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In thinking how to portray a vision of the best uses of technology, I thought that readers might like to see how one teacher could organize a very successful technology-enhanced activity. So indulge me as we imagine a teacher's journal from the future:
September 12. Ken, Jane-Marie, Nathan and Bulah want to do an environmental project about ozone. I would not have dared encourage something so far outside my expertise, except that I am taking a network-based course-a netcourse-on technologies that support student projects. My course, from the University of Dayton, includes a supportive electronic discussion group where I can discuss my problems and seek support from colleagues and experts.
Following a suggestion from my electronic group, I asked my students to start with an on-line resource center that has abstracts of current school-based studies and lots of help for students doing projects. There, I learned, students register who are engaged in ozone studies around the world and most students have posted personal notes about themselves, their interests, and their reasons for studying ozone.
September 19. Ken and Jane-Marie spent several class sessions "browsing" personal notes from the resource center and struck up a conversation with students from Tasmania, Australia and Kirelia, Russia. These students, from vastly different cultures, are both in high latitudes and are worried about the "ozone hole." Jane-Marie looked up the ozone hole on the network and found a set of annual false-color data visualizations of the Antarctic hole from NOAA. While none reach as far north as Tasmania, she saw that the hole is coming closer each year. Bulah and Nathan struck up a conversation with students in Mexico City and Los Angeles who have measured ozone levels far higher than the maximum allowed levels.
Ken's father called me and questioned whether these on-line discussions are helping Ken learn chemistry. Fortunately, we had just been discussing this in my on-line group, so I could reassure him that collaboration is an essential part of learning and that collaborations start with conversations. Furthermore, I said, from their conversations, the kids are learning about other cultures, geography, and ecology in a personalized context that will stay with them forever.
September 26. The initial contacts lead to a spirited discussion within the team about what to study. Ken and Jane-Marie wanted to study the ozone hole while the others wanted to measure ozone levels around our city. I suggested that each sub-team study the issues and develop a plan for how to proceed. Ken and Jane-Marie looked up how to measure the ozone hole and discovered that it has to do with a depletion of high-altitude (stratospheric) ozone. They even located a video documentary of the discovery of the ozone hole and were amazed that it was missed for years because no scientist looked at satellite data. They found that measuring ozone at that height is not easy, but they found on the network several designs for instruments they could build or purchase that detect ozone by its ability to block UV radiation from the sun. Nathan and Bulah had an easier measurement problem because the ozone they are interested in is at ground level (the troposphere). They found plans on the web for a $10 rubber band ozonometer, as well as several other ways to measure ozone. They also located a network of students and scientists who are monitoring tropospheric ozone every day in 300 cities throughout the world.
October 2. I reviewed the electronic journal that the group has been keeping with my on-line colleagues. With their help, I see that the students have learned more than I realized; they are comfortable with terms like "stratosphere" and "troposphere", they have located a wealth of information, and they are spending long hours developing plans and learning how to do experiments. On reflection, I am satisfied that they are fully committed to their project and are delving deeply into the related atmospheric chemistry. However, I am concerned that the kids may be delaying the start of their lab work and will urge them to make a calendar for themselves.
After both sub-groups stated their case, the entire group decided to join the monitoring network. I was concerned that this would turn them into "data robots" and they would learn little, so I got on the network and reviewed the evaluation of the project that was on-line. From this, I understood better what the students would learn and even struck up an electronic conversation with another teacher about how to draw good chemistry out of the project.
The monitoring network assigned my students a mentor, a graduate student at Georgetown University who can help them assemble, test, and calibrate an ozone probe that connects to their computer through a low-cost lab interface. I introduced myself to the mentor and urged her to write me weekly about the students' progress.
October 9. The group was thrilled when ten probes came from the project. They attached one to a hand-held computer and surveyed the town. They also plowed through a laborious calibration procedure that converts the raw from the data to standard units. Each sub-team calibrated separately so they are confident of their accuracy. It was hard work, but they are highly motivated to generate good data that scientists can use. Then they installed the ten probes near I-93 and linked them to a computer in the lab using a wireless network. By the end of the week, the group had started generating a continuous record of the ozone level at each probe. Now anyone in the world can interrogate our probes! This was a busy week that didn't cover much content; however, they learned invaluable lessons about the conduct of research.
