Preparing to Teach at a Distance: Using Nicenet's 'Internet Classroom Assistant' to Create a Community of Writers
|
Introduction: The ProblemFor most faculty, the idea of developing a course for distance education delivery over the Internet sounds like a formidable task. The initial problem of turning what one does as a classroom teacher into a linear set of modules or lessons complete with instructional commentary, reading and writing assignments, projects, discussion questions, and evaluation tools quickly gives way to the need to determine how all this matter can be translated into appropriate electronic equivalents. Much must be anticipated by intuition about how prospective students will use both course materials and Internet technologies at a distance. Often, those familiar with how to make hardware work find it difficult to explain what hardware does to those who are electronically challenged. Those who are familiar with software packages like Norton's "Connect," "FirstClass," or "Web Course in a Box" meant to simulate on-campus interaction of teachers and students often find the learning curve required to use such technologies too steep to be practical at a distance. Technicians adept at making Web pages don't have the instructional skills to know where to anticipate learners' problems. Even with administrative support and encouragement, few faculty have the appetite to engage the many-headed Hydra of distance education while juggling all the other responsibilities that those who are employees at institutions of higher education must address in the 1990's. And what if, after devoting hours upon hours to assembling a course for distance delivery, it doesn't work? Can one afford to experiment, particularly when changes to an online course would involve engaging the ministrations of an entire team of co-workers and technicians? And how can one acquire experience with distance education by wetting a toe in the water before having to dive in completely, only to drown in a sea of problems? How can one taste success with Internet course delivery quickly in such a way that one will want to continue working with the ever more complex pedagogical and technological issues that are associated with distance education? One Possible SolutionAs a professor of English at Indiana State University with twenty-nine years of teaching experience, I found myself eager to try developing a course for distance education when the chairperson of my department asked me to develop a 300-level technical writing course for Internet delivery in the fall of 1996. Our administration was very supportive of faculty efforts of this kind and would send instructors through hours of study of both new pedagogical theory and state-of-the-art electronic technologies in a special seminar run by Indiana State University's Center for Teaching and Learning. The staff of this "Course Transformation Academy" was very supportive and encouraging as well. I felt I had a good grasp of what I needed to do in order to offer a course at a distance by the time the academy experience came to an end. Several semesters of previous work with students at a distance using Norton's Textra Connect software taught me that to be successful, the course needed to be as simple to access as net surfing itself. After all, many Americans still can't program a VCR. I decided that for me – and, I believe, for many faculty in the humanities - Nicenet's "Internet Classroom Assistant" (ICA2) was the best place to begin. Founded in 1995, Nicenet [www.nicenet.net] is "an organization of Internet professionals who donate their time to provide services for the Internet community." It runs ICA on server space donated by VSI (San Francisco, CA) and is powered by Allaire's (Cambridge, MA) Cold-Fusion. Its goal is to bring communication tools and resources previously available only to those with large sums of money or substantial technical expertise to post-secondary and secondary classrooms, distance learning, and collaborative academic projects. Hence, it is free and without advertising to anyone who finds it useful. The Nature of the SystemThe ICA requires any Web browser running on any platform and an Internet connection. There is no software to download and no server to configure. The ICA is a low graphics environment and therefore loads pages quickly. Anyone can set up a class in minutes and allow others to join. Students create user accounts by selecting "join a class," then plugging in a unique class "key" given to them by their instructor. They then select their own usernames and passwords and complete their registration. After logging in, users are presented with a "heads-up" display of class features, including the following:
With the features of the ICA site integrated with my personal home page and course pages, I have a single, balanced package that in essence simulates the primary tools of an on-campus instructor. For example, while reading a document, a user can simply and easily send the author comments and feedback. Conferencing topics can be created automatically for new schedule items and documents. Password ProtectionNicenet (through key number, username, and password) protects entrance to an instructor's ICA site. The instructor's screens give access to site tools which cannot be accessed by students. For example, if a student forgets her/his username or password, the instructor can easily enter the site through "tools," delete the old name and password, and let the student select new ones. By linking the professionally created instructor's page and fixed course pages to ICA, one is able to protect these pages with a password as well. At the same time that professionally designed pages can be used through ICA, the system also gives the ordinary instructor who may not know markup languages a large measure of control over "messages," "documents," "conferencing," "class schedule," "link sharing," "class roster," and "options/tools." Although Nicenet is not controlled through our campus server and its on-campus technicians, I have found Nicenet's administrators courteous and quick to respond to fix any problem or "bug" I have encountered. Going Beyond Traditional Independent StudyI would suggest that instructors begin using ICA as a support first for students in on-campus courses. In this way, they can learn how the system works, what advantages it offers, and how it can be used at a distance as well. For example, I use a traditional booklet of course lessons together with a textbook for distance education courses. I believe that, like the design of the egg and the shark, some ancient entities can rival the creations of the very best of state-of-the-art contemporary technologies. The great advantage of the book is its portability and energy self-sufficiency. I have absolutely no doubt that it will be with us well into the next millenium. One of the most important advantages that I have found for using ICA, however, is the ability of both instructor and students to post relevant links easily to the system. This ability is akin to giving every student in a class thousands of dollars to buy supplementary textbooks for a course. Whereas without this technology, an instructor is limited in the number of textbooks a student can reasonably buy, with it one can connect students to on-line books and manuals and exercises and articles and on-line writing centers with differing approaches to technical writing as it is taught across the United States and abroad. Further, in even the best traditional on-campus course it is difficult to engage all students in classroom discussion equally. Some always dominate while others remain silent. But, through ICA on-line discussion, all students can be involved quite easily. For example, the instructor might post one or more discussion questions under "Class Conferencing," with instructions that each member of the class is expected to respond to the question briefly (50 words or so) before the next class meets (in the case of on-campus students) or before the next lesson is begun (in the case of students at a distance). The instructor may then check for responses each day. For on-campus students, only those responses that appeared before the class meeting time would be accepted for participation credit. For those off-campus, responses would be due before beginning a new lesson. At the end of a semester or distance course, the instructor could determine a class participation grade based on in-class discussion and/or the regular posting of responses on ICA. As with on-campus courses, simply posting long answers or otherwise "talking" a great deal would not result in a good grade for participation. Rather, discussion question responses should be thoughtful and based on clear knowledge of assigned readings. Many instructors familiar with distance education speak of dissatisfaction with the synchronous "chat group" format which encourages quick but shallow thinking. Discussion through ICA's asynchronous "conferencing" tool, however, is best suited to careful, argued chains of reasoning. And then, of course, ICA's e-mail link between teacher and student has the effect of changing the instructor-student relationship, putting it on a more personable and equal footing, an effect noted by many who teach over the Internet. Final ThoughtsIt is said that to many teachers, the Internet is like a "Good News/Bad News" joke: "The good news is that your class has access to the Internet. The bad news is that your class has to use the Internet." Certainly, it can no longer be doubted that the Internet offers tremendous potential to eliminate the academic isolation and other limitations associated with traditional learning at a distance. The University of California, Berkeley Extension now offers more than 50 online courses on topics as diverse as Shakespeare and earthquakes. The time for foot dragging is past. Faculty have enough tools now to get on with the job of learning how to work with this marvelous source of information. Distance education will never replace on-campus higher education, an experience that is important socially and personally as well as intellectually. But online courses are ideal for people with busy schedules, people who travel, and people who can't travel. Establishing a course Web site is no longer a matter to be left to technical staff. Berkeley's Center for Media and Independent Learning (CMIL) lists online courses with detailed descriptions at its site http://www-cmil.unex.berkeley.edu which can be accessed by those seeking to put their own courses online. "ED's Oasis" at http://www.EDsOasis.org is another site providing opportunities for educators to share their expertise, experiences, and concerns. Professors speak of additional time and effort involved with online courses, but the work is no longer overwhelming and the effort is manageable. Students can go as deeply into an online class with links through ICA as they wish, often much farther than in a regular class environment. It is a time of opportunity for us all. References
|
