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the TrAC Home PageTo cite this article please refer to the printed edition of TrAC: Trends Anal. Chem. 15 (1996) 445
Perhaps two of the most used current media expressions are "information superhighway" and the "World Wide Web." Both of these terms inspire exciting visions of communication and information access hitherto unimagined. However, although the WWW, increasing by leaps and bounds, has over 15 million on-line users, the excitement level in the education communities has been relatively subdued. The situation is such that even intriguing possibilities of using the Net in education are met with skepticism by many, and disdain by others [1]. This attitude has some justification in that among the burgeoning number of Web sites devoted to education most are primarily information repositories for course notes, syllabi, and unique graphics. In this mode, the Web is rightly criticized as being nothing more than a fancy text book, offering for the most part the advantage of hi-tech multi-media convenience to its users [2]. Although newer Web technologies, such as Java etc. [3], promise to make the Web more interactive and provide for interactive visualization of images, they for the most part will mainly extend the convenience factor for the distribution of multimedia and software that could easily be made available to students via existing, non-Web, channels of dissemination. These observations bring into sharp focus the two overriding questions that educators must address: 1) Where does the advantage of the Web lie? and 2) how do educators take full advantage of the rich resources and pedagogical potential of the WWW?
The purpose of this article is to put some of the advantages that the Web provides into the context of chemical education for all chemists, not just analytical chemists. We will propose a model for the incorporation of the WWW and on-line activities into current educational practices. In doing this, it is important to keep in mind the effect that the media itself has on the process of education. As Donald Norman points out, in "Things That Make Us Smart" [4]
"Technologies are not neutral. They affect the course of society, aiding some actions, impeding others, independent of the morality or necessity of those actions. Technology also has its side effects, both physical and mental. Technology can aid as much as it can detract. It is really up to us, both as individuals and as society, to decide which course we shall take."
Two additional important questions for educators are: 1) How does using the WWW change the process of learning? and 2) What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a system? In answering these questions we would like to emphasize a more student-oriented approach to using the Web, i.e. an interactive mode in which student learning is enhanced, and not a passive venue by which a teacher's distribution of information is amplified. This type of active/interactive format for learning has been, for the most part, absent in chemical education despite the fact that this type of learning scenario permits students to master chemical concepts while developing the wide spectrum of critical skills essential for future career development.
Information at our finger tips. First, it is important to discuss the impact and practical advantages provided by the Internet to students and faculty in a chemistry course. The first advantage is the ease with which information is provided to students. Through the Web students may have more written material from the instructor who can now easily customize and update course materials and study guides. This, however, fosters no fundamental change in the education process. A second more important advantage accrues from using hypertext markup language, HTML. Translation of course materials into HTML format allows information to be provided to students on a need to know basis, i.e. in by a "just in time" delivery of curriculum materials [5,6,7]. This format is so effective because it permits information to be accessed "in context" at that point in time when the student is most likely to be ready to connect the new information to their immediate study goals. This type of webbing or layering of information in a hypertext format also makes non-linear access to concepts possible so that students can move within the content in all directions as needed at the time learning is taking place.
Too much of a good thing? More and more faculty are making materials available for students on-line. Their students then can get as much information as they want, whenever they want. However, if the information provided is text-based, a typical student reaction may be to simply download it, print it, and place it in a notebook or binder. While this may be very convenient, it causes no essential change in the student view of the course. In fact, the instructor, in a desire to provide complete information to the student, might easily overwhelm the student with information. This is particularly likely for the fastidious student who tends to copy any statement made by the instructor. Such a student would remain a passive, and perhaps frustrated, spectator of the information dished out by the instructor[8].
With the Internet it is also practical to provide multimedia (video clips, etc.) to students. The use of multimedia in chemical education has been studied by Cassanova et al. [9] who reported that students do not respond well to the passive use of visual media in the classroom. He advocates including multimedia-based exercises in classes when multimedia presentations are used. Thus it is important to realize, that while the Web has the capability to distribute massive amounts of information easily, this ability may result in an increase in passive student behavior. The specific danger is that use of the Internet will take students from the "if I copy the notes I understand it," to the "if I download the notes, I will understand it" attitude.
