newsletter concord · 2018-09-23 · teachers learning conference faculty based at concord...

@ NewsletterFall 1997THE CONCORD CONSORTIUM

CONCORD.ORG

LINKS ON THIS PAGEUniversity of California—www.berkeley.edu CILT—www.concord.org/news/prcilt.htmlVanderbilt University—www.cilt.ltc.Vanderbilt.edu SRI InternationaI—www.sri.com

Recognizingthe need formore research and devel-

opment in educational technology, theConcord Consortium has joined withthree other leading research and develop-ment groups to launch the Center forInnovation in Learning Technologies(CILT). The project is a joint activity ofthe University of California at Berkeley,SRI International, and Vanderbilt Univer-sity, whose web site has information aboutthe collaboration.

Already CILT has identified five areasthat have great promise for education, butwhich need substantial research and devel-opment before their promise can besubstantiated and supported. Each areahas a research plan in place and CILT iscurrently recruiting post-doctoral fellowswho can spearhead innovative projects inthese five theme areas, which have poten-tial for important advances in educationacross the K-14 spectrum.

Research will emphasize the impor-tance of carefully designed activities thatengage the learner in acquiring a combina-tion of skills, concepts, and mental modelsthrough active engagement in guided

R&D Effort DevelopsCenter off ers unique opport unityfor educational problem-solving

YHS Update: Cool Reviewsand Business NewsFanfane accompanies teach ers asthey start their first VHS year

Learning Space:Key to the FutureHow does a go od framework forteaching ove r the ‘ Net work?

Famine to FeastInterview with Nort h CarolinaVHS teach er Louine Teague

The Jungle StoryAn eMate prepares to teachstudents about the rainforest

INTEC Reviews Its ProgressProfessional development cours emakes changes in technology,communication & approach

Sign Up for ProfessionalDevelopment Course OnlineSecondary mat h and s cienceteachers off ered graduate credit

New Programs & IdeasAnticipate Next MilleniumConcord Consort ium reaches outto new projects,go als,i deas

Perspective: Addressing theCrisis in EducationalTechnologyWhen technology meets educat ion,do we k now what works andwhat doesn’t?

[email protected],S ustainabl e Future,Newsletter Subscriptions

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I N S I D E

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inquiry,exploration, chal-

lenges, reflection,and communication. Technology can sup-port these learning strategies by providingaccess to new collaborators, mentors, andteachers; enhancing the range of inquirywith more powerful tools; helping studentsvisualize and model complex situations;and supporting alternative, authenticmethods of evaluating student perfor-mance.

Starting with this perspective on edu-cational and technological needs, theCILT participants searched for break-through opportunities where a nationalcollaborative structure could make majorcontributions. To provide substance to ourcollaboration, we needed to identifyopportunities close enough to reality thatwe could create prototype technologiesthat can be tested by our colleagues in avariety of real classrooms and other learn-ing contexts. At the same time, the

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R&D Effort DevelopsCenter for Innovation in Learning Technologies Provides FertileGround for Collaboration

by Robert Tinker

technology must not be transitory; we need to rely on the technology’s wide availabilityand continual improvement over the next decade.

Some of the most respected names in educational technology research and develop-ment have become part of CILT. Besides the four founding institutions, BBN,Educational Development Center, The Center for Children in Technology, the Universi-ty of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UICU), Georgia Institute of Technology, the MITMedia Lab, Northwestern University, NCSA, TERC, the University of Michigan, andXerox PARC have all signed on.

After much discussion the following areas were selected for investigation:

Enabling Tools for Electronic Learning Communities. Developing and testingsoftware that can support collaborative learning on the ‘Net. Directors: Roy Pea,SRI International, and Jeremy Roschelle, University of California at Berkeley.

Visualization and Modeling. Educational use of various kinds of computer-based models and representations to help learners understand complex,interacting systems. Directors: Marcia C. Linn, University of California atBerkeley, and Nancy Songer, University of Michigan.

Learning with Ubiquitous Computers. Educational uses of inexpensive com-puters and interfaces and the impact of every student having ready access tothese tools. Directors: Earl Craighill, SRI International, Bob Brodersen, Uni-versity of California at Berkeley, and Robert Tinker, the Concord Consortium.

Technology and Assessment Models. Issues of assessment of technology-sup-ported education as well as the use of network technologies to supportassessment. Directors: Barbara Means, SRI International, and John Bransford,Vanderbilt University.

CILT is poised to undertake critical, interdisciplinary R&D and to be the focus ofincreased investment in these vital areas. We expect core funding from the National Sci-ence Foundation for our first five years and have already had a very encouraging responsefrom leaders of technology industries who could greatly increase the scope of our work.Even with this funding, we cannot support large-scale research projects that we think arenecessary. However, CILT provides the only institutional base that could support suchprojects, should the required level of needed funding become available. And it is urgentthat it does.

Concord Consortium: www.concord.org

LINKS ON THIS PAGEUniversity of California at Berkeley—www.berkeley.eduTERC—www.terc.eduVanderbilt University—www.vanderbilt.edu BBN—www.bbn.comGeorgia Institute of Technology—www.gatech.edu SRI InternationaI—www.sri.comMIT Media Lab—www.media.mit.edu NCSA—www.ncsa.comUniversity of Michigan—www.umich.edu Northwestern University—www.nwu.eduUniversity of Illinois—www.crhc.uiuc.edu XEROX PARC—www.parc.xerox.comEducational Development Center—www.edc.org

The Concord Consortium

Educational Technology Lab

EditorRobert F. Tinker

Managing EditorLee McDavid

ContributorsStephen Bannasch, Kathryn Costello, George

Collison, Tara DeMarco, Bruce Droste, Noah

Fields, Jeannie Finks, Sarah Haavind, Zack

Leven, Shea McGovern, Carla Melucci,

Allen Parker, David Pitkin, Raymond Rose,

Robin Sebesta, Bruce Seiger,

Alice Smith, Carolyn Staudt

@CONCORD is published three times a year

by The Concord Consortium, a not-for-profit

educational research and development organiza-

tion dedicated to educational innovation through

creative technologies. We are an Educational

Technology Lab sponsored by National Science

Foundation.

Copyright © 1997 by The Concord Consor-

tium. All rights reserved. This publication may

be reproduced without written permission, pro-

vided appropriate acknowledgment of the Con-

cord Consortium accompanies the reproduction.

The Concord Consortium

37 Thoreau Street, Concord, MA 01742

(978) 369-4367, FAX (978) 371-0696.

[email protected]

http://www.concord.org

The projects described in @CONCORD are

supported by grants from the National Science

Foundation DUE-9454575, REC-9553639, and

ESI-9554162 and the U.S. Department of Edu-

cation R303A60571. We also receive significant

donations from corporations and individuals. All

opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommen-

dations expressed herein are those of the authors

and do not necessarily reflect the views of the

funding agencies.

R&D Effortcontinued from page 1

@

LINKS ON THIS PAGEMiramonte High School—www.cccoe.k12.ca.us/miramnte Public Broadcasting Service—www.pbs.orgVirtual High School—vhs.concord.org Sci-Fi Channel—www.cnet.com


As Director of the Virtual HighSchool™ I recently sent an e-mail to all of the participating

teachers asking if they wished to continuein the following year. The message I heardback was loud and clear—Yes!

Here’s a sampling of their responses:

•Bruce, I absolutely DO want to do thisagain next year. It’s the most excitingthing I’ve done in education in a long

time. Absolutely AWESOME. It’s incredi-ble to be in the middle of such a

cutting-edge project. COUNT ME IN!•

Wild horses could not pull me away!

•After all of this work, of course I want

to stay on!•

I definitely will be continuing withVHS for the 98-99 school year. Whyjust in the months from March-June I’ve expe-

rienced a proverbial ‘quantum leap’ inexposure to educational technologies. . . .The on screen course construction processhas really started me thinking again aboutcurriculum structures in general. You couldnever get this practical experience in any

graduate course.•

These responses only begin to reflect the levelof excitement and commitment of the participantsin the VHS collaboration. Thirty brave teacherssupported by thirty site coordinators and theTeachers Learning Conference faculty based atConcord Consortium have struggled with “bleed-ing edge” software—alpha and beta releases—to gettheir courses ready to run on the first day of school.

Along the way, participants have become tech-

nological masters. They have digested the manysubtle and important techniques that will proveeffective with their “virtual students.” They havealso made new friends all over the country.

Many classes are being highlighted by the newsmedia. After seeing an article about VHS in a Cali-fornia paper, the Public Broadcasing Service“Imagine II Series” spent a day at Miramonte HighSchool in California filming a segment for releasethis fall (see photo above). The San Jose MercuryNews ran a long story that was picked up by theKnight-Ridder news wire. The resulting front pagecoverage in the Atlanta Journal, the PhiladelphiaInquirer and the Denver Post, to name a few, wasexciting. Now the cable Sci-Fi Channel is filmingsegments on VHS in North Carolina and Califor-


UP

DA

TE

HS

Cool Reviews & Business News

by Bruce Droste

VHS Generates Enthusiasm and Media Attention

Clockwise, from top, VHS Director Bruce Droste,, U.S. RepresentativeMarty Meehan, Secretary of Education Richard Riley, and Hudson Pub-lic Schools Superintendent Sheldon Berman at Washington D.C. meetingin the Rayburn Office Building. Filming Cheryl Davies, Miramonte(CA) High School VHS Site Coordinator, for the PBS “Imagine II Series.”Miramonte High School welcomes vitual high school to town.

nia for a piece on their weekly newsmagazine “The New Edge.” The NewYork PBS outlet will film a one hour

segment for the weekly “Telecom-munications &Information Revolution”series. And the CaliforniaTeachers Magazine—circula-tion 300,000—is working ona lead article about VHS.

All this even before schoolopened! We continue to getcalls from television, radio andprint media weekly. Obviously

VHS has caught the imagination ofmany people. There are now over 500students enrolled in the Fall term.The average class size is eighteen.The average number of schools rep-resented per class is ten. The averagenumber of states represented per classis six. Students from Alaska, Califor-

nia, and the country of Jordan areconversing with students from Col-

orado, New Mexico, andNorth Carolina, as well as aDepartment of DefenseDependents School in Ger-many. A teacher inMassachusetts is instructing stu-dents in Ohio, Texas,Pennsylvania, and Washington.From Las Lomas to La Junta,Collingswood to Keystone Oaks,Soldotna to Algonquin, studentsare learning and communicatingwith each other online.

“Hi everybody! Is it just me or isthis the most fun we’ve had in a longtime,” one student wrote to his fellowclassmates.

I want to also recognize anotherpowerful collaboration that has hap-pened “behind the scenes” between

VHS Updatecontinued from page 3

LINKS ON THIS PAGEDepartment of Defense Dependents Schools—www.tmn.com/dodea/home.htm



similar ease they are also creating links tointeresting educational URLs.

The Activity Area: The CourseRoomA key element of courses conducted

over the web using LearningSpace isinteraction between participants. Withthese exchanges, assignments are clear,students work together, and all thoseinvolved have a great opportunity to getto know each other and share informa-tion. The CourseRoom module housestwo main document types—discussions

and work assignments.Teachers are using dis-

cussions in a variety ofways:• All students are asked tocomment with theirthoughts and feelings on aspecific teacher-postedtopic, sharing their knowl-edge and ideas;• Students are grouped intoteams and asked to researchand debate a topic, eachstudent acting in a specificrole, posting his or herresults to share and/or begraded at the end of theactivity;

• Students can post private questions totheir teacher on any topic at any time.

To help develop the feeling of cama-raderie and connectedness, we’ve encour-aged our teachers to create a discussionthread reserved exclusively for goofing off.

The work area is where students storeand work on assignments and projects,alone or with editors or teams. Teachers


LINKS ON THIS PAGELearningSpace—institute.lotus.com Virtual High School—vhs.concord.orgLotus Institute—institute.lotus.com Lotus Domino—domino.lotus.com

LearningSpace: Key to the Futureby Alice Smith and Carla Melucci

Teaching a course over the Inter-net requires a few components,one of the most important being

the medium through which the course isoffered. After extensive research of Inter-net-based training tools, we settled onLearningSpace, developed by Lotus Insti-tute, a division of the Lotus DevelopmentCorporation.

Why LearningSpace? For starters, it has been specifically

designed to provide all of the tools andframework necessary to deliverany course over the Web. Itis also very easy to use.Once the Virtual HighSchool teachers got thehang of it, they were creat-ing documents left andright. There is no need tolearn HTML (HypertextMarkup Language, the lan-guage of the Web) or anyother program, and it runson both Macintosh andWindows platforms.LearningSpace is a series offive specialized, interactiveLotus Notes databases thatVHS teachers are using todesign their courses. We make these data-bases available over the web via LotusDomino to the VHS students using theirfavorite browser.

What are the five databases and howdo they work?

The All Important ScheduleThe VHS teachers course design

begins with the Schedule module. Here iswhere teachers detail the course require-

ments, all overview information, and thecourse activities and assignments, whichinclude student activities, homework, andexams. The Schedule module is the heartof the course, acting as the hub fromwhich all student actions and activitiesoriginate.

Keeping Resources Organized: TheMediaCenter

Resources that are needed and usedfor assignments are usually linked fromwithin Schedule documents into other

documents stored in a second module, theMediaCenter. This module acts much likea course library, providing a separate stor-age place for helpful resources. VHSteachers are incorporating multimediafiles, graphics, photos, charts, scanned arti-cles, videos, and sound files. They are tak-ing advantage of LearningSpace’s abilityto easily accept the familiar and simpletwo-step process of cutting and pastinggraphics directly into documents. With (continued on page 12)

Main Virtual High School page of LearningSpace on the web.


Teachers in 28 high schools and 11states are currently teaching netcoursesin the Virtual High School project.Louine Teague has designed a net-course in Geometry which she teachesfrom her high school in Lumberton,North Carolina. I spoke with her at thebeginning of the school year abouthow she got involved in VHS and howit was going.

Concord Consortium: How did you getinvolved with the Virtual High Schoolproject?

Louine Teague: My principal toldeverybody at the school that we weregoing to be part of the Virtual Schoolproject and asked if there wasanybody who wanted toapply. My first reactionwas I’d love to do this but Idon’t know the technolo-gy and I just don’t thinkthey’re going to teach an old dog newtricks. So I was real hesitant.

I went to a North Carolina Forummeeting where there were representa-tives from the Concord Consortiumback in November of last year. I wentto the meeting and I still sort of cameaway thinking the same thing—I hadthis little idea of what I wanted to dobut I just didn’t know about this tech-nology stuff. I’d been out of school along time.

And so what happened after youapplied to teach your course?

Sometime in the end of February I

Famine to FeastVHS Teacher Creates Netcourse from ScratchInterviewed by Lee McDavid

emailed Carla [VHS Program Coordina-tor] and I said “Haven’t heard anything.Who’s been accepted?” And she sentme back this letter that said “Youhave!” I almost panicked. I had a slowcomputer at home. The school ralliedaround and worked real hard and gotme a computer and got me a telephoneline run to my room and did all sorts ofthings so that I could start taking theTLC [Teachers Learning Conference]course.

What kind of experience didyou have with the Internet before?

The only thing I had ever done wasemail my daughter in college. That wasit. The Virtual High School has prettymuch taught me everything I knowabout the Internet.

And what did you learn?

When I started I had a vision of what Iwanted to teach, but I really didn’thave a vision of how it could be done.I think that’s what I have appreciated

the most. Even though it took us sometime to get the LearningSpace working,I really think that software is wonderful.One of my favorite lessons was usingthe ‘Net as your virtual library. That letme really for the first time explore theInternet. Other than that I think I hadlooked up a couple of colleges or twoin order to get information for students,and I have looked up Coca Cola

because I’m a Coca Cola col-lector. And other than that

I had never even tried to doa search.

You’ve come so far.

I’ve put in a lot of time.

You seem to like it, though.

I’m a logical thinker and I’m prettygood at problem solving. I wouldn’t beteaching geometry if I wasn’t. And it’sall logical to me. It makes sense. It’sopened a door for me that probablyneeded to be opened. I had gone backto school and gotten a master’s in matheducation in ‘90. I’m forty-seven yearsold. My daughter left for school twoyears ago. And I’ve been sitting in the

LINKS ON THIS PAGEVirtual High School—www.berkeley.eduLearningSpace—institute.lotus.com

Louine Teague, VHS teacher

NCLumberton

Wilmington

DurhamGaston

Charlotte


same classroom for eighteen years. Itwas time for a change. The VirtualHigh School came along at a time inmy life when I needed something new.

But one of the most important things isthe help we’ve gotten. Ifeel like I’ve been con-stantly supported bythe [VHS] staff and bysome of the teachers. Ifeel like those of uswho really discussedthings from the begin-ning were the oneswho got the most ben-efit, the training thatConcord offered us.

What is the differencebetween preparing fora regular classroomcourse and preparingfor an online course?

When I first startedpreparing the [VHS] lessons I had asense of panic that I wasn’t going to beable to get in everything I wanted.Bruce [VHS Director] wrote me back amessage one day and he quoted MarkTwain, who had written a really longletter to a friend. At the end of the letterhe said ‘I would have written you ashorter letter but I didn’t have time.’

When you have to be short and con-cise and to the point, I really think youthink through what you are doingmuch more carefully. Your planning isdone much more carefully. You wantevery minute to count and be valuable.Unfortunately, I think sometimes in theclassroom we have our children dowhat we might call busy work. I havealways tried to avoid that, but there’sno room for busy work in this course.

But really and truly we won’t knowhow well we’ve done until we’ve had agroup of students go all the waythrough.

How do your kids feel about taking acourse online?

They’re pretty excited. Part of that isbecause I’m so excited. I have let themknow that it’s pretty remarkable thathere we are in little Lumberton andthey’re one of maybe 600 students inthe nation being exposed to the VirtualHigh School.

We limited our enrollment to seniors tobegin with. They’re pretty mature intheir attitude. They’re going to have alot of freedom because they’ll be in thelibrary working pretty much at theircomputer, and they’ll come to me ifthere’s a problem.

Tell me about Lumberton.

We have about 1,300 students. We are

definitely a low-wealth county. Robin-son County has been traditionallytobacco country. Very agricultural. Wehave probably the most unique situa-tion that you will find in the United

States—you can’t lookat Robinson Countyand say in the normalsense that there areany minorities. It’salmost exactly one-third white, one-thirdIndian, and one-thirdBlack.

How long have youbeen there?

I grew up in Lumber-ton. I went away tocollege. My husbandand I lived away forfive or six years andthen we moved backhere just before my

daughter was born. I graduated fromthis high school. Sitting in my calculusclassroom this year I can look out andsee four faces that are children of peo-ple I graduated from high school with.So I have a very vested interest in theeducation of these children, more sothan I probably would anywhere else,because I feel like a lot of these chil-dren are family.

A page from Teague’s online Geometry course.

@

LINKS ON THIS PAGEVirtual High School—vhs.concord.org

Amazon towards the Yacumama Lodge,which is located on the Yarapa River—atributary of the Amazon. This area hasbeen affected by generations of interactionwith people. Much of the primary oldgrowth is gone, and faster growing sec-ondary growth—the jungle—has taken itsplace. As we hiked through the jungle tofind primary growth forest, which was adays hike from the lodge, I was struck bythe abundance and opportunistic qualityof life in the Amazon— the largest con-tinuous rainforest in the entire world.

Tropical rainforests account for lessthan six percent of the earth’s land surface,and yet they contain over half of all lifespecies. Having been untouched by theice ages, the tropical rainforests areancient ecosystems which have beendeveloping over tens of millions of years.But they are now being destroyed at a rate

of one and a halfacres a second—24hours a day—andthe rate of destruc-tion is increasing. Ifleft unchecked it isestimated thatthese rainforests

will be completely destroyed by sometimein the next century.

Our guide, Octavio, was a native fromone of the tribes near Iquitos. His fatherwas a medicine man, and so he frequentlypointed out trees and plants that hadmedicinal value. Still, amidst the abun-

LINKS ON THIS PAGEInterliant—www.interliant.com MayaQuest—www.mecc.com/maya97/news/new.html Lotus—www.lotus.comSLiC—www.concord.org/proj-slic.html eMate—www.newton.apple.com/newton/ProductInfo/emate/emate300.html


One of ourgoals in the Con-

cord Consortium’s ScienceLearning in Context™ (SLiC) pro-

ject is to influence how portabletechnology is used in education. Thispast summer, while facilitating a series ofworkshops in which we educated teacherson the procedures for using Apple eMateswith probeware in water quality and gen-eral science activities, we learned what aschool in Noblesville, Indiana, was doing.They had purchased eMates and wereinterested in using them in a rainforestcurriculum. Having recently developedcurriculum for the MayaQuest expedition(see @CONCORD, Spring ‘97), we werefascinated by Noblesville’s idea.

As a result, in July I traveled to thePeruvian rainforest near the Rio Yarapa inthe UpperAmazon Basinwith some edu-cators fromNoblesvillewho, throughthe Children’sEnvironmentalTrust (CET),were traveling to the rain-forest anddeveloping a curriculum that employs thepower of portable computing.

We flew into the city of Iquitos, Peru,and took a four hour boat ride up the

The Jungle StoryIntroducing eMate to the Peruvian Rainforest

by Kathryn Costello

businees, and the private and publicsectors. Every week the programmersat Lotus Development Corporationhave listened to reports from our pio-neering teachers and the ConcordConsortium team about Learning-Space, the program that supports VHS.Lotus has taken our input seriouslyand repeatedly come up withchanges and improvements—sometimes overnight.

Now Lotus has agreed to furthersupport the VHS program. With aninflux of over 500 students “hitting” onthe VHS server, we needed some heavyserver support. Lotus has offered us anInterliant “server farm” in Texas, whichmeans around the clock support and

monitoringto prevent“crashes.”

To our knowledge Interliant is thebiggest and best Lotus Notes supportcompany in the world. This generousgesture allows for greater potential suc-cess in the present as well as the future.While presently a research and devel-opment project, VHS aims to supportschools all over theworld in the yearsahead. VHS canbecome a bridgebetween schools of all sizes, in statesand counties with varying resources—an educational opportunity neverbefore imagined.

In the coming months we will alllearn what works in the netcourse envi-ronment—and what needs fine tuning.For now, let me update a phrase firstused by Carla Melucci, VHS ProgramCoordinator—The Future Is Here! @

VHS Updatecontinued from page 4

Technology has the

potential to add

significantly to

students’ experience

in the rainforest.

““

LINKS ON THIS PAGEeMate—www.newton.apple.com/newton/ProductInfo/emate/emate300.html


dance of life, many of the species thatdwell in the rainforest have yet to beidentified and studied, and their medici-nal value has not been realized. The rateof rainforest deforestation may prevent usfrom discovering those healing potentialsand threatens to destroy plants that wenow rely upon to cure hundreds of com-mon illnesses, threatening the publichealth of future generations.

The YacumamaLodge was a seriesof small grass roofhuts and a mainlodge connected bywooden walkways.From here we couldhike to elevatedwooden platformsbuilt around one ofthe tallest trees inthat part of the jun-gle. One hot andhumid afternoonBrian Crosley fromLearning on theEdge and I used an eMate and probewareto test the temperature, light and relativehumidity of the rainforest as we allclimbed to the top of the canopy. As weclimbed the eMate registered a significantincrease in light, an increase in tempera-ture, and a decrease in relative humidity.

Later in the week, while torrentialrains quickly moved in, Brian watched ashis eMate graphed the change in temper-ature and relative humidity as the stormapproached.

In the evening we took a hike throughthe rainforest and the wildlife soundswere incredible. At one point I tried toisolate the myriad sounds coming from alldirections. But it was impossible.

Yet even in this peaceful setting it was

easy to see the effects of increased popula-tion and poor land usage. Just a few yearsago there were so many fish in the YarapaRiver—which at first glance gives theimpression that it is too warm and stag-nant to support much life—that thekeeper of the Yacumama Lodge could tiea net to the dock in the morning and inthe afternoon find it full of fish. However,due to over fishing because of greater

demand by Iquitos fishermen, the areaaround the lodge and surrounding villagesis now nearly depleted.

In Iquitos precious items that havebeen illegally removed from the rainforestsell openly in the market. Much of thehope of preserving this fragile ecosystemdepends upon local villagers who possessthe authority to prevent illegal activities.The Yacumama Lodge and CET aredeveloping awareness programs in sus-tainable development and environmentaleducation geared towards the villagers.

It is a goal of CET to educate youngpeople in our country on rainforest ecolo-gy so that they act as advocates for

preservation and make responsible choicesas adults. With sufficient planning, tech-nology has the potential to addsignificantly to students’ experience in therainforest. Like Brian’s experience mea-suring the approaching storm with hiseMate, students will be able to instantlycreate graphs of changing natural phe-nomena, and they will be able to sharetheir data electronically, both in the rain-

forest and after theyreturn home to theUnited States.

Next year, with thehelp of CET, 35Noblesville studentswill travel to the rain-forest for one weekwith teachers, chaper-ones, and scientists tocarry out rainforeststudies using eMatesand probes. The stu-dents are spending thecurrent year preparingfor the trip. Next year,

after they have traveled to the rainforest,they will spend a year speaking to groupsabout their experience and may also sharetheir experiences over the Web.

At four-thirty one morning we hikedback to the elevated platform in the rain-forest and watched as the sun rose overthe top of the jungle canopy. Barely aword was spoken as the dawn spreadacross the trees. As we watched, we feltthe importance of providing the next gen-eration with the tools and knowledge thatwill inspire them to preserve this magnifi-cent and irreplaceable resource.

The Yucamama Lodge near Iquitos, Peru, is nestled in the midst of the rainforest.

@

LINKS ON THIS PAGEINTEC—www.concord.org/intec/intec.htmlVHS—vhs.concord.org


The International NetcourseTeacher Enhancement Coali-tion™ (INTEC) was the

Concord Consortium’s first netcourseproject. Our second netcourse project, theVirtual High School (VHS), started thisyear. Working with these two projectsover the the past year we’ve learned moreabout course delivery and associated Webtechnology from two different directions.

Both INTEC and VHS share thesame netcourse philosophy of a scheduledasychronous structure. The generalapproach is similar to a seminar. Activi-ties are assigned for a particular period oftime, but the participants do not have atime when they are required to be on-line. However, the two projects havedifferent goals and hence have differentapproaches. This provided interestingdata for each of the projects.

INTEC is an NSF-funded projectproviding a graduate-level professionaldevelopment netcourse for secondarymath and science teachers. Its goals are toincrease participants’ understanding ofinquiry and introduce them to education-al tools which can be used to incorporateinquiry into classroom instruction. This125-hour course is delivered primarilyover the ‘net.

INTEC is investigating the use ofnetcourses as a substitute for residentialprofessional development institutes—delivering a single course to largenumbers of participants—while VHS iscreating a cooperative of schools. VHSschools expand the number of coursesavailable through an existing cooperative

ended to a highly scaffolded (struc-tured) process. INTEC originallypositioned itself for a mid-lineapproach, somewhere between the twopolls. But our discussions showed that ifwe want to provide participants with abetter understanding of inquiry we needto allow them opportunities to explorethe range of inquiry. So there will nowbe course activities where participants canexplore more open-ended inquiry as wellas scaffolded models.

Team-based ApproachThe VHS professional development

experience was of necessity focused onindividual teachers. INTEC has differentgoals, and the project feedback tells usthat the team approach is a significantcomponent in the process. The INTECschedule includes activities which requirethe site-based teams to meet together.Our learning to date indicates that thereis considerable significant discussion thathappens during the face-to-face meetingand then at other times during the schoolday, for example in the faculty room orlunchroom. One of the INTEC goals isdeveloping a community where individu-als can support each other through theprocess of understanding and testing newinstructional approaches.

Graduate Credit Cost Participants in the INTEC project are

able to get graduate credit for participa-tion in the course because we have arelationship with Fitchburg State College

wherein individual classroom teacherscreate their own netcourses and deliverthem to classroom-number groups of stu-dents. VHS’s professional developmentcomponent prepares VHS teachers to cre-ate and teach netcourses.

Recently the INTEC team met toreview data and feedback from the cur-rent INTEC participants, as well asreaction to the VHS project to date.Based on feedback from participants, ourevaluator (Horizon Research, Inc.) andour own reactions, improvements andchanges are planned for the next sessionsof INTEC.

Which Inquiry?Inquiry-based instruction has a num-

ber of different implementationapproaches, ranging from very open- (continued on page 12)

INTEC Reviews Its Current Structure Changes Bring New Technology, Greater Communication, Broader Approach by Raymond Rose

One of the INTEC

goals is developing

a community where

individuals can sup-

port each other.

“ “

Professional Development

International Netcourse Teacher Enhancement Coalitionwww.concord.org/intec/

Funded by the National Science Foundation

Internet-Based Graduate Level Course forSecondary Math and Science Teachers

Increase your knowledge of inquiry- andproject-based instruction

For InformationCall 978-369-4367


LINKS ON THIS PAGELearningSpace—institute.lotus.com

can locate work and discussions specifical-ly marked for their attention, and canassign grades if they choose.

Even with a large number of docu-ments and discussions posted and evolv-ing, students can make sense of them allby views. These views, activated by simplebutton clicks, allow them to sort andselect documents by discussions only, byassignments, by teamwork, in addition toother more common orders like by dateand author.

Who We Are: ProfilesHow can students from 28 schools

from around the country get to knoweach other in the virtual classroom? TheProfiles database provides the way. Stu-dents can tell each other where they’refrom, what their interests are, and evenprovide a picture of themselves.

What Do You Know: The AssessmentManager

This module provides built-in, auto-matic assessments, grading, and gradebook maintenance to assist teachers inappraising their students’ performance.Assessment isn’t limited to simple testgrading, it also allows teachers to evaluatethe value of discussion participation,teamwork involvement, and students’progress on work assignments.

The Assessment Manager also pro-vides for other useful tools including thesurvey, popular with teachers for assortedpurposes. Some use surveys to gatherinformation about students, ask theiropinions about specific points, or to justask how things are going, encouragingfeedback that they’d normally be able tojudge by being in the classroom.

Easy to StartA course designed in LearningSpace

LearningSpacecontinued from page 5

in Massachusetts. They provide graduatecredit when a participant successfullycompletes the course. Since they haveincreased their tuition this year, so mustwe. INTEC is currently worth four grad-uate credits, and costs $240.

Less CalendarTtimeWhile INTEC remains a 125-hour

course, we’ve redesigned a number of theactivities to reduce the overall length ofthe course. Where it was solidly a threesemester long course, it is now possible tocomplete the full course in two semestersand a few weeks of summer activity.(Since the final set of activities is apracticum with participants doing inquiryin their classroom, the summer activitycan’t be scheduled as the wrap-up.)

New Technology INTEC has been using a combina-

tion of servers running a hodgepodge ofsoftware. VHS has tested Lotus’ Learn-ingSpace distributed learning product.INTEC staff feel that LearningSpacematches our needs, and so, at the begin-ning of January we will transfer to thisstate-of-the art product.

INTEC has openings for participantsin October and January. Any team of fourteachers from a site interested in partici-pating in this project should contactRaymond Rose,([email protected])INTEC Project Director.

INTEC Reviews Structurecontinued from page 10

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and presented over the Web doesn’trequire students to possess special techni-cal skills. They need little more than abasic understanding of how to click onlinks in a Web browser, a skill manyalready know or can readily learn in a sin-gle sitting. Once into their course site,they are welcomed with a graphical pageof module choices, with an inviting “StartHere” icon, making it clear exactly howand where to begin. This action takes stu-dents into the Schedule module, whichuses either the outline format or a graphi-cal calendar.

Getting Around and Back AgainLearningSpace is easy to use and

move around in. Assignments can containlinks that take students to multimedia inthe MediaCenter, into an on-going dis-cussion in the CourseRoom, or into anew work document. A constant featureof all the modules is a navigator that dis-plays a bar of icons that allow students toeasily move from one module to another,and views to sort and select by.

On top of that, each module has itsown distinct color that appears within alldocuments.

Helping OutLearningSpace comes with a terrific

on-line Help, and teachers can also add toit, customizing it specifically to theircourse. This gives students the specialfeeling that the Help they read isdesigned specifically for them, and isn’tstraight out of the box.

LearningSpace has proven to be apowerful medium for offering coursesover the Internet. It’s tools and frame-work are at the same time flexible andcomprehensive. @

disciplinary educational research anddevelopment related to the educationaluses of technology.Models and Representations. This strand ofresearch looks at how to design computersoftware and real-world interfaces thatwill help kids think at multiple levels anduse mental constructs and models tounderstand the results of experiments.Understanding may be closely related tothe ability to move between mental repre-sentations and this ability can beenhanced by interacting with softwarethat captures important features of realityand presents them in ways that can bemanipulated and viewed from differentperspectives.Student Inquiry. Technology giveslearners tools and access to collaboratorsand mentors that greatly increase thepossible range and depth of their

inquiries. Using portable computers andprobeware, students in the StudentLearning in Context (SLiC) project takethese tools to the street, subway, home, orfield to investigate questions and phe-nomena on the spot. Students also joinwith scientists in a variety of Student Sci-entist Partnerships that give uniqueinsights about how science works. Kids ofall ages can, for instance, build a simplephotometer and contribute to the Haze-SPAN™ database which will providescientists with valuable data unavailableany other way.

vices to code and hardware development.We provide a T1 line, multiple servers,non-linear video editing, electronicsdesign and prototyping, and softwareapplication development. Particularstrengths include netcourse server sup-port, embedded micro-controller design,and probe development.

Basic Research

Some of the most importantadvances enabled by technology will comefrom the new ways we teach and learnwith technology. Basic learning researchin new technology-rich contexts is neededto explore these opportunities. We arecurrently investigating three strands ofwork in this area.The Center for Innovation in LearningTechnologies (CILT). This new, distributedCenter (see article, page 1) will providemuch-needed leadership in basic, inter-


The Concord Consortium entereda third phase of its developmentthis summer. Back in 1994 we

started with a single project, Hands OnPhysics™ (HOP). A year ago we reacheda second phase with four major projects.Now we have matured into an organiza-tion where important innovations for theeducational use of technology can be sup-ported from basic research throughlarge-scale implementation.

To do this we have created a strongtechnological core group and expertise inresearch, curriculum development, pilottesting, and dissemination. In this matrixan innovator can take on a strand of workthat might require a decade to complete,obtain funding through various channels,and move that strand along from incep-tion to implementation. Thus, we think ofour projects in relation to larger strands ofwork that go through phases. The follow-ing describes these phases and maps wherethe major strands are currently focused.

Core TechnologyThe defining feature of all our work is

that every project is possible only becauseof new information technologies. Becauseour projects draw from advances in tech-nology, we have centralized ourtechnology development and supportefforts.The Technology Group provides the coretechnologies for all parts of the ConcordConsortium, from basic information ser-

New Programs and IdeasAnticipate Next MilleniumReaching Out to Innovative Projects, Goals and Ideasby Robert Tinker

LINKS ON THIS PAGEHOP—www.concord.org/proj-hop.html SLiC—www.concord.org/proj-slic.htmlHazeSPAN—www.concord.org/haze


The defining feature

of all our work is that

every project is

possible only because

of new information

technologies.


LINKS ON THIS PAGEHOP—www.concord.org/proj-hop.html www.berkeley.edu

Innovative CurriculaThe spread of computer and network-

ing makes it possible for students tounderstand new topics that are now toocomplex or abstract. We have identifiedthree content areas where technologies areparticularly valuable in enabling new con-tent that must be part of the curriculumof the next millenium.Education for Sustainable Future will cre-ate, test, and implement technology-enhanced curricula that support sustain-able development—increased awarenessof the relatedness of phenomena in thenatural world, resource limitations, plan-ning for more educated and responsiblecare and reduced use of limited resources,and decision-making at all levels toimplement and evaluate new plans. Toappreciate these complex issues, we need anew generation of technology that sup-ports collaborative simulations, modeling,and role-playing.The International Alliance explores the useof networking to create international col-laborations among educators and learners.We are working toward an internationalcurriculum generated by the best educa-tors worldwide, using a variety oftechnologies to overcome language barri-ers, with a special focus on internationalissues that will be increasingly critical forplanetary well-being.Technology Education. The current chasmbetween vocational and academic educa-tion creates unnecessary content andsocial distinctions that harm young peo-ple. We envision a rich mixture oflanguage arts, mathmatical, scientific, andtechnological subject matter that will helpdefine a new approach to technical educa-tion. HOP, by using a technology-enriched project approach, represents aprototype of a range of possible courses.

Pilot Implementations

Once a set of technologies and educa-tional strategies are sufficientlywell-developed, they are ready for pilotimplementation. Pilots are essential toavoid pitfalls before full-scale implemen-tations are attempted. In large-scale pilotprojects, we can work out the kinks andexplore the organizational and policyissues that must be addressed prior tolarger implementations.Netcourse Central. Netcourses, completecourses offered over the Internet, are justbecoming feasible on a large scale. We areundertaking major pilot tests of netcours-es in INTEC and VHS. The INTECproject promises a model for sophisticatedteacher professional development at halfthe cost of competing models. The VHSgreatly increases the range and quality ofcourses available at participating schoolsby creating low-cost, sustainable schoolcooperatives that share netcourses. Thenetcourse idea has important implicationsto many other areas of education.Ubiquitous Computing. It is only a fewyears before Internet access and pocketcomputers are so inexpensive that everylearner and parent have easy access toportable networked computers. This couldrevolutionize education and permit awholesale reorganization of the curricula.The technical capacity for this will happenlong before we know how to utilize itseducational capacity. This strand will studypilot tests of possible large scale changesin schools and communities which ubiqui-tous computers would support.Innovative Models. Most instructionalmodels that are currently in use on theWeb are relatively direct adaptations ofexisting educational structures. Are webeing blinded by the past and creating thenetwork equivalent of a horseless car-riage? Can the technology permit a newdesign that would have far more learningpotential? This strand of work hopes to

pilot test novel learning environments,such as NetAdventure™, community-wide learning, and virtual museums.

DisseminationOur primary work involves pushing

the frontier, but we want our research tobe expanded and used, so we have orga-nized two strands to get the informationout and provide a mechanism for partner-ships.Information Services. This newsletter, ourWeb pages, and a growing collection ofbooks and reports represent a major effortto share quickly and in depth what we arelearning and to provide forums for sharinginformation in specialized areas such asprobeware and netcourses.Concord Educational Services. We are plan-ning a new effort to provide services basedon our R&D. These services are takingthe form of workshops, netcourses, con-sulting, small projects, and commercialventures.

It is essential that we retain many ofthe virtues of being small. We plan to dothis by creating quasi-independent Cen-ters. It would be a mistake, however, toorganize ourselves into the five areas listedabove, because any single body of workmust be able to move through these phas-es. Instead, we are creating clusters ofstrands that have similarities. We nowhave only one Center, the EducationalTechnology Lab led by Raymond Rose.We will soon create a Center for Sustain-able Futures and an International Center.

This coming decade will see a hugeincrease in interest in educational tech-nologies. Educators, parents and policymakers will demand research-based con-tent that begins to exploit the revolution-ary technologies that are increasingly com-monplace. We hope that our combinationof Centers and functional orientation willhelp us produce the needed leadership andgive us the institutional flexibility torespond to these demands.

New Programs and Ideascontinued from page 13

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Today there is a crisis in researchand development in education asa whole, particularly in the area of

the applications of technology to educa-tion. It is commonly expected that thecontinued exponential increase of perfor-mance in information technology, thehuge interest in network technologies, ourincreasing understanding of cognition,and the widespread concern for educa-tional quality, standards, and technologyutilization are combining to make whatcould be a ten-year educational revolutionled by technology.

Unless we greatly increase the researchand development effort devoted to explor-ing new educational paradigms and thetechnologies that will make them possible,educational change is unlikely. R&D isurgently needed to provide guidance andhard data about how to use technologyand what mistakes to avoid. Without it,educators will increasingly wonder what todo with their newly-wired schools. Theywill regret the huge costs required, andthey will be attacked by angry parentswho see the unsupported promises oftechnology unrealized. Legislators will befrustrated about the lack of hard data onwhich to base multi-billion dollar deci-sions, and public support will dry up. As aresult, unless there are substantial changes,future generations of children will not befully prepared for their increasingly com-plex, resource-limited world.

At the same time as more R&D isneeded, our current educational R&Dcommunity is increasingly unable toaddress these problems because funding isdecreasing. Currently, less than 0.1% ofthe total spent on education is in R&D,an amount insufficient to adapt to thechanges technology causes. Many indus-tries spend a far greater percentage onresearch. The pharmaceutical industrydevotes a whopping 30% of its revenue onR&D, or 300 times as much as educationrelative to its size. A recent presidentialAdvisory Committee Report called foreducational R&D of $1.5 billion per year.

Current educational R&D in technol-ogy consists mostly of individualresearchers creating a prototype hardwareor software innovation, testing it in someclassrooms and turning it into a product.Sometimes that product generates a newline of improved educational technology.My work with Probeware and Paul Hor-witz’s work with GenScope™ areexamples of this kind of R&D. While thissort of research is important, it leavesunexplored too many important questions.

An example of useful R&D would beongoing projects that work with schooldistricts and colleges to saturate them withcomputers and networking to see whetherfamiliarity with technological tools sup-ports huge changes in the curriculum.Another example is using probeware andconstruction experiences in the fourthgrade which would to permit the teachingof algebra in the sixth grade and dynamicmodeling by the eighth. Primary studentscould learn about other languages and cul-tures through international collaborativeproblem-solving. Middle school studentscould reenact critical moments in historyand the future through online role playing.Upon this broad foundation, we couldmake huge changes throughout the sec-ondary and tertiary curriculum. Studentscould grapple with interesting, complexissues like sustainable development. Withadequate funding, we could document thestudent learning and institutional dynam-ics that facilitated and impeded thesechanges.

Complex R&D of this sort is out ofthe question right now. Projects of thisscale require hardware no school can cur-rently afford, software that does not exist,funding for at least five years, a huge teamof curriculum developers, and an interdis-ciplinary group of researchers.

I firmly believe that more R&D col-laborations like the Center for Innovationin Learning Technologies (see page 1) areneeded to understand what works andwhat doesn’t in educational technology.Let’s find out before it’s too late.

PerspectiveAddressing the Crisis in

Educational R&Dby Robert Tinker

R&D is urgently

needed to provide

guidance and

hard data about

how to use

technology.

“ “

LINKS ON THIS PAGEGenScope—copernicus.bbn.com/genscope/ Probeware—www.concord.org/pub.htmlAdvisory Committe Report—www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/NSTC/PCAST/k-12ed.html

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The Concord ConsortiumEducational Technology Lab

37 Thoreau StreetConcord, MA 01742

978-369-4367 • FAX 978-371-0696

More and Better ProbesThe idea of attaching probes to computers burst upon the edu-cational horizon in 1975 when Robert Tinker developed atemperature grapher using the KIM-1 microcomputer. Today,probeware spans heart monitors to carbon dioxide detectors toseismometers to photometers. The list is endless. Since thereare so many options and vendors for micro-computer basedlab (MBL) probeware and curriculum, the Concord Consortiumwill be providing a unifying MBL Web location to link all theparticipants in the field. We hope, with the help of educatorsand vendors, to make this site a clearinghouse for information,ideas, and reviews of everything related to probeware.

www.concord.org/mbl/links.html

Sustainable FutureThe recently coined term “sustainable development” encom-passes a group of issues that everyone must understand if weare to create the environmental, economic and social coopera-tion society needs in the 21st century and beyond.Understanding what sustainability means requires thinkingabout the complex issues of resource use, allocation, andrenewal as well as the responsibility society has to make theseresources available to future generations. The Concord Consor-tium will provide educational, technical, and content expertiseto a new sustainable development education project devel-oped and piloted in nine Georgia schools. The Cobb CountyPublic Schools in Georgia will manage the project on behalf ofa national consortium of schools, educational innovators, and

corporations. Lockheed Martin, BellSouth, AT&T, IBM, theCobb Chamber of Commerce, and other corporations willcontribute substantial human, technical, and financialresources. The K-12 materials developed in the project willbe disseminated throughout eight Southern districts throughworkshops and netcourses, and will be placed on the Web.

[email protected]

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