(Summary of AAEGT National Conference presentation, Melbourne, August 2004)

IF THE INTERNET IS THE ANSWER, WHAT ARE THE QUESTIONS?

Stan Bailey

 

Principles guiding provision

•   Don’t do for children what they can do for themselves

•   Maker’s ‘big seven’: faster pacing, variety, open-endedness, complexity, transformation, real problems, real audiences

•   Teach prerequisite skills, for transfer/transformation.

Challenges facing the gifted

•   Peer pressure to underachieve/hide ability

•   Slow pace of teaching

•   Finding like-minded people (and having ideas accepted)

•   Finding challenging tasks/appropriate information.

The 8 great gripes of gifted kids

See: http://www.naesp.org/ContentLoad.do?contentId=865

Virtual schooling

Despite the somewhat futuristic and avant-garde image of virtual schooling, some experts lament that curriculum like K12’s is anything but innovative. One recent study funded by the Education Policy Studies Laboratory found that the K12 curriculum was frequently age-inappropriate, and was more focused on memorising than developing concepts.

‘We wanted online classes to be as much like a face-to-face class as possible in terms of the good qualities - the collaborative nature and the social aspects,’ explains Ruth Adams, the academic dean at Virtual High School in Maynard, Mass. And that’s what Kacey S. says she’s found. She was sceptical, and a little shy, when she enrolled in her first online course last year, on To Kill a Mockingbird. Now, she’s an eager participant in a young-adult literature class, and says she often gets to know the teacher and students better than in her traditional classes. In a discussion of racism, she got perspectives from students in New York and Philadelphia she’d never heard before. ‘Forks is a small town, and we don’t get very many people,’ she says. ‘Getting on the Internet, and thinking these people are thousands of miles away from me and I get to talk to them - that’s really cool.’

Amanda Paulson (2004) Virtual schools, real concerns. The Christian Science Monitor. 4 May.

At: http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0504/p11s02-legn.html

Online opportunities for the gifted

•   Access to experts/specialist knowledge (overcoming geographic isolation)

•   Access to like-minded students/adults (overcoming geographic and social isolation)

•   Gifted students are taken seriously (regardless of age, gender, culture, disability)

•   Economy of scale (eg one mentor for large group)

•   It facilitates real world problem solving (contributing to society) + consideration of how decisions affect others (ethical considerations)

•   Ready made enrichment/extension/examples/competitions are available (but need for clear, defensible rationale)

•   Asynchronous communication/interaction is allowed, encouraging reflection/deep learning.

(SB)

+

•   A student’s product may easily be transmitted to an outside audience, to invite feedback or critical analysis.

•   Can expose students to more blatant and pervasive commercial and political bias than traditional textbooks. This reflects the real world and provides for development of student skills in critical analysis and perceptive judgement.

•   Students may be more comfortable questioning or disputing information offered through a computer than by a class teacher.

•   With online provision students’ risk taking is of a far more private nature.

•   Asynchronous interaction allows students to respond when they feel ready, to reflect without pressure and to continue contributions from home (vs artificial  time constraints at school)

(Ann McEwin)

Need for rationale

But what I find most important, is that whatever kind of enrichment or extension activity teachers design for gifted students, as Tomlinson (1995) stresses, they must before anything else, have ‘a clear Rationale’ for the activity. This, to me, is the centrepiece of any ‘good’ online or classroom enrichment and is key to avoiding ‘busy work’. If teachers know why gifted students are completing the online enrichment activity, how this activity relates to the core curriculum, how the activity will extend the gifted child, in what direction and why this is important, what they want the students to get out of it by the end, then the activity, has a much greater chance of success. (Cathi W., secondary teacher)

Research on ICT

Much of the research finds that ICT has an important role in motivating pupils and raising self-esteem and confidence. It also indicates that ICT can enhance pupil interaction, verbalisation and involvement in collaborative learning. Some of the most pronounced benefits have been gained in schemes that have given students portable devices for their own use.

British Educational Communications and technology Agency (2002) The impact of ICT on teaching and learning: What the evidence shows. Coventry: BECTa. p.3.

