprised the "Computer Graphics Club." Adults included Jeanne Klein, the computer support teacher for the 9-12 program, Bob vonHunke, and the author, Dan Lake, who provided the original concept that a Web structure based on their local ceramics activities and resources could benefit the larger art and art education community throughout the world.
An initial team meeting was called. At this meeting Dan Lake suggested a series of seven steps be undertaken, following a pattern found in Chapter Seven of The Art Museums on the Information Superhighway, an Information Technology Primer[1]. The first step was to develop a "brief"... a document stating objectives and goals of the project. The teachers and students then spent the next week writing and exchanging the document. It was word processed and posted to the Web server as one of the first online documents generated by the team. The document can be found on the Web at http://www.fmhs.cnyric.org/papers/guide/guide.html. In this way, the team hoped to establish a statement of goals for others to view as the first concrete step in their Web development.
At this point, the students and teachers began to map and flow chart the "pages" for the Web. Several students came forward to learn the hypertext markup language (HTML), mostly from online tutorials, on their own time. Other students began the creating of original graphics to support the screen designs. Using already digitized exemplars and text taken from the syllabus-in-progress, ClayNet came into focus as a project for the Fayetteville-Manlius High School Web Server. The project can be see on the Web at: http://www.fmhs.cnyric.org/HTML/art/ceramics.html.
Meetings were scheduled for the team about every two weeks. Most of the work was done by students working during free time, after school, or from home. At the second meeting, when pages began to form, Jeanne Klein, the computer support person, asked "How will we know if what we are doing is useful?" The team was charged with finding an answer for the next meeting. One student, Seth Ladd, working from home and using a local Internet service provider (at a cost to Seth of $25 month, unlimited access) scanned other webs for an answer. He finally responded, online, with a "Guest Book" form that collected comments and immediately posted them back to a page for all to see. Though a simple format, Seth created a form that produced unexpected results: about 10 percent of the respondents coming to the new Web site were alumni! This information was stored for future consideration. http://www.fmhs.cnyric.org/guestbk/guestbk.htm
At a third team meeting, Dan Lake asked the students how the project would continue after they graduated. The Computer Graphics Club was a small group, and they wrestled with the question "Could the server be sustained as members graduated or left the club for other interests?" The team decided that other students would have to be solicited to help build and support the Web structure.
Again, the results were unexpected. In late May, only weeks before the ending of the school year, a complete new section appeared on the server. Entitled "Music," it contained a great volume of work pertaining to the school's music program and audio files, all presented by a student named Eugene Lee. See this aspect of the Web at: http://www.fmhs.cnyric.org/HTML/music/f-m_orch.html. As evidence of effort and motivation, it was a great addition. As evidence of "teamwork," it failed to meet two criteria: only one team member (Seth) knew Eugene was producing this work, and the material had no relation to the goals and objectives of the project, as established by the group.
Dan Lake called another meeting, inviting the original students, Eugene, and the teachers to attend. Eugene was complimented highly for his effort and work. He was also asked if he had ever seen the original goals of the project. His response was "No.". He was given the document. All members of the team were asked for a reaction. Seth, who had invited Eugene and knew he was working on the music section explained that the team was concerned with recruiting new members, and "...not all students are interested in just art, you know...". Some friendly debate ensued, during which Bob vonHunke suggested that the original brief set goals for interdisciplinary connections, but that Eugene's work did not meet those goals. At this point, Seth suggested that the team move the original goals to the "Art" section and write goals for the "Music" section. Discussion ensued and the meeting ended without a clear resolution to the problem, but with the understanding that something was being done that was changing the original goals. Shortly after the meeting a rather disjointed statement of purpose appeared deep within the music pages.
It was in mid July that Seth posted a new "brief" for all to consider. Moving well beyond the scope of a "team member," acting more like a "leader," Seth proposed a complete process for creating a Web Server that would grow from a single focal point to a tiered set of teams with a steering committee. This new brief is located on the Web at: http://www.fmhs.cnyric.org/papers/guide/new.html. Throughout the Web server construction, the teachers and students worked as equals to develop the project to the point of online publication. Students seemed to sense the power derived from the idea that THEY were doing most of the actual work, while the teachers were secure in the knowledge that THEY were driving the conceptual structures and providing the content expertise. Something outside a normal student-teacher relationship seemed to be taking place. Clearly a new role for the teacher as a facilitator rather than as a dispenser of information was becoming a reality.
