Spring 1998
Vol 6 Issue 2
IN THIS ISSUE...
Technology and Change ... duh!
Some Thoughts on Change from Egypt
Creating Opportunities for Student Success
Playing
Out the Imagination's Wildest Scenarios...
From Computer Bio Simulations...
Community College Assessment Library
SEE ALSO...
The Forum
Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction
Playing out the Imagination's Wildest Scenarios: Engaging
Learning Through the World Wide Web
Richard Effland, MCC
Introduction
The World Wide Web (Internet or just plain "Web") has burst upon the world
over the past three years like no other technological invention that mankind has
ever known. It has become the most engaging and innovative component of the information
age. With its capacity to display and transfer two- and three-dimensional graphics,
static or animated images and text, stereo sound, video, and virtual-reality walk-throughs,
the Web is a compelling place to play out the imagination's wildest scenarios. The
Web can be hard to browse, and frustrating when trying to find a particular piece
of information, but it also can be fun, entertaining, personable, challenging, and
educational. It has impacted the educational field as it has everything else with
a ferociousness that has many educators wondering how to deal with this revolutionary
development. I was an early adopter of the Internet yet am constantly amazed by the
rapidity in which this technology has swept across our culture. This article is an
attempt to share some personal insights into the evolution of the Web usage within
the educational context of Anthropology at MCC.
Many educators are struggling to adapt to the true "information age" that
has mushroomed with the advent of the Internet. Students are adapting at the same
time and, in some regards, faster than many of us. It is easy to become intimidated
by the changes and by the very fact that our students have become as well versed
if not more so with the Internet and its creative powers. We now all look out at
classrooms where more and more students have their own Web pages and use the Internet
on a regular basis to obtain information and communicate globally.
The Web has changed in character since I first began to develop Web pages to assist
instruction in Anthropology. While there has been a proliferation of information
that is now available over the Web, the way one accesses that information has changed
dramatically. Browsers are more powerful, search engines incredibly powerful, and
multimedia is ever present. It is multimedia presentation of information that makes
this environment a medium by which the "Nintendo generation" can feel more
comfortable learning within. I believe it will become more of a standard means by
which to access educational materials. One student summed up his reaction to the
Web from his first exposure by saying that "This is worth two or three text
books and is a lot more fun to use than any text book." The Web is clearly more
engaging today as a multimedia experience. This makes the Web an exciting place to
learn, yet we are only starting that multimedia evolution -- more will come in the
next few years. So the real exciting potential is still ahead of us.
A Lesson Learned
Anthropology at MCC has had an emphasis on use of the technology for teaching and
learning based upon our earlier use of hypermedia applications. Our conversion into
a Web world has been rapid and extensive. There are now over 4,000 files in the Anthropology
server area at MCC. All of these are designed to provide a basic knowledge for courses
such as "Buried Cities and Lost Tribes," "Human Origins," "Southwest
Indians," and "Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology."
Dr. Shereen Lerner has teamed with me in developing strategies and materials for
the Web. Teamwork in development has enhanced the effectiveness of the Web instructional
base. We have tried a number of different approaches for development that have taught
us several lessons in terms of what seems to work and not work relative to engaging
students in a learning process.
In our own evolution, we have attempted to provide access to information that directs
students to pertinent content materials available on the Web. Extensive course guides
point to specific URLs that students can use in the learning process. This addresses
the issue that "the Web can be hard to browse" by using a focused pursuit
of information that is course responsive. Our "Buried Cities" course guide
has won an educational award for its direction of learning.
Two years ago, we tackled a problem for our Social/Cultural Anthropology course.
Basic principles and concepts of anthropological linguistics are part of this course.
