“Technology has revolutionised the way we work and is now set to transform
education. Children cannot be effective in tomorrow’s world if they are
trained in yesterday’s skills. Nor should teachers be denied the tools
that other professionals take for granted.”
(Rt Hon Tony Blair, from DGfL press release)
By Matthew Brockway, December 2000, Module 1
Table of Contents
The Government’s white paper “Excellence in Schools” talks
of the need for a National Grid for Learning, a nation-wide network which will
connect schools across the country together and to the learning resources of
the World Wide Web and the Internet.
“Access to ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is a vital
part of young people’s education. We are working hard to connect every
school to the Internet, and to provide the equipment necessary to help schools
make the most of the opportunities it offers.” (Rt Hon Tony Blair MP,
from DGfL press release)
Today’s school children have grown up in a world of computers and technology,
in a country which now spends more money on video games than on going to the
cinema and where most ordinary households will have a computer. It appears
that gone are the days of the humble book. But until recent years, these advances
have seen little growth within the classroom. If we compare the revolutions
of the last century in areas such as technology, transport, employment and
even the status of women, school teaching appears rather static. What changes
have occurred have done so not because of educational research but rather due
to social forces. Today these social forces in a climate which is demanding
better education for our offspring are driving forward, requiring greater investment
in schooling. Now educational research has found a backing by these very social
forces, bringing about the opportunity for a change in the way we teach. As
teachers are being put under greater pressure to get results they are turning
to the new resources provided for them on the WWW, which they now have access
to due to the investment now being made in computers for schools. It is now
a time of change within education, as this new influx of technology is expected
to allow teachers to motivate their students in new ways, to allow
for pupils many different learning styles and to put special needs pupils on
a more level grounding with their classmates.
“Multimedia allows students to learn in the way they learn best, whether
that is by reading the material, visualizing the material, by hearing it, or
by being actively engaged. Engaged learners are the ones who are responsible
for their learning, and because they are responsible learning energizes them.” (Steve
Floyd, author of the IBM Multimedia Handbook, 1991/ from Guillermo E. Pedroni)
The introduction and successful use of these technologies allows the teacher
to move away from their traditional role as the “Keeper of Knowledge” and
become a “Facilitator of Learning”, moving the student towards
an active learning experience instead of the traditional passive mode of learning.
“Students switch from passive to active learning. One important student
role is that of an explorer. Students discover concepts, connections, apply
skills by interacting with the physical world, materials, technology, and other
people.
Such discovery-orientated exploration provides students with opportunities
to make decisions while figuring out the components/attributes of events, objects,
people or concepts.” (ISBE, 1995/ in Guillermo E. Pedroni)
For more information on the National Grid for Learning and one of its pathfinder
projects, the Dudley Grid for Learning see appendix (1).
So now we have the technology, but what is there actually out there for us
to use in the classroom? During the study I have found may different ways in
which the WWW could be used as a learning resource, many of these will be briefly
detailed but my main interest was with the truly interactive sites, with which
the pupils themselves will be left to interact. Examples of these pages will
be represented in more detail.
Today many such sites are being made use of in the classroom. These sites
can be split into three apparent groups.
- General sites - providing information for anyone whom wants to look but
not as part of an educational program.
- Sites that amongst other things have educational sections for schools and
teachers but are not produced solely for educational purposes.
- Sites totally dedicated to education.
Firstly the general sites, such as “Astronomy Picture of the Day”
This is a web site, which each day shows a different photograph or image of
a person, place or object related to astronomy. With each image there is also
a brief explanation of it written by a professional astronomer. The explanation
includes links to pages of related information if more is required. And as
well as just the day’s image there is an archive of all the past pictures
by date and subject order.
The site is now regularly being used as an educational resource in classrooms
right through from Elementary/infants School to university level.
