Effects of SURWEB Sixth Grade Social Studies - Appendix H SURWEB Summative Evaluation Report 1995-2000

Chapters:5

1| 2| 3| 4| 5

References

Additional References

Appendices:

A | B | C | D | E
F | G | H | I | J

Contacts:

SURWEB
Dr. F. Lynn Bills
Director
435-637-1173

Media, Analysis & Practice
Kathleen Tyner
About the Author

Appendix H

The Effects of SURWEB Hypermedia Construction on the Development of Complex Knowledge Structures, Creative Thinking, and Research
Process Skills of Utah Sixth Grade Social Studies Students

Dr. Lee A. Montgomery
and Graduate Students of the
College of Education
Southern Utah University
Montgomery@suu.edu

INTRODUCTION

For the past two decades, a plethora of national reports have indicated that American public school students have been lagging behind their international counterparts in such areas as mathematics, science and technology (National Commission of Excellence in Education, 1983; National Research Council, Board on Mathematical Sciences, 1989; The United States Congress Office of Technology Assessment, 1995). Since the early eighties, these reports have prompted the examination of our schools’ curricula and fueled the drive for school reform (Knapp & Glenn, 1996). The contention of these and a host of other studies is that schools need to shift their focus from transmitting information to students to enabling them to seek information, process it and thereby construct their own knowledge (Knapp & Glenn).

A growing recognition on the part of educators of the inappropriateness of traditional views of teachers as all-knowing disseminators of knowledge and students as passive recipients has resulted in new ways of thinking about the process of teaching and learning. New models which focus on the use of multimedia and communications technologies as tools to assist teachers in helping students take responsibility for their own learning, become knowledge explorers and collaborate with others to solve real problems are a natural outgrowth of a new emphasis on engaged and active learning. (Garrett & Weiner, 1998; Barker, 1999).

Knapp and Glenn (1996) present such a model aimed at examining differences between transmissive (traditional) schools and restructured (Constructivist) ones. Central to their model is a paradigm shift which focuses on students learning to construct their own knowledge by engaging in “activities that require them to think critically, solve problems, and seek answers to their own questions” (Knapp and Glenn, p. 7). To accomplish this shift, the curriculum and classroom learning environment are restructured to facilitate student inquiry, research, and problem solving activities. This shift in emphasis also requires a concomitant shift in assessment techniques. In their model, traditional short answer and essay tests are supplanted by authentic situations in which students are required to demonstrate their ability to express, apply and defend their knowledge and skills. Technology also plays a pivotal role in the configuration of a Constructivist school. Knapp and Glenn call for the integration of technologies which support “research, analysis, problem-solving, and communication” (Knapp and Glenn, p. 7). Many researchers (Beal, 1995; Johnson, 1994; Liu, 1998) believe that, used in this context, hypermedia development can help students construct knowledge, develop higher order thinking skills and, possibly, promote problem-solving skills.

As new models of learning have been developed, it has been recognized that learners act as active constructors of knowledge (Duffy and Jonassen, 1992). Within this constructivist framework, which is concerned with the process of how we construct meanings of our world as well as the results of the constructive process, cognitive tools can help learners organize, restructure and represent what they know. Jonassen and Reeves (1996) have summarized the foundations of cognitive tools research and have identified the following key principles in the context of hypermedia design:

	Cognitive tools have their greatest effectiveness when they are applied to constructivist learning environments.
	Cognitive tools empower learners to design their own representations of knowledge rather than absorbing knowledge representations preconceived by others.
	Ideally, tasks or problems for the application of cognitive tools should be situated in realistic contexts with results that are personally meaningful to learners. (p. 698).

Of central concern for educators is how to best utilize these cognitive tools in a way that will help their students develop the ability to think for themselves, apply concepts that they learn and analyze and evaluate the material that they study. In a nutshell, students need to be able to manipulate various technologies in a way that will enable them to synthesize information, construct knowledge and ultimately learn how to think for themselves. Montgomery (1999) suggests that by implementing an innovative approach based on SURWEB’s media shows and learning, these goals can be positively addressed through the use of student created hypermedia presentations.

SURWEB (http://www.surweb.org), a federally funded project aimed at providing resources to students and teachers in remote, rural areas, provides application technologies which allow students to manipulate Internet based multimedia. In addition to acquiring a large number of pictures and text, SURWEB has also developed a media presentation tool that enables users to easily access and organize all forms of digital information and then to display their products in a simple, yet professional manner. The SURWEB presentation tool allows users to: 1) visit a site of interest and view the relevant information available on-line; 2) select images and text to make a media presentation utilizing multimedia from the database of images, texts and sounds; and 3) choose to import or upload images, sounds and text from any source in order to customize and enhance the media presentation. The software application has been extensively field tested and upgraded according to formative evaluation.

The most often used SURWEB hypermedia tool feature is the import site, where students and teachers can select data from other sites on the Internet to build classroom projects. In the past five years, more than 7,000 user-created projects of this type have been created and stored for later use on the SURWEB server. The use of SURWEB hypermedia tools encourages knowledge creation through the ability to research, access, evaluate, organize, and display information that is relevant to the content and performance standards for the classroom. In addition, the tools are useful for peer coaching, collaborative learning, and the accommodation of a greater variety of student orientations to learning.

This action research study will explore the use of SURWEB media shows as cognitive tools for creating interactive learning environments in a seventh grade social studies classroom.