Hardware

Duke University is giving free Apple iPods to its 1,650 incoming freshmen when school starts next month. Duke bought iPods as mini-computers for educational uses, such as listening to lectures, practicing foreign languages and studying dialects. ‘There’s nothing the student can do with an iPod that he or she couldn’t do with a laptop,’ says Duke Vice President Tracy Futhey. ‘But the mobility and power in that small package means they’ll most likely take it with them everywhere.’ Duke is creating a special Web site for students that will offer downloads of lessons and sales of digital music. Students are drawn to portable technologies, says Ross Rubin, analyst at market research firm NPD Group: ‘We saw the transition from desktops to notebooks on campuses among students. This is the next step: to be able to have access to course material away from the classroom.’

Jefferson Graham, USA Today - Accessed: 22/7/04

At: http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040721/6382192s.htm

Computer use at home

Emerging evidence from ImpaCT2 found primary-­school children spent three times longer on ICT at home compared with school, and secondary pupils spent four times longer.

British Educational Communications and technology Agency (2002) The impact of ICT on teaching and learning: What the evidence shows. Coventry: BECTa. p.7.

Inter-school communication

Milford High School Principal John Brucato is in Blackpool, England, this week to finalize an agreement for a new program that will allow students from the two communities to share a classroom despite being on different continents. The idea is for Blackpool and Milford students, through videoconferencing equipment, to be able literally to take classes together starting in the fall. American students, for example, will be able to learn about the Revolutionary War from an English perspective; British students would get the American perspective. ‘It gives you an opportunity to do a comparative analysis - our experience and their experience and what we shared, instead of just looking at an aspect of history from one point of view,’ Brucato said.

Franco Ordonez, The Boston Globe, June 24, 2004. At: Boston.com             

The Giraffe Heroes Program

The K-9 versions of the Giraffe Heroes Program come in three editions, K-2, 3-5 and 6-9. Each version takes students through a natural three-stage learning process:

Stage 1: Hear the Story

Kids take in the stories of Giraffe heroes, people who have stuck their necks out for the common good.

Stage 2: Tell the Story

They take what they’ve learned and become more active, doing research in their textbooks, in media, in their communities, and in their families, looking for more real heroes.

Stage 3: Become the Story

Moved by the stories they’ve absorbed, the kids emulate Giraffes, choosing a problem they care about and creating their own service project to address that problem. The story of their project then becomes one that can inspire others.

At: http://www.giraffe.org/k12_10.html

Accessed: 3/8/04

Latin lessons go hi-tech

In addition to language skills, students learn about Roman civilisation. Topics include Roman society, gladiators, local government and elections. An impressive range of online resources, such as audio and video files, interactive games and quizzes, means that students can progress at their own pace.

As Mr Darby is new to Latin, he tries to stay one step ahead of his students. But he is happy to admit he is a beginner. ‘I’m quite honest about the fact that I’m not far ahead of them. Yes, I make mistakes sometimes, but this doesn’t worry them. I think it reminds students that making mistakes is one of the ways we learn and progress.’

Nick Kreel is head of modern foreign languages at Patcham High and often helps out at the club. He believes knowledge of Latin can help students improve across the curriculum. ‘Latin can help in so many areas of education and employment: law, medicine, botany, pharmacy - just to name a few,’ he said. ‘So many aspects of life are being ‘dumbed down’, but this is the complete opposite. Studying Latin encourages students to be analytical, to improve their knowledge of where words and languages come from. It really makes them think.’

Cambridge Online Latin Project is a joint venture between the Cambridge Schools Classics Project, Cambridge Univ. Press and Granada Learning.

Janet Murray, BBC News:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/3587147.stm

Published: 01/04/2004

Most successful uses of technology in history and social studies

The US Department of Education argues that the most successful educational uses of computer technology in history and social studies fall into three broad categories:

• inquiry-based learning,

• bridging reading and writing, and,

• making student work public.

The Department says that probably the most important influence of computer technology ‘has been on the development of inquiry-based exercises rooted in the retrieval and analysis of primary social and cultural documents.’