Teacher comments:
“I’m a middle school science teacher with too much curriculum
and not enough time. To beat some of the time crunch and have my students practice
writing observations, I displayed the APOD for the first few minutes of class,
had the students write a paragraph about that they saw, and then discussed
briefly their observations. I’d fill in the details of the images as
they attempted to make inferences about what they saw. I think the students
learned a lot of astronomy, saw some “way cool” images, and practiced
their descriptive language ability.” (Phil Goulding, Colorado)
“For the past year I have started off my 6th grade science and math
classes with the APOD. A different student finds the image and reads the text.
Quite often a good conversation develops and there is always a tie to the math
or science we are doing. THANKS, we love it!” (Mark Munger, Aspen, CO)
The site is not just being used to teach astronomy. It is being used to create
interest and curiosity, to practice descriptive writing and discussion, to
stimulate imagination as well as improving computer skills.
The page now also has a listing to other astronomy sites with an educational
value for use within the classroom.
A good example of the second group is the web page for The Space Telescope
Institute. This is a page about the Hubble space telescope; it contains lots
of information on the telescope and archives of its many spectacular pictures.
It also has other educational resources but the main aim of the page was
not to educate in the classroom.
In 1996 science teachers, engineers from the institute and staff members
from the office of public outreach all got together to develop some interactive
lessons for the World Wide Web. The outcome of the work was the production
of “Amazing Space”. The page is linked from the STSCI web page.
It currently consists of 8 interactive lessons including spectacular photographs
taken by the space telescope, graphics, video and animations.
Each lesson comes with a vast array of backup information for teachers, providing
the teacher with all the information they would need to develop the lessons
for use in their classroom.
Examples of the Amazing-space Web pages can be found in the appendix.
Thirdly are the sites that have been set up purely for educational reasons.
One of the biggest examples is “Lightspan.com”. Such sites offer
a wide range of recourses for both teachers and pupils all over the world.
According to their web site:
“Lightspan, Inc. is a provider of curriculum-based educational software
and Internet products and services. It is guided by a simple principle: there
is no limit to what students can achieve when provided with tools that motivate
them to learn. That’s why Lightspan is dedicated to improving student academic
achievement by providing educational resources that can enhance learning in schools
and students’ homes.” (Lightspan.com, 2000)
The sites that fall into the second and third categories can offer a mixture
of a large number of different resources. These include:
Lesson Plans
Vast numbers of these are now available; they are useful for teachers planning
activities, pre-service preparation and for in-service professional development.
They are often reviewed and organised for easy access. They provide a ready
made lesson for a teacher to print off and then take into the classroom.
They provide information on ties to the curriculum, time requirements, learning
objectives, lesson descriptions, lists of required materials, diagrams of
demos, background information, methods of assessment, suggestions and references
to books on the subject. Everything you could ever need to teach the lesson
or conduct a larger project.
Printable Worksheets
Ready made worksheets, which again only need to be printed off, and then handed
out to the students.
Online Activities/Games
These vary from fun and engaging learning games through to whole interactive
lessons for students to work through on the computer.
Themes
Themed units created for use in the classroom. They include objectives, resource
lists, web activities, assessment strategies and more.
Current Events
Links to up-to-the-minute news and views to stay informed.
Award Maker
Ready made awards and certificates for teachers to print out.
Online Expeditions
Projects that allow the class to study through following the work of scientists
around the world, allowing them to have real time contact with the scientists
and other students around the world, all involved in the projects. One example
is the JASON Project.
“
The JASON Project offers students and teachers in grades 4 through 9 a comprehensive,
multimedia approach to enhance teaching and learning in science, technology,
math, geography, and associated disciplines. The project delivers its educational
content through a print curriculum, videos, fully interactive Internet programming
and live satellite ‘telepresence’ broadcasts.” (JASON Project.org)
Resource Links
Links to the best web sites, selected for teachers by teachers.
The Exchange of Information Worldwide
Some pages are set up purely for the exchange of information on a subject. “Sharing
ideas and information around the world“ (Global Solar Partners, 2000).
Giving schools the opportunity to collect data and then add it to a global
exchange and contact other schools worldwide.
