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Journal of Information Techology for Teacher Education

Using Email and the Internet in Science Teaching

University of Nevada, USA

Available online: 11 Aug 2006

To cite this article: Mike Robinson (1994): Using Email and the Internet in Science Teaching, Journal of Information Techology for Teacher Education, 3:2, 229-238 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0962029940030209

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Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1994

Using Email and the Internet in Science Teaching

University of Nevada, USA

ABSTRACT The US federal Government has supplied monies to support two key areas in K-12 science education: first, pre-service and in-service training for the teachers of science and mathematics; and, second, the development of better curriculum materials and instructional strategies to teach science and mathematics. This paper will address the instructional part of the second key area. It will deal with how the Internet can be used to improve secondary science instruction. Specifically it will discuss learning strategies on the Internet, and why pre-service teachers should learn to use the Internet, in four pre-service teacher training classes in a US university.

Introduction For over a decade a variety of federal reports, task forces, the media, business and even parents have continued to criticize US education, specifically the preparation of students for a changing work force (In the National Interest, 1991). In this technological age, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are usually singled out as the most pressing educational areas. This is apparently related to training hi tech workers to help maintain the diminishing US technological advantage in the world economy (Science and Technology, 1992). The federal government has set goals for improving the level of STEM education in the belief that the US economic well being and standard of living can only be protected by maintaining world standards in science and math education. The increasing cost to business to train workers to take the 'new' jobs has also put pressure on the government to take action. As a result, federal monies have been supplied to support two key areas in K-12 science education: first, pre-service 229

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and in-service training for the teachers of science and mathematics; and, second, the development of better curriculum materials and instructional strategies to teach science and mathematics. Various government agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NFS), the Department of Education (DoE) and the Department of Energy (DOE) are providing funding for projects that hold promise for improvements in the above two areas. To support the second key area the federal government has made networking and infrastructure development a priority. Specifically, the federal government has stressed the need for university faculty to learn more about how to develop new teaching techniques that help students navigate the network (Directorate for Education and Human Resources, 1992). The creation of the National Education Network (NEN), an information 'super highway' to provide access to all colleges and universities as well as elementary and secondary schools, was also cited in the report of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources. Another report, America 2000 (US Department of Education, 1991), directed the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the President's science advisor and the Director of the NSF to determine how electronic networks might provide American schools with ready access to the best information, research, instructional materials and educational expertise. This paper will address the instructional part of the second key area cited above. In general, it will deal with how the Internet can be used to improve secondary science instruction. Specifically it will discuss learning strategies on the Internet, and why pre-service teachers should learn to use the Internet, in four pre-service teacher training classes in a US university. Rationale First, some justification for teaching Internet instructional strategies in pre-service teacher training courses is in order. This justification supports the use of the Internet when science teachers use the Science Technology Society (STS) teaching approach and adhere to the Constructivist Learning Model (CLM). To begin, a few words of explanation about the STS teaching philosophy are offered since there are still prominent science educators who still do not agree with what STS teaching is. In this paper, the STS teaching method is a science teaching method and philosophy that believes science should be taught within the context of human experience and that science is a necessary part of education for every citizen (NSTA, 1993). Moreover, the STS teaching method is supported by the CLM (The High Stakes of High School Science, 1991). From a constructivist point of perspective, knowledge is a mental representation of the natural world. STS science teaching focuses on real-world problems which have science and technology components. It does so from the students perspective instead of starting with science