October 23. After a week of data collection, the group transferred their raw data to a graphing spreadsheet program where they could apply their calibration data to compute actual ozone levels. Then I assigned each member of the group to spend several days independently looking at their data. I asked Nathan to focus on the three probes that were placed at the same location. He was surprised that the three values were seldom identical and worried whether this means the probes are broken. I suggested that he graph the distribution of values around the means. After some more thought, Nathan realized that usually the probes are within 10% of the average, but that on two of the hottest days, one probe was off by 200%. He tracked this down to a loose connection that is effected by heat. He fixes this problem and found another probe might be giving bad values, too.
Meanwhile, the mentor asked Bulah to compare ozone levels from probes near the road and far from it. She found that 70% of the time, the ozone is higher near the road. This seemed like a strong indication that the road is producing ozone, but she worried about the remaining 30%. When she conferred with Nathan, she realized that any one measurement might be off by 10%; if she uses this margin of error, there are only 2% of the reading where the probes distant from the road are significantly higher than the near-road reading.
I asked Jane-Marie to scan the entire data set looking for high levels of ozone. She was disappointed that the ozone readings were quite low except on two hot days. When she heard about Nathan's discovery of faulty probes she checked and found that the erroneous data were inflating the ozone reading on those days. This discouraged her for two days, but I urged her to continue looking at the data. Eventually she discovered that ozone really was highest on the two hottest days but not dangerous. Good news, really!
At the mentor's suggestion, Ken graphed the maximum ozone levels against the high temperature for each day. He saw a distinct trend of rising ozone at higher temperatures but found several days almost as hot as the hottest but with low ozone levels. He pondered this anomaly without getting anywhere until he checked with other schools on the network. One school in Watts has specialized in ozone and wondered whether wind may be a factor. Ken located daily meteorological data on the network and found that ozone was low any day the wind in town above 5 mph. By removing days with that much wind, his graph of temperature and ozone looked much better.
Each student made an important discovery this week that contributed something valuable to the group. The student work was pushing the limits of my knowledge so I contacted the students' mentor directly and drilled her about my students' work. She reassured me that they were on the right track and sent on several ozone research articles that I studied.
October 30. The students wrote up their findings and posted them to an electronic journal. While waiting for a response, they were asked to review a report from a group in New Zealand. Their draft review was tough on the New Zealanders, but I intercepted it before they mailed it and showed them how to be helpful without making the others feel rotten. The review criteria gave them some ideas on how to improve their own report so that when the anonymous review came back they were ready to write a far better report. They were elated when it was accepted for electronic publication and they got thoughtful responses from their Georgetown mentor and a NOAA scientist.
This fictitious log is not set in the next century; it has been assembled from of real elements in network-based projects my colleagues have developed over the last five years. The applications of technology sprinkled throughout the story are all real and parts of existing projects. The story illustrates technology-enhanced learning that uses technology in the ways that most thoughtful educators agree are the most productive. These uses of technology can be characterized as:
It provides tools for thinking. Computer and network technologies help students think, collaborate, communicate, and create. The best applications are general-purpose tools like the spreadsheet, lab interface, and network browsers the students used.
It expands the range of possible projects. Student investigations do not require technology, but the generality of software tools and the resources on the network expand greatly the range of projects teachers can offer.
It changes the teacher's role. The teacher in this story became a facilitator. This is an active role that requires content knowledge and tact, but one quite different from the lecturer who is the source of all information. What students need most in a world overflowing with information is guidance, not more information.
It does NOT replace teachers. The teacher in our story had many important roles, including guide, evaluator, and learner. Success in these roles was crucial to guiding the students to successful projects that covered topics important to the school.
It offers professional development. The teacher in this story was also learning in several ways, from a formal netcourse, from discussions with colleagues, and from electronic conversations with experts.
It provides colleagues. The teacher's colleagues on the network were an important part of the process, providing ideas, information, and support.
Technology will not automatically generate these kinds of benefits, but through wise use of technologies, these can be realized. It takes planning, a vision of empowered students, excellent curriculum planning, and flexible, thoughtful teachers. If you can marshal these resources, every teacher can have stories like this one.
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