Four schools were contacted during the research on the WWW. Three of the schools
fall under the DGfL scheme, all of which have had large amounts of investment
in their computer departments.
St. Joseph’s primary school has recently had an old classroom turned
into a computer resource room. These new facilities are being used with the
children right from when they first arrive at about 5 years old. Lessons are
taught to the youngest children on how to use the Internet to send Email, then
the older children (7 years+) also begin to use the Internet to collect information.
The children have access to use the computers during their spare time as well.
The teachers of the school are now beginning to use the Internet to improve
their teaching. The new technology is very new to the school and they plan
to develop its use over time.
Halesbury Special needs school has been connected to the DGfL for sometime
and they are becoming skilled in its use with the children. They use the interactive
resources now available to teach the children, they make use of programs very
like those that I have been looking at. So far they are finding the project
to be useful in the day to day teaching.
Thorns secondary school and community college has had large amounts of investment,
they now have four fully equipped computer labs as well as computers in many
other classrooms, all of which have Internet connections through the DGfL.
They aim to be able to teach classes with students each having their own computer
to work from. These rooms are made available during free periods and after
school for the children’s use. Lessons are now being taught using the
newly acquired facilities.
Fourthly, Hagley RC High School is out side of the DGfL but it has a history
of investing in computer hardware for its classrooms. Currently the Internet
is used as a resource which the children can access to research subjects. Lessons
taught using the computers are usually only to do with word processing and
other skills required to produce coursework. The school does own software in
the form of CD-ROMs which the pupils can use, but they are normally an optional
extra for children who want to use them during lunchtimes and after school.
The World Wide Web is no longer in its infancy; it is expected that within
six months more than half of the adult population of the UK will be regularly
using the Internet, that’s 23 million people.
It is now taking on new significance in our day to day lives, it is seen as
a necessity to educate the children of today in its uses and applications,
to secure not just their own personal futures but also the future of the country
as a world leader. The potential is endless, but there are also some concerns
that should be kept in mind (appendix 3).
The responses from the schools contacted were of a willingness to accept such
technological changes. But simply connecting the school to the WWW does not
guarantee its successful use. We must educate not just the children but also
the teachers themselves, giving them the confidence to exploit the wealth of
resources that are now appearing.
The pages that I have looked at during this project have varied greatly, both
in content and structure. Many of the sites appear to be based and aimed at
the USA but the UK is quickly beginning to catch up with sites such as “Schoolzone”.
We have seen that there are sites which have a more traditional, lesson based
structure, that set themselves up as having all the knowledge needed to teach
an entire topic or lesson. While others try to blur the divide between fun
and learning with the use of games, almost tricking the child into learning.
Others still simply just provide information and then leave it up to whoever
finds it to make what use they will of the site.
Currently the main question that needs to be asked is if children really do
learn from such computer resources, and the only people who can answer this
are the teachers and children themselves. If I was not restrained by such a
short time limit it would have been interesting to have contacted a larger
group of schools, those who are new to the idea and those who have been using
such methods for years.
Dudley Metropolitan Borough, Education service. 2000. The Dudley Grid for
Learning. [WWW]
< URL: http://www.dudley.gov.uk/council/educate/dgfl/briefcover.htm>
Guillermo Pedroni. 1996.The Importance of The World Wide Web in Education
K-12.