This has always been a particularly difficult subject to teach since the vast majority
of students don't find it particularly interesting. Our approach was to couple a
videotape about linguistics with a "probing" Web area. We hoped that through
exposure to the video and follow-up on the Web that students would obtain a better
appreciation of the subject. Several issues arose as we used this approach. The first
is that the Web area is "text intensive" and still rather dry in terms
of content. Perhaps more significantly, we found that students did not always have
the capacity to hear the sounds or see video segments that were embedded in the program
as a result of the configuration of computers on campus. Clearly, the biggest problem,
at least on the surface, was access, but there is still an underlying issue of content-effective
delivery. While this has improved with the evolution of more powerful browsers, we
are still faced with a rather "dry" content base, which will ultimately
limit the effectiveness of this application. It is simply too text-oriented without
a real means to grab interest.
Two subsequent developments were designed with less text and more of a problem solving
environment in an effort to engage students. Both our "Navajo-Hopi Explorations"
and our "Southwest Archaeology" areas were developed with the shortcomings
of the language application in mind. Both of these are more successful as learning
tools. In a sense, our own imagination and creativity now limits restructuring of
that language Web exercise. Yet it was a valuable lesson to learn despite the frustrations
inherent in it.
Engaging Students
We learned that the delivery of information is critical for "engaging"
students. The heart of the issue is to get students involved in the learning process.
If design of the technology fails, students will fail to become part of the learning
process. It is interesting to note that the visual qualities of page design alone
can engage. I now call this the "Madonna Effect." During the fall semester,
students read two selections and wrote a reflection on each. We found that the vast
majority preferred one article. The students tended to write reflections suggesting
the content of the other article was "not exciting." The interesting part
is that the one liked most by students has a longer word count by about 35 to 40
percent. The readings were written by the same person -- Brian Fagan, who is an excellent
writer. The article liked least should, in our opinion, have evoked a rather strong
reaction, yet it did not. The primary factor that made these two readings different
was that one had a colorful picture background and included a number of images. The
other was rather plain, and lacked any images. We attribute the difference in student
reaction to the visual quality differences. We would argue that color and visual
effects play a major role in drawing student interest to a Web page thus engaging
their learning. This is the "Madonna Effect." Given the way students are
drawn to so much of the world through visual effects today, we need to design with
this in mind. They have grown up with color and sound as a major part of their lives.
The human brain simply seems to work better comprehending things with sight and sound
engaged. When was the last time you saw a black-and-white television set? Web pages
with color (and even better multimedia), therefore, should appeal to students since
they conform to the visual stimuli that students are so use to on a day to day basis.
This should not detract from the content but is merely a means to involve the students
in the content. Sound will add even more to color.
Recently, one student was working with her Web assignment in our small departmental
computer lab. She had a printed copy of the page which appeared on the computer screen.
She was coming back, having printed the page a few days before, and was there to
look at the page again since she felt something was missing. Her strategy for Web
use was to look up the site and print a copy because she "did not have time
to sit at a computer." This is the "Print and Walk" syndrome, as I
call it. What she missed in not sitting at the computer and working through the information
were animated images that contained valuable insights into solving the problems that
were posed in the assignment. By having a static printed page from the "Print
and Walk" strategy, the student lacked critical insights. This forced her to
return to the computer. Statistics tell us that more than a page and a half of text
is about the limits of what students will sit at a computer and read -- this doesn't
consider what will happen if they encounter small text on that page! Therefore, we
must recognize that students are prone to "Print and Walk." We really want
students to sit and be "engaged," and the Web provides the means by which
to do this, if we can work around the mental perception that, by printing the page,
one can walk away and be finished faster. The issue is what happens to the engagement
process when a student walks away. The technology is not "hooking" the
student but is another means to information retrieval and nothing more. In this case,
the student did return to be engaged, but many students did not, and this "Print
and Walk" syndrome hindered the effectiveness of this exercise.
We believe that pages need to revolve text around a problem or set of problems. One
of the recent Web pages that I have developed is entitled "The Land of Ur."