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concepts and principles with which students may have had no prior knowledge and experience (NSTA, 1993). The remainder of this section will address the question of how the Internet can be used to make science teaching more relevant and interesting to students, especially when they are taught by teachers who adhere to the STS teaching methodology and the CLM. The following four areas will be stressed within the context of the Internet (1) how to integrate science with other subjects; (2) how to promote more cooperative learning in science learning; (3) how to encourage the transfer of science process skills to everyday life; and (4) how to improve student attitudes toward science. A major complaint of secondary science students is that the science concepts they learn in class are just to pass a test and that they forget them soon afterwards (Yager and Roy, 1993). The Internet offers the prospect for helping students to see science as being a part of their lives in the real world. Science teachers are increasingly being asked to integrate science with mathematics, social studies and other subjects in the hope that when students see these connections, they will find science to be more interesting and useful. When the Internet is available, students are able to access many more out-of-classroom resources and exchange information with other students in other schools, states and countries. Students may work independently or in cooperative groups, but in either case, the real life experience involved in collecting and sharing information on the Internet supports the STS teaching approach as well as the CLM. Some of the science related networks that students with Internet are currently using include Newton (where questions can be posed to working scientists in the DOE), NASA (from which graphics and text information concerning space probes, pulsars and black holes can be downloaded by students), and the environmental science network that addresses a number of global environmental science problems such as air pollution. A third area that the Internet can support is the learning and transfer of science process skills. Yager (1990) states that there is little evidence to show that students in traditional classrooms use science processes outside the science classroom. Learning how to use the Internet to send understandable data, seek and use information from its many data bases and apply that information to situations in and out of the classroom would seem to be a good way to insure the transfer of process skills. Specific process skills that the Internet can facilitate the learning of include data gathering, presenting data in an understandable form (graphical data can be down loaded), and applying data to defend conclusions. In a more general sense, Bloom's higher order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation can be practised as students seek out information, combine it with other sources, and determine its usefulness. A fourth area that the Internet can facilitate is the development of positive attitudes toward science and technology. Work by Yager and Penick
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(1989) indicates that student attitudes toward science become more negative as students progress to the higher grades in school. As a result, by grade twelve, fewer than 25 percent of US students elect to take science. The many resources available on the Internet offer the possibility for students to change their attitudes about the relevance of science to their daily lives and future. A change in perception of what science is may help motivate more students to continue studying science in the upper grades and college. Science Teacher Education and the Internet A number of user free electronic mail (Email) networks (National Geographic, Kidsnet, CompuServe, Dow Jones and The Source) have been available to those schools that could afford them since the mid to late 80s (Newman, 1990). Email has been used by university faculty and lately K-12 teachers to send messages to colleagues for a number of years (Scott, 1991; and Wasson, 1990). Email is now being tried in some colleges of education pre-service classes to see if it improves communication between students and faculty (Bishop-Clark and Huston, 1993). Only recently, has the US government supported the Internet to the extent that universities can make it available to local schools without charge. This service by many universities has opened up to schools an extensive number of Internet databases that may prove useful to science teaching. Unfortunately teachers may not use the Internet to its full instructional potential without training. Therefore, it is proposed that instructors of science methods classes should know what applications of the Internet might be useful for improving science teaching, especially those applications that can be taught in the short amount of time available for educational technology in the traditional three credit science teaching methods class. A number of articles have been written concerning Internet tools and many of these ideas can be used in secondary science teacher training programs. The Computing Teacher has had a column for over a year called 'Mining the Internet'. The column gives good instructions on how to make effective use of the Internet Examples include file transfer procedures (FTP); how to use 'Archie' to locate text, graphics or software in the literally millions of files in the Internet (Harris, 1993); and how to use Gopher and Veronica as well as other applications. Some colleges of education are now teaching some of the Internet tools in their curriculum and instruction classes. Four examples of how the Internet and Email are being used in the teacher training program in a Western US University will now be presented. Internet in the Preliminary Education Classes Approximately 120 elementary teacher training students per year take the introductory special education class. The students have an option of writing a