[WWW] <URL: http://www.geocites.com/Athens/5461/paper_1.html>
2000. Astronomy Picture of the Day. [WWW]
< URL: http://www.antwrp.gsfc.nasn.gov/apod/astropix.html>
2000. Lightspan.com.[WWW]
< URL: http://www.lightspan.com>
2000. The Jason Project. [WWW]
< URL: http://www.jasonproject.org>
2000. Global Solar Partners, Energy for the 21st Century. [WWW]
< URL: http://www.solarpartners.org/>
2000. Amazing Space, Web-based activities. [WWW]
< URL: http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/>
Department for Education and Employment. 1997. Excellence in schools.[WWW]
< URL: http://www.dfee.gov.uk/wpaper/mindx.htm>
Supanet. 2000. Supanet Internet user’s guide. P45
2000. Techniquest. [WWW]
< URL: http://www.techniquest.org/>
2000. Nova online. [WWW]
< URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/>
2000. Schoolzone. [WWW]
< URL: http://www.schoolzone.co.uk>
School contacts:
Halesbury School
Mrs J Brockway, special needs assistant
Feldon Lane, Halesowen, B62 9DR
St. Joseph’s RC primary school
Mrs B Beale, Head teacher
Lea Vale road, Norton, Stourbridge, DY8 2AN
Thorns Secondary and community college
Miss J Ambrose, trainee teacher
Stockwell Avenue, Quarry Bank, Brierley Hill, West Midlands
Hagley RC High School
Brake lane, Hagley
To quote the white paper “Excellence in Schools”:
We are determined to create a society where, within ten years, information
and communication technology has permeated every aspect of education. Just
as when early applications of electricity were first being developed, it is
almost impossible now to predict what part ICT will come to play in education.
But the potential can clearly be imagined:
- Children learning languages by speaking to others on the other side of the
world.
- The most able pupils being able to “sit in” on university lectures.
- Those struggling with literacy getting one-to-one help after school hours.
- Teachers sharing best practice across the network.
None of these applications is difficult to achieve with today’s technology.
The challenge is to make applications like these part of the everyday school
experience by the end of the century.
The grid will provide curriculum support for schools and help teacher development,
and will extend to life long learning. National and local museums and galleries
will have an important part to play. We will also intend that libraries will
be an integral part of the grid. In this way the grid will make available to
all learners the riches of the world’s intellectual, cultural and scientific
heritage. Because information can be distributed virtually free over the Internet,
the grid will open up learning to the individual and take it beyond the confines
of institutional walls.
(taken from “Excellence in Schools” P.41-43) Dudley Grid for Learning
But just how real is the investment in such changes, could Tony Blair’s
National Grid for Learning (NGfL) become a reality? Pathfinder projects have already begun to take shape. In October 1998 the Dudley
Metropolitan Borough Council (DMBC) was awarded NGfL pathfinder status, creating
the Dudley Grid for Learning (DGfL). In January 1999 the DMBC signed at 10
year contract with RM PLC to manage the project, it is no short term plan.
The DGfL project is designed to benefit all 2500 teachers and 45000 pupils
throughout the community. They are quick to point out that the project is about
achieving educational gains in terms of standards, teaching and learning and
not about flooding schools with technology.
“Even though the DGfL has only been operational since February 1999,
teachers are embracing the potential of the new technology. Lessons are now
being planned in which the use of ICT is central to the learning objectives.
There is an unprecedented amount of in-service training taking place with teachers
learning the skills and applicability of ICT to their subjects and phases.
Pupils are beginning to use ICT as part of their core entitlement to learning
in the 21st century. We truly believe that this project will positively influence
the life chances of our pupils.” (DGfL, press release, 2000)
To date the project claims to have provided 8000PCs, 2500 laptops, 35000 software
licences and laid 400km of network cable, reaching approximately 48000 pupils
and 2500 teachers.
The Internet is a network of more than 120 million users worldwide. Using
telephone lines, cables or satellites to transmit information from computer
to computer, the Internet provides almost instantaneous communication. It can
be used to send messages, share information, learn, buy and sell goods, play
games and generally just have fun.
The Internet began as an experiment in the 1960’s by the United States
Department of Defence, who were trying to create a computer network that could
continue to function even when it was partially damaged (i.e. survive a nuclear
war). Gradually the Internet moved towards being a communications network for
scientists. In 1969 it had four academic hosts: the university of California
at Los Angeles, the Stanford Research Institute, the university of California
at Santa Barbara and the university of Utah. In recent years businesses began
to use the Internet as it worked its way into family households. Today almost
every company will have a Web page; a page from the Techniquest Web page is
included in the appendix.