It is a Web area devoted to Mesopotamia. Included on this page are a clickable image
map, a timeline, a diagram of a Mesopotamian house, and links to various URLs regarding
Mesopotamian history and mythology. Students are asked to interact with the map and
define geographic references to the timeline stages. They are forced to use the computer
as a means to solve the first of three problems. They can't walk away by simply printing
the page. We have made that obvious to them. They are then led to ponder the implications
of Mesopotamian culture over time and across cultures. For example, they are asked
to consider the implications of the story of Gilgamesh and the Mesopotamian flood
with Western Civilization. The text in this portion of the exercise is longer. We
expect the student will print the page and work on this aspect of the problem at
home.
The student is led to the initial "engagement" on the computer. The problem
is set up by the way the page is designed. Only at the third and final stage can
the student literally "print and walk." The page is relatively short, highly
visual, interactive and engaging, and constructed around a definitive problem set
related to a theme. The Web has become a tool for learning. Students are encouraged
to engage in interactive activities in order to explore problems. Text is minimized
for much of the activity set. The problems are formulated in a clear way that will
enable the student (learner) to have to ponder the implications of what they are
discovering in the process. The initial interactive element to the page is designed
to grab the interest so that the rest of the learning process can occur anywhere
-- the student is hooked on the problem through this design.
We have a similar Web area that probes the consequences of agriculture on human societies.
A central question guides students to think about these consequences. The problem
is set up by a walk-through of the agricultural revolution. This is a highly visual
introduction with concise text. One other area is required to initiate the "thinking
process" -- a powerful animated image of population expansion in the Washington
D.C. and Baltimore area over the past 200 years. The student then can select any
of seven different outlets to read about the problem of whether the advent of agriculture
was a good or bad event in human history. Each article that can be read begs the
question and raises specific issues. What is perhaps most interesting about this
Web area is that to answer the question one has choices. There are different choices
of readings. There is not a right or wrong response. However, a specific program
is defined and students are given specific materials to interact with on the computer.
There is a combination of the "Madonna Effect" -- visual dressing and
multimedia power -- and problem orientation. Students are to use the computer with
a clear learning objective in mind and with all its appealing power because of the
design of the exercise.
An Evolution in Pedagogy -- Student/Faculty Synergy
It is clear there are quite a variety of approaches to Web development
and use in Anthropology today. I wish to share one interesting case. Last fall, one
instructor (from an unnamed institution) set up a Web page. This included links to
three assignments. Each assignment required the students to prepare a "not to
exceed" six-page paper and submit it in typed format. The Web pages served as
a replacement for what traditionally would have been handouts. Information for the
students to do their assignments was provided on a Web page as an alternative, but
students were still required to do what can be considered as traditional "term
paper" work. A new Web area was added for this course. This explores a prehistoric
site from Peru. It involves multimedia to explore the site graphically. Students
are asked to submit answers to three question in computer form input. The students
are not able to see the areas on the server where the answers go; that is reserved
apparently for the grader.
I use this example because it shows that the use of the Web for instruction is evolving.
It appears, however, that the evolution can easily be restricted by the pedagogical
framework in place. The use of electronic student input is not an open process, in
this case, and it can't be until there is a critical shift in the pedagogy in the
mind of the "teacher." At MCC, we have used form input Web Boards in a
way that students are put into an authoring mode and placed in a more equal stance
to the "teacher" in the learning process. Student responses have shown
high quality input with fewer grammatical and spelling deficiencies than anticipated.
Students are very aware that they are writing to the world. The Web, in this sense,
becomes a problem solving platform and a means for dialogue between learners. Critical
inquiry and thinking are enhanced through feedback as fellow learners engage with
one another.
Students share that they are more able to think about a response and submit a thoughtful
and thorough response in the open Web dialogue. This has even gone as far as students
revealing that they might not have wanted to share their insights in a class discussion
because the "idea was only half baked" at the time, and they were "unsure"
if the response was "appropriate." Several students, who were normally
extremely quiet in class, made contributions within the Internet discussion that
led to numerous responses from fellow students. All of this is possible because of
the relationship defined between "teacher" and "student."
