Training programme for geography teachers
This paper contains a description of a Geography teacher-training program for in-service education. The program is a variant for incorporating the methodology of the Minerva- project Innovative Didactics via Web-based Learning (further abbreviated as IDWBL) so that the Geography teachers at work can be adequately prepared for integrating ICT in geography education at secondary schools via web-based education. The theme may seem at first glance as a variation of a known subject
But for the
Making the History of 1989: The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe
Making the History of 1989 materials were developed because teachers and their students have little access to vivid historical documents in English that convey the epochal events of 1989. Project materials utilize recent advances in our understanding of how historical learning takes place, including complex interaction with sources, recursive reading, and skills used by historians.
The site has three key features: a substantial collection of high quality primary sources; a set of multimedia int
Internet Scout Project
Engaging in social issues in today's society requires an understanding of numerical data, statistics, and mathematical assumptions that underlie discussions about the federal budget, the spread of disease and other issues. However, the mathematics and the social issues are often considered in isolation and leave many Americans "ill-prepared to make informed decisions." The Thinking with Data Project is a new initiative of the National Science Foundation, SRI International, Kent State University
Toward Computer-Based Support of Meta-Cognitive Skills: a Computational Framework to Coach Self-Expl
We present a computational framework designed to improve learning from examples by supporting self-explanation ö the process of clarifying and making more complete to oneself the solution of an example. The framework is innovative in two ways. First, it represents the first attempt to provide computer support to example studying instead of problem solving. Second, it explicitly coaches a domain-general, meta-cognitive skill that many studies in cognitive science have shown to greatly improve le
LaCOLLA: Middleware for Self-Sufficient Online Collaboration
The LaCOLLA middleware makes it possible for collaborators to interact using their own resources and not depend on a centralized regime. By contributing their own resources, group members can organize and communicate using a federated peer-to-peer model. Utilizing LaCOLLA middleware, the group can function regardless of whether a member removes resources and despite network or node failures or disconnection. This capacity for self-organization, together with location transparency, lets applicati
Narrative Evolution: Learning from Students' Talk about Species Variation
Learners do not always enjoy productive interactions with Multimedia Interactive Learning Environments. Their attention can be distracted away from the educational focus intended by designers and teachers through poor design and operational inadequacy. In this paper we describe a study of groups of learners using a multimedia CD-ROM research tool called Galapagos. This tool was developed to enable us to observe groups of learners interacting with different versions of the same multimedia content
LifeWorks
This site explores careers in health and medical sciences. See interviews with more than 70 professionals -- a chemist, dentist, dietician, epidemiologist, lab technologist, medical illustrator, microbiologist, nurse, pharmacist, social worker, veterinarian, and others. Learn what their typical workday involves and why they chose their career. Find out which careers match your interests and skills.
Internet Scout Project
From Natural Resources Canada comes the National Earthquake Hazards Program Web site. Those interested in earthquakes in general or specifically about physical science topics in Canada will appreciate the many informational offerings on the site. Readers can learn about historical earthquakes in Canada and how frequent they are, find out how earthquake hazards are evaluated, how to survive an earthquake, earthquake research in Canada, and much more. The Products and Publications link contains se
Do two heads search better than one? Effects of student collaboration on Web search behavior and sea
This study compared Pairs of students with Single students in Web search tasks. The underlying hypothesis was that peer-to-peer collaboration encourages students to articulate their thoughts, which in turn has a facilitative effect on the regulation of the search process as well as search outcomes. Both hypotheses were supported by the results. Pairs located the target information more often and in less time than Singles did. Pairs also employed a richer repertoire of search strategies and were
Un dispositif web pour l'enseignement des mathématiques à l'université : quels impacts sur la per
De nombreuses universités en France ont créé des sites Web pédagogiques avec l'objectif de moderniser leur pédagogie et motiver les étudiants. Les étudiants apprennent-ils mieux avec ces dispositifs ? Sont-ils plus satisfaits et motivés pour apprendre ? Nous avons réalisé une étude expérimentale pour évaluer l'apport pédagogique d'un site Web lors de la réalisation de séances de TD en mathématiques pour les sciences de la vie. Contrairement à nos attentes, mais en accord avec d