Many people think of the Internet and the World Wide Web as being the same
thing but the Web is only one aspect to the Internet. The World Wide Web is
a network of computerized information that can include text, photographs, video
clips, and sound, which can be accessed through the Internet. It has become
a worldwide phenomenon, leading to an explosion of information. The Web allows
you to navigate by pointing and clicking on words or pictures to get to where
you want to.
“This is what makes the Web easy for anyone to browse, roam, and make
contributions, as well as transferring (placing copies on their computers)
of multimedia-including sound and video. Most of the educational institutions,
government agencies, commercial companies, and other organisations around the
world are moving into the WWW.” (Flake, 1995/ in Guillermo E. Pedroni)
The Internet also consists of Email, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), Gophers,
Internet Relay Chat, Telnet, and Usenet (or Newsgroups).
Other parts of the Internet
Definitions taken from “Internet User’s Guide” by Supanet
- Email: It is a way to send an electronic letter at the speed of a phone call
- it is fast, cheap way to communicate but not as intrusive as a phone call.
- FTP: File Transfer Protocol is one way to download information from the Web.
- Gopher: It was one of the first simple Internet applications through which
you share information. Thanks to the growth of the graphical WWW, Gopher sites
are becoming less common.
- IRC: Internet Relay Chat allows you to chat by typing in real time on the
Internet. It is the system used in most chat rooms.
- Telnet: Before the WWW made graphical access to the Internet possible, computers
on the Internet understood only typed commands. Telnet was (and still is) a
way of connecting to these computers and typing in these commands. Like Gopher,
Telnet is seldom used, except for special applications and system administration.
- Usenet: Newsgroups started when a few people wanted to share information by
posting messages for anyone read and respond to. Today there are tens of thousands
on every topic imaginable. They can bring you into contact with people all
over the world with shared interests.
Computer resources commonly required
The vast array of media being transferred over the Internet changes very rapidly,
so quickly that any Web browser with its media programs built in would soon
become out of date. So to cope with its ever changing world the browsers download
new mini-programs called “plug-ins” from the Web. Then the browser
comes across a new form of media that it can’t cope with; it simply finds
the plug-in required and installs it. The current most commonly required are:
- Macromedia Shockwave and Macromedia Flash Players let you experience the most
engaging, interactive content on the Web. They are free and can be downloaded
quickly. Shockwave runs sites that look more like CD-ROMs than a standard Web
page, while Flash allows screen effects, buttons and animations.
- QuickTime is the premier multimedia technology for the digital age (according
to Apple Computers, who developed the program), it is designed to cope with
digital video and streaming media.
- Acrobat Reader is free, and freely distributable, software that lets you view
and print Adobe (PDF) files. With Acrobat Reader, you also can fill in and
submit PDF forms online.
- RealPlayer is an audio and video player. It is probably one of the most used
plug-ins. It can be used to listen to the radio, and for watching TV and
video playback (similar to QuickTime).
New computer software packages designed to help the teacher manage a computer
based lesson are now becoming available. One example of such a package is “NetOp
School”, which is a package for computer based learning on a network.
This will be of use when teaching a class in a room full of computers that
are all connected to a network. Such software can be used for:
- Classroom demonstrations just like the blackboard.
The teacher can give demonstrations to the whole class by showing their screen
on the students’ computers. The teacher can show students’ screen
on the other computers, allowing presentations to their fellow students.
- Monitoring.
The teacher can monitor each students screen from their own computer without
disturbing the students work. The teacher can also take control of both the
mouse and keyboard of a students computer.
- Conferencing
You can allow the students to send messages to each other. This could also
be used by the teacher to write instructions to one or more students.
- Other features can include locking the students’ keyboards and mice
during a demonstration, a student can mail a request for help without disturbing
the whole group and you can start programs on all the computers at the same
time.
With the development of new software the teacher will be able to control just
about every function of an entire room of computers singly or all together
just from their desk.
