Partners in these experiment include the University of Central Florida, Maitland Middle School (MMS) and Coral Springs Middle School (CSMS) in Florida; DoDEA (U. S. Department of Defense Educational Activity) schools in Germany, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and a number of private and corporate supporters.
Our basic philosophy about the development of educational technology is that there is no substitute for time spent in the classroom with kids. We have therefore fielded a series of prototypes, and are learning from each experience as we shape our expectations and the tools. This paper describes the ongoing experimental process.
The reader is expected to be familiar with the overall concepts of, and theory behind ExploreNet. If not, please go read some of the introductory papers. If you're not reading this on the WorldWideWeb, please see the Bibliography.
1.1 Revisiting the objectives
1.2 Philosophical Principles
2.1 The Curricular Plan
2.2 The Pipeline Model of Curriculum Development
2.3 Scaffolding
2.4 The Quest for Tools
2.5 Logistics
Our principal goals are to explore two novel learning techniques in tandem:-
teaching students to construct role-playing simulations of their knowledge;-
systematic dependence on more experienced students for support.
These concepts are not often well-understood or used within a single school. It may seem foolhardy to attempt to learn about these techniques while developing radical new distance-learning technology. The principal reasons we believe that we will succeed are these:
1) Software and personal computing technologies are now mature enough to build tools which add real productivity to classrooms, rather than being primary objects of instruction themselves.
2) The Internet makes it possible to share work in an organized, stimulating way, without regard to physical location.
Thus, there exists the potential to deliver materials that teachers would actually benefit from using, in a cost effective way.
1.2 Philosophical Principles:
1) Constructionism will only work if the teacher is not required to be the primary source of technical know-how, but can concentrate on educational issues.
2) The Virtual Academy Project is committed to delivering a first-rate curricular tool that does not have to be purchased. The "buy-in" will be based on participation, not monetary payment.
Where will we get the resources to realize these dreams? We have to look in new places, and we must find better ways of using traditional resources. Here are four examples.
Hospital/Homebound Students. Many HH students have severe medical problems that keep them from school. In Central Florida, the Make-A-Wish Foundation has begun giving computers to students with life-threatening illnesses who request them. These students have substantial time flexibility (when they are feeling well) and are often ahead of grade level academically, due to the individualized tutoring they receive from the county.
We have recruited two students - Millissa Rodriguez (14) and Christie Mangiocapra (17) and have trained them in the use of Netscape, Timbuktu and ExploreNet. We are presently developing plans to involve Millissa and Christie in the curricular experiments beginning in January 1996, as on-line consultants for the students.
Retirees. Florida has large numbers of relatively affluent retirees, who are quite approachable and interested in being involved in virtual communities. Presently Homer Whittaker (75), a retired communications consultant, is helping to develop the curriculum. He provides his own equipment and has proven very skillful at soliciting donations to the project. He will head our efforts to recruit "on-line grandparents" in 1996.
In-School Students. The social interactions between students in a school are complex and sometimes serve as barriers to effective collaboration (see Experience with Lessons 1-5.) It is our hypothesis that eighth graders at Maitland (for instance) will be more willing to assist younger students in other schools, where no in-place status relationships exist. However, we also believe that it is necessary to explicitly address the problem of improving students' willingness to assist (and to receive assistance from) students of different ages within the school.
Parents. Maitland Middle School currently has over 240 computers capable of running ExploreNet; they are 486 machines with 8 meg of RAM, all on a network. This testbed is available largely due to the activities of EXTRA STEPS, a parent/teacher technology advocacy organization we created in 1992. EXTRA STEPS provides in-class volunteers to help teachers, supports the school's technology specialist, and generates political support for technology in the school. We have now been asked by Orange County Public Schools to provide support to other schools to emulate the program, and to host the County-wide Technology Fair for 1996 as part of this effort.
Coral Springs Middle School has replicated EXTRA STEPS' concept in their Parent Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC). PTAC is supporting the ExploreNet experiments and developing plans for the school's tech base.
The obvious problems with parents as a basis is that their participation tends to increase the distance between have- and have-not communities. The Virtual Academy's response to this problem is to suggest the creation of an EXTRA STEPS program for the Virtual Academy, rather than for a specific suburban school district. No action has yet been taken on this plan because the core curriculum needs to be exercised and developed, but it is part of our long term goals to have an on-line EXTRA STEPS program for parents in support of the Virtual Academy.
After students have worked with existing worlds by modifying them, they are brought in successive stages further toward the skills necessary at the beginning of the creative process. Only at the end of the one-semester curriculum, will the students actually have enough technical and conceptual background to design, implement and test a world from beginning to end.
2.1 The Curricular Plan
Here's the curricular outline:
PHASE 1: GETTING THE IDEA
At least for the next few years, the students and teachers who use the entire six-part process would be part of experimental classes. There is some flexibility in the middle school curriculum for such courses (as evidenced by Maitland and Coral Springs' willingness to participate in this experiment.) Such teachers would have to be "super teachers" - the kind of pioneers who achieve miracles of classroom innovation, motivation and performance.
There are, surprisingly, a good supply of such teachers - perhaps one in every few schools. They tend to burn out after five to ten years in the classroom, but if we can engage a widening circle of such teachers, the inherent self-improving nature of the Virtual Academy project may have a chance of succeeding. These pioneers must be regarded as "capital", with the constant goal of producing a curriculum that does not require a super-teacher.
