Volume 9, Number 3/4 1998
Contents
Using Lotus Notes Learning Space for Staff Development in Public Schools
Mercedes Fisher 221Abstracts
Mercedes Fisher
Marquette University, School of Education Schroeder Health Complex, 159, P.O. Box 1881 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201-1881, USAFisherm@vms.csd.mu.edu
Over the past year, my colleagues at Marquette University and I have been designing anddelivering on-line staff development for middle school teachers. We think it is importantto engage in such on-line delivery options and we want to share both the problems weencountered and the issues that were revealed as we developed and taught our course. Thispaper presents the first findings from our research and those of other scholars who aretrying to understand how teaching principles are applied to course development anddelivery on the Internet. It focuses on the evolution of a staff development courseentitled “Survey of Technologies for Instruction, Assessment and InformationManagement” which builds a collaborative learning environment utilizing the Internetand Lotus Notes Learning Space. The Marquette University School of Education designed thecourse for the Milwaukee Public Schools. The current model of the course featuresactivities that demonstrate clearly designed performance outcomes, interactiveinstructional strategies, authentic assessment, and a student-centered learningenvironment that maximizes cooperative learning while considering different learningstyles of students. Examples are included that describe problems teachers experienced withthe on-line course and the solutions that were incorporated for future staff development.
Djordje Kadijevich
Mathematical Institute Kneza Mihaila 35, 11001 Belgrade, p.p. 367, Yugoslaviadjkadij@mi.sanu.ac.yu
This study dealt with learning through instructional design realized through thedevelopment of expert system knowledge bases. Its major objective was to determine theempirical values of this kind of learning in respect of knowledge base development. Thestudy used a sample of 18 ninth grade Gymnasium (high school) students whose mathematicaland non-verbal intellectual abilities were mostly above average. The students solvedproblems on rectilinear (piecewise) uniform motion involving one and two objects. Twoimportant findings emerged from this study. First, armed with a text editor and an expertsystem shell, the students successfully developed, within a few hours, small-scaleknowledge bases. These bases comprised around ten (hierarchically organized) rulesexpressing how several related problems can be solved. Second, the students primarilyencountered difficulties in respect of wrong rules utilization—rules with surplusvariables, wrongly linked rules, viciously circled rules and wrongly ordered rules. Asthese difficulties did not significantly affect knowledge base development, the studyevidenced that mathematics students of above-average mathematical and intellectualabilities can indeed be successful knowledge engineers.
Network Similarity (NETSIM) as a Method of Assessing Structural Knowledge forLarge Groups
K. David Pinkerton
University of Denver College of Education Denver, CO, USA and Cherry Creek Public Schools Smoky Hill High School Aurora, CO, USAdpinkert@shhs1.smoky.org
Structural assessments such as concept maps and semantic networks can provide uniquelearning and evaluation opportunities. Large-scale implementation however is inhibited bypsychometric and pragmatic issues. This study reports on the features of a computerprogram (KNOT) which utilizes a network similarity index (NETSIM) to compare novice andexpert concept maps. Treatment in three high school physics classes consisted of threelevels of “language-rich” teaching: low, medium, and high. Results suggest thatalpha reliability is at least .85 and stability reliability is .73. The validitycoefficient is .85. Content, construct, concurrent, and predictive validities are high.Time to collect and analyze data is minimal and enhances the possibility of using NETSIMin large-scale structural assessments in conjunction with objective and subjectiveevaluative measures.
Culture of Collaboration in Computer-Supported Learning: A Finnish Perspective
K. Hakkarainen
University of Helsinki, Department of Psychology P.O. Box 13 SF-00014 Helsinki, FinlandS. Järvelä
University of Oulu, Department of Teacher education P.O. Box 11 90571 Oulu, FinlandL. Lipponen and E. Lehtinen
University of Turku, Department of Educational science Lemminkäisenkatu 1, 20520 Turku, Finlandlasse.lipponen@helsinki.fi
The purpose of the present study was to analyse how the social interactional approachof computer-supported collaborative learning meshes with the Finnish school environment.Our aim is to discuss what aspects of Finnish educational culture, and particularlycommunication culture, support or hinder the restructuring of educational practicesaccording to cognitive principles of learning and technology-based learning environments.We claim that social interaction which supports students’ learning cannot beexplained by mainstream theories on collaboration, but cultural, contextual, andindividual differences make collaboration more complicated. We report on threeexperimental studies where the communication culture of computer-supported collaborativelearning was analysed. These analyses revealed that Finnish students do not typically getinvolved with intensive interaction about partially formed ideas. Differing opinions andinterpretations expressed in discussion often cause cognitive conflicts that an agenttries to solve internally before going back to the social plane. This culturally specificpattern of interaction seems to be more closely related with the Piagetian (sociocognitiveconflict) theoretical framework and differs from that of the Vygotsky and theneo-Vygotskians (intersubjective construction). Furthermore, the studies reported heresuggest that patterns of interaction described above may be closely related to maladaptivesocioemotional coping strategies and a fact-oriented educational epistemology.Nevertheless, technology-based learning environments and participation in correspondingresearch-like learning tasks seem to foster productive interaction between students.
Apprenticeship-Based Learning Environments: A Principled Approach to ProvidingSoftware-Realized Scaffolding Through Hypermedia
Mark Guzdial and Colleen Kehoe
GVU Center and EduTech Institute College of Computing, 801 Atlantic Dr. Atlanta, GA 30332-0280, USA{guzdial, colleen}@cc.gatech.edu
Becoming a skilled practitioner means learning both conceptual and process knowledge.We propose the use of hypermedia to provide components of an apprenticeship learning modelfor students, in which process and conceptual knowledge learning is integrated. Our modelfor this use of hypermedia is called an Apprenticeship Based Learning Environment (ABLE).We present seven design principles for an ABLE based on learning research, and show howthese are met in our first ABLE, STABLE. The formative evaluation of STABLE suggests thatit supports learning and performance, but leaves the students unsatisfied. We suggest aneight principle for iterative design of ABLE tools that meets students’ needs.