These range from basic Web exercises ‘in which students must find a photo that tells something about ‘work’ in the late nineteenth-century’ to higher-thinking tasks ‘in which students carefully consider how different photographers, artists, and writers historically have treated the subject of poverty.’

The creation of public, constructed projects is another piece of effective educational technology, one that engages students in the design and building of knowledge as a critical part of the learning process. The report offers the example of an elementary school in Virginia where fifth graders studying world cultures build a different ‘wing’ of a virtual museum each year, research and annotating cultural artifacts, and then mounting them on line. Similarly, at a middle school in Philadelphia sixth graders worked closely with a local museum to create a CD-ROM exhibit on Mesopotamia, using images and resources from the museum’s collections. Seventh graders in Arlington, Virginia published an on-line ‘Civil War Newspaper’ with Matthew Brady photographs from the Library of Congress as well as their own analyses of the photos.

More ambitious student constructed projects can evolve over several years and connect students more closely to their communities as in St. Ignatius, Montana, where high school students have helped to create an on-line community archive. There is great potential in using digital tools for learning approaches that help students acquire and express the complexity of culture and history knowledge. Digital tools have the capability to represent complex connections and relationships, as well as make large amounts of information available and manipulable.

Source: White Paper for Department of Education, Forum on Technology in K-12 Education: Envisioning a New Future, December 1, 1999. Rewiring the History and Social Studies Classroom: Needs, Frameworks,Dangers, and Proposals from History Matters at http://chnm.gmu.edu/assets/historyessays/e2/rewiring1.html

At: http://www.teachinghistorywithtechnology.com/internet6a.htm

Accessed: 4/8/04

An online maths example

Ravaglia, R., Sommer, R., Sanders, M., Oas, G. & DeLeone. C. (1999) Computer-based mathematics and physics for gifted remote students. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Mathematics/Science Education and Technology (pp.405-10).

At: http://www-epgy.stanford.edu/research/index.html?papers

Accessed: 4/8/04

WebQuests

A specific example of a WebQuest that may have the potential to be used with the gifted is one on cloning, titled ‘Ewe 2’, at:

http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/ewe2/introduction.htm

eLanguage project:

http://ott.educ.msu.edu/elanguage

Shakespeare’s Hokey Pokey:

http://www.phantomranch.net/folkdanc/articles/hokeypokey.htm

Howard Smith’s Australian research findings:

Used the NASA Classroom of the Future ‘UV Menace’ web site: http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/ozone/uvmenace.html

21 hyper linked pages. Contains information on ozone layer depletion, ultraviolet radiation and the effects on Earth. The information is presented as text, video, graphics and satellite images.

All participants in the study used a hub and spoke style of navigation, using the UV Menace jigsaw page as a ‘Home’ page, or hub, and retrieving section pages to locate required information. They all ‘backtracked’ through the sequences of previously accessed pages to return to the UVM jigsaw page. This simple out and back style of navigation was variously described as ‘easier’, ‘habit’ and ‘what I am used to’. While this simple navigation style is ‘easier’ and undoubtedly not cognitively demanding it is also inefficient in terms of online time, numbers of pages retrieved and retrieval of information. For example, even though the study web site consisted of only 22 hyper-linked pages Vanessa logged 185 page retrievals, ie on average retrieving each page nine times, to complete the online task. In this study use of the browser Back function comprised 37.7 per cent of all navigation actions.

Only two participants used the Netscape Find function to assist with initial or subsequent location of required key words and phrases, preferring through habit or lack of computer experience to use only visual scanning of pages of text to locate required information. While Steve did comment on the amount of textual content - ‘Gee it’s heavy on text’ (St 118) - he made limited use of the Find function to scan the text electronically for key words. Martin used the Find function to scan the text electronically, demonstrating the effectiveness of this tool in locating or relocating previously seen textual information within the page. He also demonstrated understanding of how the Find function works and of its limitations by mentioning the need to be aware of spelling variations and to search for the root of the word to find all uses of a particular term.

