Re: Web Content and Change in Teacher Practice

Barry L. Chad (chadb@clpgh.org)
Mon, 31 Mar 1997 16:11:39 EST 

From:	MX%"content@info-ren.pitt.edu" 30-MAR-1997 21:43:36.80
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Subj:	Re: Web Content and Change in Teacher Practice

Message-ID: <333F2052.5BF5@cs.colorado.edu>
From: corrina <corrina@mroe.cs.colorado.edu>

In response to everyone's comments, I heartily agree!

Like any research resource, students need to use the 
Web and information on the web for exploration and as
inspiration to go deeper - and in order for this to happen,
scaffolding for the sort of creative learning we envision
has to be provided.

Without scaffolding, the web is just like 500 channels of
tv - students surf passively, and they get used to having
information of varying degrees of complexity presented to 
them.  The more frenetically they page through information,
the more shallow the learning that occurs.  

To engage students to think critically about the information
they see on the web, we attempt to provide them with an 
environment to reframe this information and use it within 
a simulation game context.  We provide them with a visual
language component to use building these simulation games.
The act of constructing a simulation engages students in a
design task that requires that they delve a bit deeper - even
consult other sources of information - to learn more about
how their simulations should work in order to model a real
system. 
***This last point is why I see the Web not as an end in itself
but a means to an end.  It can involve students in this process
of expansive learning.
bchad



Our challenge has been to provide sufficient scaffolding to 
allow this process to continue, maintain student's motivation
and begin to reduce the high number of support people required
to keep all the students going productively.  Our hope is to 
collect suitable and reliable websites that teachers and students
can use as resources to share, and a collection of these simulation
games and game objects that students and teachers can contribute
to and take from - residing on the web and easily accessible. 

Our vision is to incorporate curriculum and skill acquisition. 
Students learn to build simulations and do WWW research in order
to seek information about how something works - as related to 
multiple disciplines - i.e. math and science applied to a predator
prey population simulation.


what an interesting exchange!  

--Corrina

________________________________

Corrina Perrone
Center for LifeLong Learning and Design
University of Colorado, Boulder

http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~corrina
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Date: Sun, 30 Mar 1997 19:24:18 -0700
From: corrina <corrina@mroe.cs.colorado.edu>
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