There will also be an explicit role for "Guest" schools and "Cast" schools. That is, a teacher may hear of this project and ask to install ExploreNet and a specific ExploreNet world for a lesson about a topic of interest. The school which produced the information could either provide it without support, or with support in the form of on-line coaching from their own students. Free-standing and unsupported worlds would have a high requirement for good documentation, clean design and systematic review. Perhaps there's a VA "Seal of Approval" which would certify that a given world was ready for unsupported use. However, most student-produced worlds won't be that clean.
We expect that in the current experimental series, the DoDEA schools will probably serve as Guest schools. It may be possible to involve them in such a way that the lesson that is constructed, is done "to order" for a subject that a guest school plans to cover during April or May 96. This would provide our MMS and CSMS students with "customers", which is an idea integral to the Virtual Academy.
2.2 The Pipeline Model of Curriculum Development
Approximately when Maitland (MMS) is halfway through Phase II, we expect Coral Springs (CS) to begin with Phase 1. CS will receive lesson plans that have been modified (and perhaps improved) on the basis of experience at MMS. Their students will also have MMS student 'guides' on-line, if we can get the technology working that soon.
If other schools join the project during this academic year, we would consider putting them in the third wave, behind CS. However, there may not be enough personnel power in this rather small project to support three waves of development. A more likely scenario would be that other schools will be invited to read our Web pages, down-load the software, try out such pieces as they find interesting, and report back what they learned.
2.3 Scaffolding
In the first cycle of trying to get students to build a world, we are actually doing much of the integrating work ourselves (that is, UCF faculty and students.) Without clear examples of what a world looks like or works, the students can only make small fragments. However, the students are involved in brainstorming decisions about the dinosaur world's structure, dino's behavior, etc. They also participated in the original choice of topic.
This scaffolding process will doubtless continue through several rounds of development. If the mentoring model of the Virtual Academy works and if we can achieve tele-partnerships, then remote students or more experienced local students will be available to provide much of the support.
2.4 The Quest for Tools
The MMS experiments are being conducted with minimal tools: Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Paint Shop Pro, NotePad, File Manager and ExploreNet itself. The students have become fairly skilled at handling the myriad files that make up an ExploreNet world, but they haven't yet completed Phase 1 of the curriculum. In January 96 we will embark on an ambitious construction project, using UCF students, to build an integrated suite of tools which deal with issues such as
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version control, to assure that the same world is running at all sites-
protection from accidental or malevolent data erasure by other students-
configuration guidance, to assure that the right files are present for a world-
session tracking, to know who played what role in what world-run
We are purchasing hardware and software to support bidirectional video and audio between the schools, and hope to have this operational in January. We have also received a donation of 30 Timbuktu licenses for remote control/mentoring from PC to PC. However, most of the tools listed above will actually be constructed on the basis of student experiences at Maitland and Coral Springs, as observed by UCF students and faculty.
The CAETI project (ARPA) is engaged in extensive e-mail discussion of tool-making issues and is providing a stream of ideas and opinions as to how these systems should be built. Our experiments are intended to provide us with insight and information to contribute to that dialog.
By the fall of 1996, the above tool-suite and a new version of ExploreNet should all be available. In schools running Windows 95 and with well-maintained logistics, adventurous teachers may be able to take some advantage of what we've built. It is too soon to tell if any of our tools will have been built within the CAETI complex's joint tech-base, but we hope so.
2.5 Logistics
Both at Coral Springs and at Maitland, we have been under a large burden of logistics. In essence, Joel Rosenthal has had to create his infrastructure from nothing. He presently has four computers for 30 students, and still has no internal network; only his personal Internet account connects his students to the world.
At Maitland,six weeks after Brian Scarbeau left, Sue Amiot came to be our technology specialist - then left after four days for extended medical leave. The school's 270 computers are fitfully operational, but many problems remain chronically unsolved. Moshell routinely has to spend an hour in the lab restoring Windows 3.1's functionality (when he can) for every hour of class time.
If adequate funding were available for this project, its first use would be to provide a sufficient number of computers for Coral Springs' trials, and technical support for both sites so that the teacher/developers could concentrate on the curriculum. However, in most districts the current experience is a realistic model of what teachers must face to use computers.
2) We will have a quite rough outline of a syllabus for a course. After only two experimental teachings plus the Guest/Cast experience we hope to have with DoDEA in Germany, the syllabus will resemble a logging road -full of ruts and rubbish - more than a superhighway.
3) We will have some fragments of worlds, which will be hybrids of student- and staff-produced ideas.
4) We will have an acute idea of the needed changes to existing tools and new tools, and their priority, based on the students' experiences.
Fall 1996. Concurrently with the completion of this experiment, we will be writing grant proposals and developing plans for a wider circle of participating experimental schools in the fall of 1996. If our summer work proceeds as planned, we will edit the materials from the Maitland and Coral Springs trials into a new Curricular Package, and place that package on the Web for experimental use by other schools.
We hope to use the package ourselves for the 1996-97 school year, in conjunction with new schools. Our students will be relatively quick to learn the materials because we will have experience with the curriculum. Thus our Maitland and Coral Springs students will be the nucleus of a growing circle of school-to-school assistance.
You are invited to review our current Experience Reports to see how we're doing so far. You can also return to the Tutorial Table of Contents, or to the ExploreNet Home Page.