During this school year, the team is continuing the ClayNet project by addition of numerous images supplied by the Everson Museum. The Everson Museum's Education Committee approved both the creation of a CD-ROM product by Bob vonHunke and the inclusion within the Web of selected slides and video imagery that is not complicated by existing copyright concerns. Seth's suggestion for growth of the project has been "adopted" by the team after returning to school in September of 1995. A section for a "Model UN project" is in preparation by a group of interested students and teachers, and a student Internet Club has been formed. The first meeting was attended by 40 students in late September who were educated about the Internet and shown the tools available to them. This Club will form the nucleus for future student involvement until curricular integration takes place.
The HW Smith Elementary School "Word Sampler" Project
The HW Smith Elementary School is an urban school in the City of Syracuse (the City) that has been an early adopter of technology in support of instruction. About 850 children attend this K-6 school, many from different cultures and nationalities. The HW Smith Elementary School's Web project grew from the successful implementation of technology into an English as Second Language (ESL) program housed at the school. Two teachers, working with a community member and artist, Nancy Smith, had used 5 multimedia-capable computers and a scanner to create a HyperStudio product that featured numerous students from the 20 different languages represented in the building. This "Hello" project, using sound and imagery, impressed not only the local parents and students attending "Open House" but the local media as well. In early 1995, a local area network was implemented within the school to support other activities AND to later connect outward for exchange of writing with distant partners via the school's dedicated Internet link. Driven by Sharon Birnkrant, a principal who wanted technology to act as a catalyst for change among her staff, and driven by her belief that technology can improve student learning, the ESL project and the computer lab provide links to the multicultural community surrounding her school and beyond.
As with the Fayetteville-Manlius Web project, most of the pieces were already in place to build a structure that would share the strengths of the community. To suggest the project, Dan Lake pointed Sharon and ESL staff to the Fayetteville-Manlius project and suggested the formation of a team to develop a similar Web structure, but one that took advantage of the unique ESL resources in the building. A meeting was set up to include the Syracuse City's Teacher Center director, the chairman of the computer program at Central Tech, the ESL team leader, Sharon, and Dan Lake as an outside consultant. The meeting took place during late June of 1995.
The decision was made at the first team meeting to seek support in locating resources for the school staff to create a Web structure. Within a week, a server was purchased for the City district use, and placed at HW Smith as a catalyst for future development of the Internet activities not only within H.W. Smith, but across all the schools in the City of Syracuse. This caused the City to escalate the planned installation of digital phone service into the lab to support the project, to the delight of the building administration. At this time a team member suggested development of pages that would support learning English while at the same time allowing the children to share their own language with English speakers. A "picture dictionary" idea was formed and a few model pages sketched on paper.
Using students from Fayetteville-Manlius' development team, the HW Smith team translated the first sketchy written pages into a model. Taking a collage of fruit as a digital picture, a screen was created that linked to individual pictures of fruit. See the Web at http://www.scsd.k12.ny.us. Each individual page included an English word with a sound clip (eg: Pear(Sound Icon) ) and place holders for each ESL student to add his/her own word in written form and as a digital sound clip. In this way, the model was established for creating ONE collection of related nouns (classification: FRUIT) that linked to pages modified by the students working with their teachers. The goals, being written now, should allow for additional classification "collages" to be created, pointing to single pages with student additions. A suggested next example is "School Tools" pointing to pens, pencils, paper, and so on. The images and sound files are being collected to work with this as the next additional series of pages within the model.