Over 20% of children using the Internet say they have found something that
has “upset” or “embarrassed” them according to the
NOP research group. Of these, two-fifths said that they found something “rude”,
a quarter something that they thought would “get them into trouble” and
one in seven something which “frightens them.” (Supanet Internet
user’s guide, 2000)
Most perfectly normal children will search using a swear word the first chance
that they get and if they are at all curious about sex, it be long before they
come across something which we will not want them viewing within school, if
at all. There are two methods of dealing with the problem. We can try to prepare
them for what they may find or simply shield them from it. As the technology
of the Internet and the Web browsers increases we can now censor sites which
include sex or violence.
Many schools establish “acceptable use policies”. These are contract
type documents, which are signed both by the pupils themselves and their parents.
This enables the school to set out the ground rules and set guidelines for
computer use. Many of the education centred Web sites now offer advice on the
form of these documents, and some sites such as “Lightspan.com”,
even offer sample forms and rules that can be printed straight off and given
to the children.
A final concern is to do with the dynamic nature of the Internet, since pages
can be updated and moved in a second, an active address one-week may lead to
a dead end the next. So availability of these sites is not guaranteed in the
long term.
Interactive Web Sites
This page opens to reveal a star field as the background. The front page has
a one-sentence description of the aim of the page, a list of the eight lessons
available and then a quick one-sentence description of each lesson. The page
is mostly static; it uses lots of bright colours against the star field backdrop
to highlight the lessons themselves and then uses a small star animation to
draw us to the description of each lesson.
The page also offers links for a “Tell us what you think” and “Teacher
evaluation” pages, which are in the form of a questionnaire, there
is also a link to join up if you want to preview soon-to-be-released lessons
and
activities. Then it has links back to the main STSCI pages.
When you click on one of the lessons either the page changes to the lesson
page or a second smaller window opens up depending on which lesson you choose.
The lessons use “Shockwave”, “QuickTime”, “RealPlayer” and “Adobe
Acrobat Reader” to run. All of which are available for free on the Internet to download.
Looking at one of the lessons in detail
Galaxies Galore opens to a picture of a galaxy, it gives a fact about galaxies
straight away, so even if the lesson was closed straight away still one fact
about the subject will be shown.
Three different activities appear.
- Build our Milky Way - by clicking on icons you can add different parts of
a galaxy to a galaxy outline, each time building up the picture of what our galaxy looks like (5 parts). A small explanation of each part is given
with a small cartoon image.
- Galaxies Galore - a photograph of a spiral, elliptical and an irregular galaxy
appears. We choose one of the images.
Spiral shapes is a game where we are asked to drag the correct spiral type
onto a photo of each type. Each time you get one right some information about
that type of spiral appears.
Elliptical slide gives you the chance to change the shape of the elliptical
galaxy and see what names the different shapes have.
Irregulars is an animation about dividing up pictures of galaxies into the
three groups, showing that a third group called “Irregulars” is
needed as well.
- Galaxy Games - offers galaxy “concentration“, galaxy trading cards:
where you have to match up descriptions to pictures, and Galaxy hunt, where
using images from the Hubble deep field again we decide what type of galaxy
the image is of.
In brief the 8 lessons are:
Galaxies Galore, Games and More
This is a lesson designed primarily for students’ aged 5 to 11 years
old, to use their observational skills, recognize patterns, and learn how galaxies
are classified. The students learn about the different parts that make up the
structure of a galaxy, about the three main galaxy types and about our own
galaxy the Milky Way. The work is then reinforced by testing what has been
used and applying this to new images. This lesson is designed to be used both
by readers and non-readers, with all the sections making use of graphics primarily
and a small amount of text secondarily for those with reading skills. Sections
of the lesson it is suggested could also be used by 11 to 14 year olds. The
lesson as a whole is designed to provide about 80min worth of computer time
for the child.