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term paper or doing a number of activities regarding Internet tools. As more Email terminals become available, all students will be required to do the Internet activities. Currently those activities include a) learning how to send and receive Email messages including the use of a word processor and downloading and uploading from a disc, b) learning how to use Gopher and Veronica, c) learning how to use file transfer protocol with Archie, and d) sending and receiving messages to the professor and colleagues in other universities who are taking an equivalent class (CD. Maddux in a personal communication, 1993). In the computer literacy classes, use of the Internet began two years ago. Before the Internet line was installed, students began with a simulation but no actual log on. Soon after, Prodigy donated one Email account but with over one hundred and eighty students a year, not everyone was able to use it With the establishment of 14 Internet terminals all students in the introductory course now send and receive Email messages, down load and up load, and learn how to use Gopher, Archie and Veronica. Students in the Spring '94 semester will have to receive and turn in assignments by Email. Upper level students are also required to download their final exam from the mainframe and send it back after completion. Furthermore, a file server for all state teachers and college of education students is now in place to reduce the load on the mainframe (D.L. Johnson in a personal communication, 1993). Internet in the Science Methods Courses The problem with teaching about the Internet in the three credit science methods courses is time. As pre-service teachers begin to get a general background in the use of the Internet in their computer literacy course and other introductory courses, instructors of the special methods classes (e.g. science, mathematics, social studies, and English) can then concentrate on areas that are specific to their subjects. Still, some attempt is being made to teach Internet skills due to the need for science teacher awareness of the potential for improving science instruction through the various Internet tools. The required pre-student-teaching science methods classes are broken into two parts: 1) elementary science methods, required of all elementary science teachers (N-110-130 per year); and 2) secondary science methods, required of all science and health majors and minors (N=25-30 per year). In the elementary science methods classes (pre-service teachers for kindergarten to grade six), students began by learning how to log on and off the Internet They were then assigned electronic mentors who could be anywhere in the US from Alaska to New York to Florida. The mentors were assigned by the professor to the National Science Foundation sponsored Project to Improve Methods Courses in Elementary Science (PIMCES) and
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the TERC Kidsphere located in Pittsburgh. The mentors were elementary science teachers on the listserve of PIMCES and Kidsphere. During the semester each student made four contacts with his/her mentor and designed a science lesson using the Learning Cycle. The Learning Cycle used was Rodger Bybee's 'five E' model of engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration and evaluation. The students were coached to think of their electronic mentors the way they would think of a veteran teacher next door to them and to whom they would go to for advice on materials, safety, and other germane considerations for designing science activities. The rationale for using the mentors was to give the students an experienced science resource teacher who could help them apply the Learning Cycle when developing science lessons and practise using email to communicate with practising elementary teachers. The students did not learn how to use the Internet tools such as Gopher, Veronica, and Archie due to lack of time. Formal and informal student comments about the experience are as follows. (Keep in mind that these were student perceptions.) Informally those students who had computers and a modem at home seemed to be more positive to Email, apparently because they had better access to the Internet due to the limited lab hours and the number of working Internet terminals on the university campus. One Internet terminal was installed in the science lab but with 120 students each semester (two classes of 60 each), it was only a small help. Another problem was the fact that many of the students had not yet taken the computer literacy class and it took them much longer to become 'friendly' to computer use. Better sequencing of the education courses will alleviate this problem in the future. At the end of the semester a formal evaluation to measure teacher confidence or self-efficacy in using computers and Email was also given. The instrument, called MUTEBI, was developed by Enochs et al. (1993) to measure the self-efficacy beliefs of teachers related to utilizing microcomputers in science instruction. The instrument was originally designed for practising teachers. The general results were as follows. Students with home computers did not significantly improve in self-efficacy in using computers or Email. Even those students who had never used Email on their home computers did not raise their self-efficacy. The professor felt these students were already convinced of the value of computers in instruction and adding Email to the uses did not change their original perceptions of the value of computer use in the classroom. On the other hand, students who did not have home computers did significantly improve in self-efficacy and outcome expectancy. In other words, their preconceived notions of the value of Email in elementary school instruction were fulfilled by using Email as part of the science teaching methods class. Furthermore, those students who had the class during the day (approximately one-half) and access to the computer lab had higher self-efficacy than those who took the class in the evening when the computer lab was closed. This evidence leads