Students are, of course, not restricted to the information provided by their course instructors. Search engines, like Yahoo® and Lycos® are powerful tools that greatly shorten the time required to obtain information on a subject. Students with questions can explore the Web for answers, and are likely to find relevant information, as well as unexpected data sources that can provide a richer context to their original question. This power does not come without risks as many documents found on the Web have not been reviewed or verified, and must be treated with some suspicion. On the other hand WWW information changes rapidly so that older or brief texts and sets of data often are replaced with more complete versions. The dynamics of the Web is such that pages come and go, they are not constant, like those in books, and so the student must develop critical thinking skills to cope with the fluid nature of Web information.
Truly, the greatest advantage of the Internet is the enhanced ability to communicate with others or with a group of colleagues. Communication with a group is not a passive endeavor; this makes the Web a place where active learning takes place. The advantages for students involved in group activities are:
These advantages allow an increase in the amount of active participation provided to any one student. We will examine each of these separately.
Asynchronicity. There are several advantages to asynchronous communication. The first and most obvious is the flexibility with which communication inserts itself into an individual's lifestyle. This is very important because it allows the student to schedule class participation time so that he/she doesn't have to weigh one important obligation against another. This might serve to lower the stress level for students and enhance their learning. A more significant consequence is that asynchronous communication allows time for reflection by the student. It is reflection that makes a potentially passive communication medium like the WWW into an active environment. An important first step to exploring the possibilities of asynchronous media is being taken by the Asynchronous Learning network project sponsored by the Sloan Institute [10].
Remote locations. The primary advantage one may see in the availability of a geographically-dispersed communication network is the ability of students to learn from home. In chemistry this advantage is mitigated by the technical requirements of the profession. Students need to learn manipulative skills and this requires a centrally-located laboratory. Nevertheless remote access still can be a great boon for the chemistry student under the appropriate circumstances especially when this increases the number of people with whom the student can interact. These include interactions with groups of students at different schools, experts within the profession, or faculty at other universities. This is important when it is considered that the average advanced chemistry class has only 10 or so students. Access to a larger number of people may give the student alternative ways of looking at the same problem. This in turn creates a more realistic view of the profession. Lastly, a larger interactive group can provide significant feedback to the student in an environment that students may consider less judgmental compared to that found during exams, or in-class discussions.
The Advantage of Multiplexing. The multiplexing advantage of the Internet is found in the way the medium allows many different conversations to occur at once. This requires that a student, in principle, be able to sort out and react to the relevant information threads while ignoring those that seem, at the time, superfluous. This skill usually is not part of the repertoire of the typical college student. Learning to sift information is a significant critical thinking developmental step. Being selective and implementing information discrimination criteria are important learning goals for young chemists. Such skills provide a powerful advantage permitting students to adapt a discussion or Web search to suit their own specific educational needs, their background, etc. In this scenario individualized student learning goals are met; there is no need to compromise the goals of one student at the expense of those of another student. The students using this approach are well on their way to becoming independent life-long learners.
Chemistry students require a wide variety of skills as they prepare for careers beyond the halls of academia. Some of these include being quick learners, critical thinkers, problem solvers, computer literate, and articulate in both verbal and written expression. Furthermore they need experiences that will promote self-confidence so that they can rely on their own rational thought processes for future job-related non-textbook type problems or situations. These needs contrast sharply with the dominant classroom format found in most chemistry courses, i.e. passive student presence in lecture presentation dominated classes. Figure 1 shows the information flow underpinning this format. In this format the textbook author is the expert who filters the information and organizes it for both faculty and students. Faculty further distill the information in lectures and construct the assessment and evaluation schemes by which students are assigned grades.