The Future
I am currently looking at even more innovative means for making Web material directed
toward problem solving, critical inquiry along with a more interactive and personal
feel. The development is no longer aimed at simply providing information but providing
that information as an experience or an activity. Clearly the concept of our "Exploratorium"
and the "Activities Area" typifies this direction. These areas imply a
capacity to stimulate intellectual curiosity for anyone interested in Anthropology.
We are working toward streaming audio and video through cooperative efforts of the
MCC Center for Teaching and Learning. We are also looking at interactive exercises
for helping students learn about race using Java script. These directions will enhance
the engagement process for Web page usage. The CTL also provides leadership in the
use WEBCT as well as other means for integrating Web materials into a consistent
format for student interaction. This is an important feature of a coordinated distant
learning program for the college.
Most importantly to me is the communication which takes place with my MCC colleagues
in Anthropology. This communication is a positive direction which helps each
of us to better under- stand the changing nature of technology in relation to teaching
and learning.
The realm of global interaction for building cultural awareness is another avenue
that we have developed. We are opening discussions with Wuyi University to begin
an innovative project which helps our students in Anthropology work within a global
community. This exciting new direction means that we will be able to have students
in China write about Chinese culture, and Anthropology students here write about
American culture. This interchange is a medium by which our students will learn about
another culture in a personal way and at the same time have a real life anthropological
experience. This active learning environment for our students should be a very rich
one. It should stimulate learning and interest in Anthropology for a lifetime.
Our use of technology as a means of communication designed to push student thinking
and writing skills is already ahead of the scale in terms of how others are using
the Internet. Yet it can be taken further. Our dialogue with China is one way. We
also are working in partnership with Paradise Valley colleagues to build a Web area
devoted to the exploration of the cities' role in terms of social problem solving.
This is an innovative partnership with a great deal of potential to link data bases
with text information with interactive communication areas in an effort to probe
at the issue of "homelessness." We are exploring means to visually communicate
as well.
Our "Introduction to Archaeology" Web area is complete with one case study
and more are planned. These will illustrate how Archaeology works and why it is important.
They will be available as a lesson in Archaeology that can be used by almost any
age group as a learning experience.
Our "Hominid Journey" Web area is a strong base which allows us to continue
keeping pace with the dynamic and exciting scientific endeavor of finding human origins.
If we can work out details with the Institute for Human Origins, we may find this
area is a platform for the very latest in research findings. It too is designed as
a public information area that can be used in the context of a course or simply for
learning about human origins.
Education must focus on the fact that the Web is a compelling place to play out the
imagination's wildest scenarios. Student created Web pages are emerging as an important
part of the Web building process. Tools by which to make pages have evolved to make
it easier to develop for the Web. One does not need programming anymore to make a
contribution. I would encourage readers to explore what a group of MCC Honors students
did at the following URL: http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/anthro/honors/index.html
What perhaps limits us as educators is our ability to face change and to feel free
to unlock our own imagination and creativity. It is what I term the "framebreaking"
mindset that provides the potential for exploration of what is possible with the
educational use of the Web. Innovators provide a vision of what can be because they
see beyond the "boxes" that confine our environment. This visionary mindset
requires freedom to explore change. The operative concept is to "just do it"
and if doesn't work, do something else. This is the force that will drive the evolutionary
process by which the World Wide Web becomes a better platform for learning.
It is important to remember that some people accept change more readily than others.
Those that accept change will be the heart of this evolutionary process. They are
the ones who can share insights with others thereby building a more solid base. Only
through greater collaboration in Anthropology at MCC have I reached greater depth
in my own creative endeavors. This contribution in a collaborative sense is the most
exciting part of the future for me personally because it will drive more and more
exciting potential to enhance learning.
Visit the MCC Anthropology Web Site:
http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/anthro/