Star Light, Star Bright
This is a lesson designed to teach about the electromagnetic spectrum. The
students look at the different properties of waves and look at the links between
energy, wavelength and frequency. This information is then related to a range
of images taken by the Hubble telescope and other instruments. The lesson is
aimed at 11 to 15 year olds and should provide over 2 hours of useful computer
time.
Solar System Trading Cards
In this lesson, the students collect solar system trading cards by playing
an interactive card game answering questions. They will look at the sun, planets,
comets, and asteroids by answering questions about them; they receive the card
for a correct answer. The card pictures are images taken by the Hubble Space
Telescope and various NASA missions. The students can then print out their
cards. The lesson is aimed at 8 to 12 years olds and should provide about 30min
of computer time.
Hubble Deep Field Academy
In this lesson the students examine the Hubble Deep Field image and count,
classify, and identify the objects in the image as well as estimating their
distances from Earth. The lesson has a modular design and can be taught over
3 to 4 one-hour periods. The target audience is 11 to 14 year olds.
Astronaut Challenge
This lesson is filled with video clips and up-to-the minute information from
NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute. The students use critical
thinking and reading skills to find clues to put together the sequence of
the events for the 1997 Second Servicing Mission of the Hubble Space Telescope.
As a back up to the lesson the teacher can printed out each page of the challenge
or, in the "grab bag", there are pdf files that can be printed.
The students will gain insight into the Hubble Space Telescope and the universe
beyond. The lesson is designed for 11 to 14 years olds and to last for 90min.
No Escape: The Truth About Black Holes
In this lesson the students research black holes. They look at escape velocity,
gravity, mass, and the speed of light and how they effect black holes.
The lesson is made up of artist impressions and images from the HST, which
are also used to provide data that the students can use to search for evidence
of black holes.
This is designed as a 1-hour lesson for 13 to 18 years olds.
Comets
In this lesson the students explore what different combinations of elements
and compounds can make up a comet, and what effects these different combinations
have on the comet produced. Then the students identify these different types
from real images. The lesson also deals with the history of the subject: myths, legends and
facts. The lesson is for 10 to 14 year olds and should last for about 45min.
Galileo-to-HST
This lesson takes the form of a slide show designed to help answer two questions:
Why do we need telescopes to study space? and Why do we have a telescope
in space orbiting the Earth? During the slide show the students are asked ‘Challenge’ questions
to test their learning. The students will follow the development of the telescope
from Galileo to the HST. This lesson can be used as a starting point for
all of the other lessons, although it does require a certain level of reading
skill to be able to follow the text.
These lessons are can be used during the teaching of many subjects, not just
astronomy but also mathematics, earth science, physics, communication and
reading skills. Lessons can be found to cover ages between 5 and 18 years,
although most of the lessons are aimed at the 11 to 14 year old. Acquiring
skills such as recognizing patterns, classifying shapes, interpreting graphs,
analysing data, inferring relationships, identifying objects, making choices
based on information read, estimating, predicting, observing, sequencing,
justifying, note-taking, research and communication. The lessons have been
designed for students to work independently or in groups, and to be user-friendly
for all levels of computer accessibility (some lessons can even be completely
printed out for groups with no or limited computer access). Each lesson also
includes assessment and/or reinforcement exercises.
The lessons are not just given as stand alone items; there is a wealth of
information for the teacher to go with each one.
There is an overview, giving a summary of everything the teacher will need
to know such as the aims of the lesson.
The background information prepares the teacher for the lesson even if they
have no specialised knowledge of the subject to answer an students questions.
The extensive lesson plans advice on how to prepare the students for the lessons,
how to run the lessons depending upon how many computers they have access to,
how to precede after the lessons have been completed with follow up activities
and interdisciplinary connections which may be made. It also gives details
of possible methods of assessment and common problems (and there solutions).
Then the grab bag offers links to other resources on each subject and has listing
of all of the images used in each lesson, which the teacher can print out (many
of these images I have made use of on these pages).
This site offers not just the computer-based lessons but also the entire backup
to them that the teacher could ever need, all from the one site. All for free.