Vanessa’s high prior knowledge enabled her to make meaning of the information section links immediately. That is, she was able through prior knowledge to provide meaningful organisation to the content, to avoid issues of navigation difficulties. On the occasions when the information was not where Vanessa expected it to be, navigation did then become an issue for her and she had to rely on her limited technoliteracy skills. In those instances she resorted to a ‘scratch and peck’ strategy of rapid, apparently random, retrieval of pages looking for the information - a strategy which appeared to be very time consuming, resulted in many pages being retrieved unnecessarily and caused her some frustration, clearly indicating her disorientation.

All participants in this study demonstrated and/or expressed indicators of disorientation. Their disorientation was evidenced through expressions of confusion, frustration and ‘lostness’, and demonstrated by random page retrieval, errors retrieving pages and difficulties finding previously seen information. The participants were not aware of the extent of the information system and had difficulty finding information that they believed was available. These indicators of disorientation were largely a result of the site interface design and information presentation but were also influenced by the levels of user hypermedia experience and content knowledge.

The implications of these findings are that users would benefit from explicit teaching of higher order hypermedia navigation skills and understanding of function operation, to develop more efficient system use and to reduce the effects of disorientation. Once acquired these skills require practice to build complex schema and achieve automaticity, to limit the demands on the limited cognitive resources of working memory. The technical skills should be developed in conjunction with traditional literacy, as these are interdependent for effective use of online resources and the attainment of information technology literacy.

The navigation skills and knowledge include:

•      identifying hyper links

•      understanding conditions for browser Back and Forward function operation

•      using history lists and understanding the conditions for redundancy of titles from the list

•      using the status bar to identify links

•      understanding URL structure to

o      identify link destinations

o      truncate URLs for navigation

o      correct URL faults

•      developing an understanding of commonly used within site tools, their positioning and function

•      managing multiple browser windows.

Reference: Smith, H.J. (2004) Determining user conceptualisation of hypermedia environments and the navigation and information retrieval strategies employed. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of New England, Armidale.

Need for time-management and navigation skills

As an OC teacher, I sometimes find the Internet a ‘bit of a pain’. The kids get so immersed in finding information that they sometimes lose the plot. Their minds are such, that it only takes half an idea to send them off at a tangent - and the Internet readily allows them to do this.  Also, the Internet is such a huge resource that G&T primary students feel they should be able find perfect answers to questions and they’ll keep searching for them. Students do need to learn the skills for effective Internet use, along with skills like interpreting questions, looking for key words and reading for understanding. I’ve had to put a time limit on some of my students, it’s the only way to keep them on track - and it’s amazing how well they can find relevant information if they only have a limited time to do so. I think G&T kids simply enjoy surfing the net, and that’s OK if we've got plenty of time, but I’ve had to get tough with a few! (Margaret S., primary teacher of a full-time gifted class)

Teaching about online searching

The University of South Carolina’s Beaufort Library provides online a basic tutorial on

searching the web, ‘Bare Bones 101’, at:

http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/bones.html

Another ready-made site re online search skills is:

Michael’s Internet Finding Tips: http://www.botos.com/train/searchit3a.html

Netiquette

In our private class forums, we have been able to teach netiquette by integrating forum discussions into our curriculum. I start the year by talking about communicating on forums and trying to establish norms with the class that we can agree to abide by for our discussions. I flash up student posts from previous years on the screen which serve as models we can analyse - what has the student done well, what could be improved. As a class, we try to come up with the ‘Elements of Goodness’ for a forum response together.  It’s amazing how much the kids really do ‘get’ what it means to post appropriately. The checklist of ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ they generate pretty well covers the main points of many of the articles on this issue. (Cathi W., secondary teacher)

Conclusion

The Internet is a source of exciting, challenging opportunities and extensive primary source material. It does not replace the classroom teacher and face-to-face interaction but, used wisely, it has the potential to enhance what schools can offer gifted students by way of individualised, differentiated curriculum. However, to make the most of its potential, teachers need to ensure that gifted students acquire sophisticated expertise in navigation skills and sound judgement in evaluating the content of web-sites.