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one to believe that all students must have convenient access to computers. Two more points are worth mentioning. Students who had home computers wanted many more assignments by Email such as the mid-term examination, take home science activities and even class discussions by Email. Those who needed to go to the lab to do their work were reluctant to have more assignments with Email even when their self-efficacy was high. Lastly, all but a couple of students thought Email was an important part of the class that should be a regular part of the course (J. Cannon in a personal communication, 1994). In the secondary science teaching methods class, the use of the Internet is part of a larger unit on instructional uses of educational technology in science. In the first week of the semester, students get a brief history of the Internet and learn how to log on and off. They are required to send at least one message to the instructor and one to a colleague in the class. Since the class is small (12 students this past Fall), in addition to the computer lab, they are able to use the in-class dedicated phone line. On that line they learn how to use Gopher to access networks that supply useful information in science teaching. The Weather Information, Earthquake Information, The Library System, NASA, Newton, the Environmental Science Network and ERIC are the main ones that are learned in class without having to go to the computer lab. Students are required to find one other database that is useful to their teaching area (i.e. earth science, biology, health, chemistry, or physics). When formally questioned, all students in the class recognized the potential of the Internet as an almost unlimited source of in-class science, technology and social science information. Those students who were from rural areas and/or planned to become science teachers in rural schools were especially impressed with the prospect of accessing a 'world' of information in an isolated school and classroom. Research indicates that one way of making education more equitable in rural and inner city schools where upper division course offerings in math and science are often limited (Monk and Haller, 1993) is by making telecommunications available to them. Furthermore, all students recognized the potential for using science processes to collect and share science data and other information between schools in any part of the world. A recently developed global science project called Science Across the World (Holman, 1993) is using facsimile and Email to share data on acid rain, water pollution, alternative energy and other global environmental problems between students in many countries around the world. One major problem expressed by two students was access to the Internet All students in the class had full time occupations and a majority had families. As a result they often did not have time to go to the computer lab during its operating hours. Those who had home computers requested that more in class assignments be given on email. In the future, for those
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who cannot buy computers and modems, it is hoped that such equipment can be loaned. At the University of Nebraska, students in secondary science methods classes and during student teaching are already loaned computers and modems with good success. This was made possible through a grant from IBM and Mutual of Omaha (Bonnstetter, 1993). Support for loaning computers in Nevada comes from the Department of Energy. The DOE has given a number of used computers to the College of Education. Within the federal government's educational goals is the mandate that government agencies should donate excess hardware to universities and schools to expedite the use of educational technology in instruction.
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Summary and Conclusions It seems more and more apparent that the world belongs to those who can quickly access and retrieve useful information. The problem of technology widening the gap between the educated and non educated is already becoming apparent (Dertouzos, 1991). As teachers, are we not obligated to help our students use the most current means available to learn? The new hi-tech jobs are requiring employees to learn on the job as they seek 'just in time' information to carry out many tasks. Learning to use Email and the Internet is just another step in acquiring the skills that may be needed by many future job holders to gather, send and receive information. Furthermore, the examples in this paper indicated that students who have home computers may prefer learning mote from a computer screen even when the same information is available in other ways. In school settings, the Internet can support the STS teaching methodology and the CLM by providing opportunities for integrating learning, making learning more cooperative, providing transfer of process skills and improving attitudes toward science and technology. Classrooms with Internet capability are able to share teaching activities (especially those that involve global environmental issues) and compare data using Email in schools throughout the world. An emerging use of the Internet involves downloading graphics. Science teaching often requires explanations for which there is no good vocabulary that the students understand. As more graphics become available on the Internet, and the ease of downloading becomes friendlier, another source of visuals will be available for helping students understand concepts for which they do not have the vocabulary and experiences. The super computer at Livermore National Lab., NASA and some regional weather services already have this service available to schools with the right hardware and software. This use of graphics may be the next big jump in using real world examples to improve science teaching in the classroom.

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Last, but perhaps most important, the Internet allows us to learn more about the cultures of other countries in a world that appears to desperately need more bi-cultural understanding. Correspondence Mike Robinson, Department of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557, USA. Email: [email protected]
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