Using this model, the F-M students then taught the ESL teachers and Nancy Smith to modify the existing HTML documents with their own imagery, words and sound clips. The teachers have begun to implement the project with Nancy Smith as local support during this school year. Teachers model this process to their children, who then create the text and sound to build the Web structure. Once enough pages are created containing the students' additional work, a collective database will be built and utilized for support of ESL programs across the City and beyond. The "brief" being completed will include these goals, along with additional objectives set by the team. This process is ongoing, and will be formalized as more students are added to the team. Still in its beginning stages, this project will offer a significant value to a much wider learning community.
The Process
Overview
As these real world examples highlight, schools go through a number of typical steps in building their knowledge structures and resources. The following list puts these steps into a more abstract and sequential order for schools to consider.
Sequence of Steps:
The remainder of this paper will detail each of these steps. Finally the paper will close with a listing of web resources which might be useful in "creating knowledge" within your school.
Detailed Steps for Developing Your Own Web
Get a small group of interested teachers, parents and students together to begin your Web development. Using the questions identified in our self-assessment questionnaire (attachment), have each individual independently think through what could be a unique WWW project for your school. This helps to identify and establish ownership in a project. After each person has gone through the questions individually, get the group together for a brainstorming session, using large sheets of paper or use a computer with a large screen lcd display panel. Have one person be the note taker and write down each of the suggested projects, without comment. After the initial brainstorming, the group can go through and try to cluster the various suggested projects and then try to prioritize the top 5 or so. At this point, the group may want to bring others into the process and get their reactions to the top 5 projects. After a few discussions, a decision needs to be made on one project which will best meet the criteria of widespread interest and potential value both inside and outside the school/local community. Then it is time to move forward.
The next step is to write up the Web Project idea in terms of a project brief which includes overall educational goals and objectives to focus the effort. The project brief defines what will be developed. Be specific in terms of what will be developed, delivered, produced or disseminated. Define your objectives in very concrete products and deliverables. This step will determine the evaluative process later. The brief may not contain all of the instructional objectives applied to the team members, but it will bring the focus on an attainable concrete product and what it takes to create it.
Choose a team leader who can organize and act as a facilitator. One suggestion is to find someone OUTSIDE the project site who can see the unique character of the surrounding community and not have a vested interest WITHIN the site boundaries. This can override the competitive nature of a school and focus the team outward.
Add teachers who are adept users of technology. These teachers should have the skills to create digital media: to use vcrs, camcorders, scanners, microphones, drawing tools, digital cameras, and other tools that allow capture of information in all modalities. These teachers should have a general knowledge of the differences between hypermedia, linked media (HyperCard or HyperStudio stacks; LinkWay Live! folders) and linear media such as videotape and book chapters. Most of all, these teachers should have strong knowledge of CONTENT, not just of technology. You want teachers who will place the technology within a learning context, not see the technology AS the content or context.
Add students who show strong interest in creating things, who can work independently, and who are not afraid to challenge authority... but will conform to a group decision. In many cases this could mean ANY students, since these requisite skills may be what you wish to impart as the instructional element of the project. Students with the capability of working at home, perhaps upon a parent's computer, will bring the community into the project in the form of parents watching development take place. Look for students who seem to "self-select" themselves INTO the project. We have found many of these types of students will come forth when told what is being proposed. You may also be able to draw in additional technical support from a local university or business.
Add a staff person whose responsibility includes staff development so that ongoing work can be done with existing team members as well as expanding the project to other teams, perhaps as an interdisciplinary exercise in team building.
Include a "computer coordinator" or perhaps a teaching assistant who can support the hardware and software elements as well as the staff and students. If this person is a staff development/trainer person also, target him/her.
As in any project, the more of the "necessary resources" that are in place BEFORE you start, the easier the start up. Sometimes a clearly defined project can be the impetus to get the missing resources. What must you assemble to create a Web structure?
A. Technical:
The assembling process begins with collection of these resources. Then, figure out places to locate equipment and places to assemble people for meetings. Where will the server sit? Do you need to put a "drop" there for network access? Do you need to borrow or lease space on someone else's server until yours is set up? How will the HTML developers move information to and from the machine? Who will have access with passwords? What date and place should be set for the initial meeting(s)? Most of all: WHO decides the answer to these questions: the team or a facilitator who acts as a defacto leader until the first meeting?
