Clark N. Quinn Knowledge Universe Interactive Studio cnquinn@knowledgeu.com
Collaboration, Effectiveness, World Wide Web
The Australian Schools Web Challenge [HREF1] is a national annual event open to school students from Primary to upper Secondary level. It is organised by Access Co-operative Multimedia Centre [HREF2], which is a consortium of leading NSW educational institutions, multimedia developers and corporations. The Challenge asks students to form teams with a teacher as adviser to create a website about a designated topic, which in 1999 is 'Great Celebrations'. In this paper, we focus on outcomes of the 1998 challenge and report our methodology for an empirical study which aims to be the first well-documented examination of the benefits of using global projects in Australian Primary and Secondary classrooms. The schools web challenge is a motivating vehicle through which a variety of learning outcomes may be realised in both Primary and Secondary Australian Schools. It is based on project approaches to learning with technology with a focus on collaboration. As a large co-ordinated global project, it provides a platform to study the effectiveness of the integration of new technologies into classrooms to promote collaboration. This paper will introduce the project to the academic literature and outline both the theoretical basis for implementing global projects in general and for the schools web challenge in particular. We also provide an outline for the methodology of our research into learning through collaborative uses of technology.
The Australian Schools Web Challenge [HREF1] is a national annual event open to school students from Primary to upper Secondary level. It is organised by Access Co-operative Multimedia Centre [HREF2], which is a consortium of leading NSW educational institutions, multimedia developers and corporations. The Challenge asks students to form teams with a teacher as adviser to create a website about a designated topic, which in 1999 is 'Great Celebrations'. This year this event, expected to directly involve over 10,000 students, parents and teachers, aims to:
• Motivate and encourage students and teachers to develop new ways of using the Internet for educational outcomes through experimentation.• Discover and showcase best practice by Australian schools in the use of the Internet for education
• Promote student engagement with community activities
• Promote Skills equity in Information Technology (IT) by giving all teachers and students the confidence to develop their Internet Skills through the challenge
• Expand the profile of the challenge as the premier annual schools web challenge
The School's Web Challenge represents the largest co-ordinated 'global project' in Australia, if not the world, and as such it presents an excellent opportunity to study the effectiveness of the integration of new technologies into classrooms to promote collaboration.
Global projects may be defined as collaborative projects where students and teachers at separate locations work on joint activities and communicate through the Internet (Junion-Metz,1996; Pirlo, 1996; Wyld, 1996; Wyld & Eklund, 1997). This collaboration may be motivating for both students and teachers and it provides a project-based approach for students to gain Internet skills whilst engaged in regular classroom activities (Junion-Metz, 1996). Through the integration of global projects, students are encouraged to develop a range of skills relating to reading, writing and researching as well as developing their abilities in selecting, presenting and communicating information (Pirlo, 1996). Global projects also enable students to gain an understanding of different cultures around the world or different people from around their nation and to view themselves as global citizens (Wyld, 1996), broadening their world views through participation in a 'global classroom' (Allegra et al, 1998). The Web is defined as a multimedia, collaborative environment based on hypertext as such is the ideal platform for this purpose. Global projects appear to be a practical and popular method for implementing the use of technology into Australian schools. This movement, as with many initiative on the Web, seems to be occurring primarily at a 'grass roots' level. It may be that new 'socially constructed' curricula (Webb, 96) which support these tools will be developed classroom practices, rather than vice-versa.
In a broader context, collaborative learning has been widely researched and found to significantly enhance student achievement and develop positive attitudes towards learning (Campbell et al, 1992; Coppola, Rana & Biber, 1997). Some writers, for example Coppola, Rana & Biber (1997), believe that collaboration brings students face-to-face with real problems allowing them to discuss complex situations with others to learn about and resolve ambiguity and multiple points of view. This approach is supported through the 1998 Schools Web Challenge theme of 'Cool Solutions to hot issues' and the 1999 topic of 'Great Celebrations'. Each of these themes allow students to identify important issues, negotiate a common approach, and implement a solution. Fishman & Pea (1994) further define the benefits of collaborative learning, stating that true power comes from the synergy of many dispersed minds working together to solve problems and discuss issues.
There appears to be no shortage of theoretical perspectives to support the use of information technology for collaboration, and some definite directions for implementing classroom methodologies, but little work has been done to evaluate the effectiveness of these approaches. Apart from the work of Wyld (1996), there are no formalised studies in Australian Schools which have evaluated outcomes from work that has taken place in the context of global projects as a technological tool to mediate learning. The literature appears to be polarised by theorists (writing about the relationship between hypertext and constructivism, for example), and classroom practitioners (reporting outcomes from real projects, often in an anecdotal manner). The Schools Web Challenge provides the uniformity of purpose, the size and the infrastructure and support sufficient to conduct a formal study on the effectiveness of the Web as a tool to promote collaborative learning.
In this paper, we focus on outcomes of the 1998 challenge and report our methodology for an empirical study which aims to be the first well-documented examination of the benefits of using global projects in Australian Primary and Secondary classrooms. Outcomes of this study will be:
To achieve this, three methodologies are to be used: a case study of an individual participant school undertaken over the entire time the challenge is held, an analysis of a survey sent to all schools toward the end of the challenge, and interviews with organisers. The case study has been designed using a summative evaluation of a school that took part in the challenge in 1998, and results of this early work form the basis for the proposed study. Our results are based on structured interviews with students and teachers and show that while a successful implementation is very demanding on teacher time, significant incidental learning occurs as a result of the global project, particularly with respect to the technical aspects of using the Internet.
We were able to identify several outcomes of participation in the challenge which satisfy particular curriculum requirements. Both teachers and students emphasised that their gains in knowledge and skills were inextricably linked to their participation in the process, which would have been difficult to achieve in other ways. Students reported having a greater awareness of other people's opinions as a result of their participation, that they were often "surprised and interested" in the problems that other teams presented, and "learned something …[they] wouldn't have otherwise" in looking at the individual solutions offered by other groups. Students clearly felt empowered by the technology and a strong sense of ownership over the web site that they had produced with it. They had "put in a lot of work of our own, but learned a lot too" - their way of expressing that they perceived their role as both consumers and producers of information and ideas - in line with the 'knowledge recyling' nature of learning on the Web.
The assessment of the web sites was naturally designed to reflect the learning outcomes of the challenge. The final websites submitted by teams in three categories, namely Primary, Upper Primary and Secondary, are judged on criteria which reflect those learning outcomes achieved through the process of building (and learning) as much as the final product. These are 'Teamwork and Collaboration', 'Research', 'Design' and 'Implementation'. Teamwork and collaboration is based on evidence that the team has considered how to divide tasks across the team members and the extent to which the team worked with others either individuals or organisations, both local and distant, to achieve the end result. The manner in which individuals are organised into teams, and the technologies and sources that the teams in collaborating is considered. Teamwork and collaboration may be shown by notes or diary entries or other means which might emphasise the process that has been undertaken to arrive at the final website. A good research outcome depends on the choice of an appropriate topic and taking an innovative approach to it. Research should be extensive and clearly presented and use a variety of sources and processes to obtain information for the project, and the manner in which these are integrated into a research design. How the team has explored potential 'great celebrations', how have they finally chosen a focus, and how have they researched their potential international audience will impact on the quality of research. It is important for the team to develop good design processes, to consider and evaluate alternative designs, to create a site that includes the necessary information, making it easy to find and use. The site design should match the potential audience and content, it should be easy to navigate, it should engage the audience, and the elements in the design should be consistent. Also important is how well the structure of the site serves the particular problem and solution. The category of implementation rewards how well was the design realised. Is the design implemented in a consistent manner? Are the graphics and text clear and correct? Is the site complete, with no missing elements or links? Does it accomplish the goal? Form follows function, and a site works better if all of the elements are relevant to the subject matter. The level of sophistication of text and graphics, the technologies used, as well as the manner in which the navigation structure is presented are indicators of a successful implementation.
The schools web challenge is a motivating vehicle through which a variety of learning outcomes may be realised in both Primary and Secondary Australian Schools. It is based on project approaches to learning with technology with a focus on collaboration. As a large co-ordinated global project, it provides a platform to study the effectiveness of the integration of new technologies into classrooms to promote collaboration. This paper has introduced the project to the academic literature and outlined both the theoretical basis for implementing global projects in general and for the schools web challenge in particular. We have also provided an outline for the methodology of our research into learning through collaborative uses of technology.
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Webb C (1996) Hypertext and the Construction of Individual Narratives: Implications for Socially Constructed Curriculum in Primary Schools. In R. Debreceny & A. Ellis (eds.) Proceedings of Ausweb96: The Second Australian World Wide Web Conference. 7-9 July. Southern Cross University Press. p. 345-352.
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Wyld S (1996) Success Models for the Integration of the WWW in Primary Education, In R. Debreceny & A. Ellis (eds.) Proceedings of Ausweb96: The Second Australian World Wide Web Conference. 7-9 July. Southern Cross University Press. p. 521- 524.
[HREF1]
The Australian Schools Web Challenge
[HREF2]
Access CMC
John Eklund and Clark N Quinn, © 1999. The authors assign to Southern Cross University and other educational and non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grant a non-exclusive licence to Southern Cross University to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM and in printed form with the conference papers and for the document to be published on mirrors on the World Wide Web.