The Internet provides a mechanism for alternative methodologies that will become increasingly feasible with growing network capacity and flexibility. The Information flow made possible by the Internet mirrors the basic principles of education system design shown in Figure 2. In an education system, skills, knowledge, and attitudes of the students and teacher combine with resources such as texts, laboratories, and computer networks to produce students and teachers with better skills, knowledge and attitudes. In this model collaboration within an interactive networked learning environment supports the mutual scholarly efforts of a learning/teaching community consisting of teams of teachers and students. Figure 3 shows the overall scheme that underpins a networked learning model for an education system [11]. The most important element of the educational system design plan, feedback, is clearly evident in the network model. Each member of the learning community is enriched by the interactive process.
The paradigm of education then is affected by the very nature of an interactive communication network. Computer networks were designed with the purpose of collaboration in mind, and are therefore ideal for the implementation of collaborative learning activities. To reap the full benefit of the Internet it is essential to implement many more wide area collaborative activities that use the Internet as a vehicle of communication in aid of learning among students, rather than only as a means dispensing more information to them.
In summary the Internet facilitates collaboration, and reflection through the following:
Mistakes to avoid. The advantages outlined above do not fit well with the traditional concept of chemical education, as outlined in Figure 1. Instructors who wish to use the Internet will find little or no difference when traditional educational methods are applied directly to the Web. In fact, the Web will likely impede the educational process when applied in the "traditional mode." There are some common traps that we recommend instructors avoid.
First, the WWW should not be viewed only as a place to collect and disseminate curriculum materials or course content information. For example, books elicit reflection because the user selects passages to read at his or her own pace, and because some of the information requires the user to consider what the author means to say. If an instructor posts on the Web what the students consider to be the specific relevant information for a course, and the process of searching for the information, and organizing it is eliminated, then the Web is effectively a copying machine, and will likely be trivialized by the students. The traditional reflective activities elicited by words and ideas on a printed page must be built into Web pages for students. Information is not enough; engagement with the material is essential.
Second, many instructors run the risk of using computers only as fancy page turners, or viewers. It is easy to be charmed by the ease with which high quality graphics can be incorporated into teaching, especially when made available to all of your students on the Web by the click of a mouse. Unfortunately, this just reinforces the traditional passive mode, and students won't even need to reflect on the image to redraw or label it. Lastly, we should not expect that courses relying heavily on the Internet for information fit into a traditional rigid format. This is a difficult notion for most chemists since it requires that we reject the natural urge to organize, especially the curriculum, with each concept fit neatly into place and built perfectly on one another like bricks in a wall. It is inevitable that different students will acquire different things by using the Internet as an educational tool. It is also inevitable that the curricula of Web-enhanced courses will be richer yet less structured than traditional courses.
A new approach. How then does the chemistry teacher take full advantage of the resources that the Internet provides for education? We suggest that chemists should use the Internet to create learning communities. The characteristics of such a community can be inferred from a list of the common features of living systems provided by the The Center for the Study of Community in Santa Fe, New Mexico [12]. These are adapted here for a community interested in learning chemistry. They are as follows:
Interdependence of members. No one instructor is an expert in everything, we must depend on one another to expand our horizons. We must also rely on our junior colleagues (our students) to force us through their questions to reexamine the concepts we are already familiar with.
Nourishing relationships. We must be interested in the success of all students in the community, and the advancement of all instructors through collegial support.
Structure and pattern. The scientific method, and scientific principles provide a pattern and structure for the community. From these we can derive the ethics supporting that which is acceptable and that which is suspect.
Sustainability through feedback loops and recycling of materials. Materials used for chemical education are continually being updated. In this model an instructor would receive feedback from a wide range of students and colleagues concerning any learning activity created by the instructor. As shown above in Figure 3, the Web provides a mechanism for feedback and will allow continual updating and improvement of materials, etc. In this model the students would also have a community to provide feedback that allows them to improve their work.