Flexible navigation for the pedagogical hypermedia design and evaluation improvement
We are working on a method, called CEPIAH, for the design and the evaluation of pedagogical hypermedia. We propose a web based system used to help teachers to design hypermedia documents and to evaluate their prototypes. Having already elaborated a methodology for the evaluation of interactive pedagogical hypermedia (EMPI), the experience and the acknowledgement we have is able to upgrade the design help. To help the designer in his instructional Web site creation we developed an interactive gui
Modélisation de scénarios pédagogiques collaboratifs
Cet article part du besoin d'exprimer des scénarios d'apprentissage collaboratif par les enseignants animant des classes virtuelles afin de favoriser la réutilisation et le partage des pratiques pédagogiques. Il propose une démarche conduite par les modèles conformément aux préconisations du Model Driven Architecture de l'OMG. Il présente un méta-modèle basé sur IMS-LD mais enrichi pas les concepts du modèle de participation afin de capturer la richesse des interactions inhérentes a
On Determinism from the course History of Information
This course explores the history of information and associated technologies, uncovering why we think of ours as 'the information age.' We will select moments in the evolution of production, recording, and storage from the earliest writing systems to the world of Short Message Service (SMS) and blogs. In every instance, we'll be concerned with both what and when and how and why, and we will keep returning to the question of technological determinism: how do technological developments affect socie
Foundations and opportunities for an interdisciplinary science of learning
In this chapter, we argue that the learning sciences are poised for a "decade of synergy." We focus on several key traditions of theory and research with the potential for mutually influencing one another in ways that can transform how we think about the science of learning, as well as how future educators and scientists are trained.
The CoVis Project: Building a Large-Scale Science Education Testbed
This paper describes the construction and research program of the Learning Through Collaborative Visualization (CoVis) Project. a testbed for exploring science education reform with telecommunications technology. The CoVis testbed is contrasted with other forms of cducational research in an "ecolo~yo f paradigms." which argues that testbeds are in fact a new setting for research with different requirements and challenges for the researcher. Two extended examples of telecommunications research ar
Using the World Wide Web to Build Learning Communities in K- 12
Social accounts of learning and human knowledge have led to attempts to reorganize schools as learning communities. This paper examines the utility of World Wide Web (WWW) for aiding in the construction of school-based and work-based learning communities An ordered list of interactions is provided to characterize the depth of students entry into new learning communities. Current offerings on the WWW are then surveyed in terms of these categories. Finally, proposals are advanced for enhancing the
Constructivism in the Collaboratory
Great attention has been paid recently to the capabilities of computers to provide environments in which active learners can construct their own understanding through open-ended interaction. Yet discussion of constructivist learning environments has commonly focused on the learner as an individual, learning in isolation from other learners. For example, Perkins (1991) characterizes a learning environment as being composed of five facets: information banks, symbol pads, construction kits, phenome
The Semantic Aspects of e-Learning: Using the Knowledge Life Cycle to Manage Semantics for Grid and
The aim of bringing semantics to learning content and services is to enable large scale collaboration of e-learning activities over the Grid infrastructure.
As machines and software applications will be ubiquitously involved in enabling and facilitating this collaboration, it requires a common understanding of the domain, in particular at the conceptual level, so that both computers and human participants of the e-learning activities understand and are able to communicate among themselves thoug
Computers and Excellence in the Future of Education
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Creatures of Habit: A Computational System to Enhance and Illuminate the Development of Scientific T
Creatures of Habit is a computer-based microworld designed to engage middle-to-high school students in the process of scientific inquiry. The system depicts a universe of interacting programmable “creatures” whose individual behavior is guided by simple rules that may model naive psychology, physical laws, chemical affinities, and other domains. Students can create or revise creature rules and explore the resulting (and often surprising) emergent behaviors within “artificial ecosystems”;