Lightspan.com offers a very wide range of educational resources for the classroom.
Their interactive section is:
They have 8 activities
- Word Drop: a vocabulary game for 10 to 14 year olds. Here you must unscramble
words. The quicker you are and the more words you unscramble, the more points
you get.
- Clock Around The Block: mathematics game for 5 to 8 year olds. Here you have
to match clock faces to times.
- Mitt Match: a mathematics game for 8 to 14 year olds where you score points
by matching decimals, fractions and percentages.
- Know it or Not: a reading/trivia game. It tests knowledge of technology, animals
and geography. Again for 8 to 14 year olds.
- Lunar Adventure: a mathematics game for 10 to 14 year olds. Here you are asked
to plot a point on a graph, if you are correct you get to play a game (Asteroids).
- Word Ways: a writing game for 5 to 8 year olds. Here you must fill in the
missing gaps in the sentences from some options given to build the road.
- Close to 100: a mathematics game for 8 to 10 year olds. You use random numbers
to try and make a number close to 100.
- Rally Race: a mathematics game for 8 to 10 year olds. Here you must answer
questions as quickly as possible to head in the right direction.
The page then has links to other activities of a similar type.
The page adds a competitive note to the games by including a hall of fame.
Here if your score is high enough you can add your name to the listings.
In contrast to the “Amazing-Space” page, here we have a site, which
is based not around lessons but instead around eight interactive “games“.
These “games” can be used to reinforce the work that has already
been completed in the classroom by the teacher.
Most of the activities involve the setting of a question or task for the student
to complete. If the task is completed correctly then the student is rewarded
with an animation followed by the continuation of the activity.
Only one of the “games” has a truly playable game component to
it. “Lunar Adventure” requires the student to complete the maths
task; they are then rewarded with the game section, which the student can play
for a few minutes before returning to another maths task.
The activities are stand-alone items that a teacher could use as a reward
for hard work or could be used to provide a fun aspect to the practicing of
a lesson. There is no direct backup material linked to the games to help with
the teaching of the subjects involved.
Looking around the WWW activities such as these are very common and can be
found on most types of “Kids”, Web sites such as Disney‘s
Web site.
All of the above is freely accessible to anyone, but Lightspan.com does offer
a “Premier Online Classroom Resource” called the Lightspan network,
for which you must pay to subscribe to.
Nova online has a teacher section, and this includes a page of interactive
activities.
The page includes 7 different groupings:
- Creatures Great and Small
- Inside You
- Ancient Cultures
- Out of This World
- Your Home Planet
- Things that go Zoom and Boom
- Odds and Ends
and each grouping has between 4 and 15 activities listed, giving a total of
around 70 activities.
“NOVA is the most watched science TV series in the world and the most
watched documentary series on PBS.”
“NOVA offers a rich Web site to accompany every program, plus occasional
Online Adventures--expeditions that allow the Internet audience to travel in
real time with scientists and explorers to remote parts of the world. By using
RealAudio clips, QuickTime virtual reality, Shockwave games, video streaming
and more, NOVA Online explores the edge of what computers and minds can do.” (Nova,
2000)
There is no standard format in which the activities are presented. Some come
with a large amount of background material, in the form of pictures and text,
to go with the interactive section of the subject. Others have virtually no
descriptions of what’s going on except for the directions on how to use
the activity.
Nova is a science TV documentary, and the Web site is designed to supplement
the programs that have been broadcast. So keeping this in mind, the way to
get the most out of these activities is to base your lesson around one of the
TV programs. By approaching the site from this direction you will find a home
page for every TV program, this home page provides you with links to all the
resources on the site to do with the main TV program topic, including which
interactive activities are relevant and links to a whole host of backup text
and multimedia which may not have been immediately obvious from the teachers
interactive listing page.
Now we can see that the site provides large amounts of information which can
be useful in the form of a structured class lesson, but unlike Amazing-space
the site offers no structure or advice on how to produce a lesson out of the
resources it provides. All the resources are provided for free.