Once your Web is ready for sharing, you need to publish its location to the wider community of the Internet so that it can be found by others. This is another important step in the process of building knowledge. Three common places for K-12 publication are:
Don't be afraid to look to content area webs. An example of successful posting was to post the ClayNet project within the Kennedy Center project called ArtsEdge http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/ir/schools.html, where the developers were looking for examples of meaningful school-based projects! Use Web search tools to find sites related to your content or purposes.
Use the focus of your original "brief" to encourage growth and expansion. The NEW "brief" at the Fayetteville-Manlius's web site suggests one process for doing this within a building. Do NOT hesitate to display and advertise your project within agencies or institutions that work in the community. Use parents and community leaders to extol your successes. The local media are very apt to showcase projects that are meaningful and visual. Grants and local support can be easily garnered when you have something to show.
Seek other web sites as partners to share the workload when your project can expand. One successful strategy is to choose a project with known links to a broad geographical area. A project featuring sites on the Underground Railroad, or along an extensive river system are examples of projects that beg for linkages and partners from their inception. By originating such projects you place your team, and your students, in a leadership role that teaches collaboration even at a distance and can extend your goals well beyond the first focal point. Projects do not just grow within the local site or community, but offer opportunities for expansion to regional, State, and National levels if envisioned that way from the start.
How well did the team work together? How successful was the project in generating interest and providing learning opportunities? Start with your project brief along with your goals and objectives. If you defined your objectives in concrete terms, you should be able to go back and see what you have accomplished at any point in time. The more vague and undefined your objectives are, the less likely you will be able to determine whether you have been successful or not. If your objectives defined specific audiences and groups as "targets" then you should be able to determine whether you were successful with them or not.
In addition to your outcome objectives, you should assess, on a periodic basis, the process of working together on the project, and developing the products. The process is very different than the products themselves. However, the process is important as well, since part of what we are trying to help students learn is how to collaborate together to build knowledge. You need to assess how you accomplished what you did, and whether you could have done it more efficiently. Many call this formative assessment and the assessment of outcomes summative assessment. As you can see, the difference is in the focus and the questions asked. Assessing the process is intended to answer the question "How could we have done it better?". It is this step that enabled the Fayetteville-Manlius students to grow in leadership skills and become problem solvers as well as information producers.
In Conclusion
The authors hope that this discussion will assist you in creating a unique resource that can be shared with the world. And we hope that, in the process of doing this, you can demonstrate to your communities that schools can integrate learning and productive work into a single outcome that can benefit every member of the community. As we stated in the introduction: "It is our belief that the Web offers a powerful vehicle for changing teaching and learning and for restructuring what happens in schools." Creating a Web can be a catalyst for change as much as the Web itself becomes a place to share.
The purpose of this self assessment is to help you identify potential World Wide Web topics or structures which you could then use to build a school/community resource for sharing via the Internet. The objective is to build school and community interest in a particular project topic or area of study which can be in some way specifically tied to the school itself or its surrounding community. By identifying something unique to your school or your region, you have the opportunity to generate more wide-spread community interest in the initial development of a WWW. By contextualizing possible learning opportunities and linking that context with curriculum, teachers have the opportunity to make learning more valuable. By making the process participatory and active, learners can truly be motivated to learn in a continuing and "life-long" way.
In addition, by following the process, you can make a unique contribution to the larger learning community by assembling knowledge which can be shared more widely.
The two BIG questions you need to answer are:
The following are specific questions to help you answer these two BIG Questions.
"Designing, thinking, changing, evaluating - most particularly in response to a felt need - create interest and energy. Cognitive processes work to address affectively driven issues. Helping students or groups of students to clarify for themselves the nature of their own questions, to pose their questions in terms they can pursue, and to interpret the results in light of other knowledge they have generated is the teacher's main task."p. 30, In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms
"A constructivist framework challenges teachers to create environments in which they and their students are encouraged to think and explore. This is a formidable challenge. But to do otherwise is to perpetuate the ever-present behavioral approach to teaching and learning."p. 30, In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms