Sharen Arakaki, Advanced Technology Research, OITS, DOEIn March of 1993, a historic first took place in Hawaii's Department of Education (DOE). Full Internet access became available to the students and teachers in the classroom. While some teachers adopted the Internet resources for research to update existing lessons, students and teachers joined collaborative projects throughout the world.
Internet K-12 is being developed to meet the information needs in the K-12 environment. Access to electronic resources provide powerful educational tools that can greatly enhance teaching and learning. To date, however, Internet resource tools have had minimal impact on K-12 education because they have not been widely accessible in DOE classrooms. Reasons for this are many, including the lack of funds for equipment, applications and limited knowledge about Internet by most teachers.
For the over five years, teachers and students have used a DOE statewide electronic mail system for information exchange to enhance learning. The Distance Learning Technology electronic mail (DLTMail) and Hawaii CALLS (HICALLS) systems brought an array of interest from the students.
An explosion of learning projects flooded the systems which limited access to classroom accounts and private teacher accounts. Students demanded more access to electronic mail projects throughout the world. The students wanted current information and exchange ideas with students on a global context. With the world being bombarded with information, teachers and parents wanted to continue to capture the attention of students yet not limit them to electronic mail.
The student's challenging needs were met by legislative funding to meet the goal of providing national and international network services for K-12.
This pilot project seeks to:
Rather than struggling to learn what works and what doesn't while building an Internet access ramp, DOE sought and developed a partnership with the University of Hawaii's Computing Center (UHCC). UHCC currently has a T-1 connection to the NASA Ames Research Center (NASA Science Internet). TheT-1 interconnects into the physical T-3 backbone infrastructure created bythe National Information Infrastructure (NII). UHCC's internetworking expe rtise since 1988 and its existing infrastructure proved to be a cost-effective test environment for the DOE. It allowed for faster installation and implementation along with immediate access to full Internet resources.
If Internet resources are to meet its potential as a K-12 educational resource, teachers must learn how to effectively use them as a teaching and learning tool. Teachers felt that appropriate resources from the Internet combined with adapted instructional design models can be effective in the learning environment. In addition, scenarios involving both teacher inservice and student team training as a means of expanding the use of electronic resources are being offered to the teams.
A call for teacher volunteers was solicited over the current electronic mail systems to participate in a summer course. This informal request has some advantages as teachers identified themselves as using innovative instructional tools to integrate in traditionally taught lessons. A disadvantage was that we do not know how effective our training will be with future novice email.
Thirty five teachers began with the use of Internet email then experimenting other Internet tools. The summer training required 48 face-to-face hours at the UHCC lab and 48 online hours in June of 1993. The course, "Observation on Electronic Networks" had an overall goal to locate appropriate resources for K-12 applications.
The objectives sought to:
Teachers and their students, second through twelve grade, are participating in this pilot. There are representatives from each of the seven districts statewide. Support for the classrooms comes from site librarians, technology coordinators and administrators . Each teacher will train at least three others and involve the classroom students. We believe that teachers involved with the telecommunications activities are best suited to evaluate available resources for use with their students.
This pilot will be evaluated in May of 1994.
To date, the students have:
Technical Information
IN K-12 is just one of the many applications that has come to fruition in the race to ubiquitous access in the global context with a personal focus. As the teachers become more comfortable with computers and the telecommunications environment, their endless questions become more sophisticated. We have begun to research the most asked question: "Can a cost-effective, user-friendly interface with faster transmission along with video transfer be developed?" This question prompted the research of bringing the Internet directly to the desktop. Along with connectivity we are reviewing software such as Turbo Gopher, The GUIDE and CU-SEE Me reflecting the needs where more than one user has access to any given workstation.
The DOE-UHCC partnership has provided a significant foundation upon which the DOE has begun building its own ramp to the proposed national digital superhighway. Through continued partnerships, administrative support, legislative support and financial backing, this temporary roadway can evolve into a multi-lane superhighway. With the department's vision for information technology, students and educators are empowered to forge new links in the development of virtual learning environments.
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