Energy flow and cycles. The community would be responsive to the time frame of the students. Courses typically last between 3 - 4 months, and students study chemistry for only short periods of time. The changing nature of the students provide the life blood for any community whose purpose is education. The constant cycling in and out of students through a responsive community will not only provide the best education for those students, but also insure that the instructors remain up to date.
Partnership, co-evolution and co-learning. In the ideal case each member of the community, both faculty and students, will grow in their depth and breadth of chemistry knowledge.
Diversity through a variety of relationships and/or approaches. The learning community will consist of a number of instructors who will take unique approaches to chemistry education.
Flexibility and permeable boundaries. The community would be ever changing. Members would come and go at will, as they felt compelled. The group would grow or shrink as a need is perceived. It would also adapt, i.e. focus on different topics to suit the needs of its members. Information generated by those outside the community would be respected and incorporated into the community
Networks that are self-organizing, self-renewing. Smaller groups would form within the main community. These small groups would use the resources of the larger group to aid in detailed collaborative work. These small groups would form as certain interests or needs developed, and then dissipate once a study was completed. Hopefully this would lead to more collaborative work.
The features of a learning community listed above are essential for full functionality. While each one of these features exists to some degree within what we may think of as the chemical education community, it is safe to say that each of these aspects could be made stronger within small focused groups, actively engaged in the process of chemistry education.
Potential barriers to learning communities. There are significant impediments to optimum functioning within the traditional learning environment. Quite often the student is disenfranchised from the present type of learning community. This fact seems surprising considering that it is our dedication to the student that provides the motivation for our work. Nevertheless it is easier to work outside of the reach of students so that we do not run the risk of having our well-organized plans dashed to pieces by probing student questions, or even worse, by their indifference. We may argue that the student is naive, and cannot be expected to direct his or her own education and take part in an active learning community. This has some validity; however, we cannot overlook the importance of student feedback for adjusting and optimizing teaching methods. Any method we use must be justifiable to the students and thus they must be an integral part of any learning community.
A second difficulty in creating an optimum learning community is personalization of the curriculum. Educators all too often find security in the idea that our organization of a given set of information is superior to the organization provided by others. Our singular view of certain information will never be appropriate for every student. Indeed, even those students who do well under one teaching philosophy can benefit from viewing an alternative. We must be willing to recognize the power that collaboration with others gives to educators, and be willing to funnel this power into the education of students. The concept of your or my student has no place in a learning community. They are our students.
The last, and probably most significant barrier to creating an optimum learning community in chemistry is the desire to have impeccable organization during the class. Most instructors embrace orderly, timed instruction. In fact, the promoters of collaborative learning in the classroom have pointed to this as a source of the rejection of this teaching strategy. Applying the internet to education will likely have an amplifying effect on the chaotic nature of collaborative learning. We do not take lightly the controversy that may arise from the idea that students will (and should) have individualized learning goals within a chemistry learning community. Instructors who incorporate collaborative, on-line activities into their classes must appreciate the chaos inherent in the situation. However, it is this very chaos that will allow the disconnected student to become connected. An on-line learning community will require that the instructor be interacting to solve individual problems, and acting as a guide for students, to the exclusion of most other activities. The students themselves will act as co-instructors through their questions and interaction with each other [13].
In this article we have pointed to a number of issues faced by those who are interested in using the Internet as a learning tool in their classroom. We have focused on those deeper issues that affect the nature of the education process, rather than the mechanics of using the Internet. It is clear that the Internet is a powerful tool for improving the ability of people to work collaboratively, and as such should be implemented in the classroom. This in turn requires that a collaborative mode of instruction be used for successful integration of the Internet into the chemistry classroom. We can do more and do it better if we work together to enrich the learning experiences for our students. Collaboration starts with the instructors.
TJZ acknowledges that partial support for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education through grant DUE #9354473 and by the New Traditions project at the University of Wisconsin - Madison through the National Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education through grant DUE #9455928.
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