INTRODUCING THE INTERNET WITH A VIRTUAL CLASSROOM
J. Pennelope Goforth, University of Alaska Southeast Ketchikan Campus <cybrrcat@revenue.com>
INTRODUCTION
Over the course of a year and a half I taught *Introduction to the
Internet* eight times. This seven-week, one credit college course
focused on the World Wide Web environment, with a few intrepid forays
onto USENET. The virtual classroom environment served as the primary
instructional aid in addition to weekly lecture and lab sessions for
seven of those courses.
I began with six simple core competencies to impart to the students. One goal was for my students to grasp the new learner-empowered paradigm evolving out of the technology at our fingertips. The virtual classroom embodied one of the important new concepts the Internet has provided. Negroponte has described it as "-place without space" (Negroponte 1995) [1]. At the opening session of each course I told students who said they would have to miss a session here or there due to business travel that with the virtual classroom, they needn't miss *any* class sessions.
"I enjoyed using the virtual classroom very much. I liked the convenience of 'anytime', 'anyplace'. It was fun to be able to set up our classroom anywhere, as Bob and I have done several times at the bank. We needed only a couple of phone lines and our PCs." Bank Manager, Week 5
The virtual classroom was a direct experience of McLuhan's classic *the medium is the message*. CybrrCat Productions! , building web sites, converting analog documents into digital formats, consulting with businesses and government agencies on technological solutions, giving presentations on the uses of the Internet to the Chamber of Commerce and other groups. Plus, as every dedicated, knowledgeable citizen in bush Alaska does, I offered to teach what I knew at the local university .
A friend took to describing me as an evangelist and my weekly classes at the Ketchikan Campus as "-services". (Rheingold 1991) [3]He patiently listened to me talk aloud as I constructed the virtual classrooms and suffered through many sessions in front of the screen, testing the navigation of the sites and giving me feedback. He was an excellent subject for this type of review as he knew very little about the Internet. (Tognazinni 1992) [4]In fact his only experience on the Internet occurred in when we visited in New York and spent an evening at the @ Cafe.) A factory trained professional who repairs wrecked cars, he once said his only *mental activity* took place when he was trying to make money or impress a woman. Despite those limitations, he did have a very logical view of things and proved to be an invaluable sounding board for ideas of what constituted an entertaining and educational human-computer interface. (Laurel 1990) [5]
Plus, as any good friend will do for another, he listened when I came home from a class, usually hyper and energized. I described to him the progress of my students: those with a trigger finger, those who had trouble accessing the attendance page, and in general their progress. His sympathetic ear allowed me to better define aloud how I was using the virtual classroom and its effects on my students.
DESCRIPTION OF THE VIRTUAL CLASSROOM
The virtual classroom seemed a very natural tool to use to introduce
people to the Internet since I could build, in a familiar and
controlled space, all the elements they would encounter on the
Internet. But, here they could develop their skills and be
comfortable. (Tognazinni 1992) [6]. Using
simple graphical user interface principles to implement common
Internet Protocols such as mail, chat, FTP, downloading, etc., I
constructed the first virtual classroom from scratch. It consisted of
a two-frame screen with options on the left and the viewing window on
the right. This was intentional as it kept the students within the VC
while they opened other URLs. By embodying the "look and feel" of the
WWW in the virtual classroom, I re-created most of the basic
situations beginning students would encounter on the Internet. It
would serve as a launching place from which, as their skills
developed, they could jump with confidence and ease to any part of
cyberspace which interested them.
"The search I did last week was very fruitful, and I think I'm finally starting to come out of the "fog"! :/ :) " Housewife/Artist, Week 4
Later, I found instructional courseware (WebCT) from the University of BC which extended the functionality of the course through the use of chat rooms, quizzes online, and student management tools. Subsequently, I used WebCT with excellent results.
The elements of the virtual classroom included some traditional items such assyllabus , bibliography, biography of myself, glossary, and course notes, along with Internet-specific attributes such as an attendance page , bulletin board, chat room, email area. All, of course, constructed in emulation of the ultimate theater, the WWW. (McLuhan 1964) [8]The virtual classroom provided a consistently familiar environment in which the students learned to use the tools of the computer to interface with the Internet and the evolving Internet community. The elements were structured to teach them device control, (even computers crashing became instructional opportunities to discuss prevention and salvage techniques!) navigation, and communication techniques needed to successfully access and navigate the Internet:
Basic device control:booting up and logging on the network
manipulating the browser preferences
the six ways to use the mouse
applying keyboard shortcuts accurately
typing URLs
rebooting
Basic navigation tools:
identifying the visual cues in the browser windows
identifying icons
understanding how to identify and use hypertext
Basic communication tools:
sending and receiving email
learning Internet netiquette
participating in chat rooms
subscribing and using listservs
DESCRIPTION OF STUDENTS
Although this course took place in the university environment, it was
open to the general public. The range of students included middle and
high school students, professionals such as bankers, attorneys, state
ferry engineers, college students, retail business owners, retirees
and (perhaps my favorite] grandmothers whose grandchildren had
given them computers! As one might expect with this range of
lifestyles and ages, familiarity with the computing environment
varied from: *just got a computer in the office* to *been using a
computer since 4th grade*. All of them shared a greater or lesser
degree of experience on the Internet from: *use it at the school
library weekly* to *just got a modem*.
"I'm sitting here with my grandchildren, ages 2 and 3, wanting to" play computer" with me! I'm really enjoying everything about the classes, and learning a lot:-) I really enjoyed the emoticons and the abbreviations for use in e-mail and chat rooms :-D" Grandmother, Week 4
Students were motivated to learn; this was an extracurricular class for all of them. Working people sometimes had to tune in from afar on business trips or had to work late the day of class. Some took the classes in order to upgrade career skills (city employees, bank employees, business owners, etc.) while others took it to learn more about a particular field of interest to research on the Internet (primates, where to shop, travel, genealogy, etc.)(McLuhan 1964) [9].
"I have been using the net (almost too much) since taking the class. It does come in real handy at work though! I just printed about 20 pages on the school to work program. So think I'm finally done with my research and will have to start writing soon."Rural High School Principal, Week 5
The physical facility was a lab room with 14 computers: a few agonizingly slow enhanced 486s but mostly Pentium 100s running Windows 95. the computers had no sound or video cards, and various versions of Netscape Navigator and MicroSoft Internet Explorer were installed. No ventilation and ergonomically a chiropractor^"s delight, the classroom reflected the teaching stance of the pre-computer era: board and podium in one central location with a large screen (portable) on one wall and a mounted large monitor on the instructor^"s side. Two rows of students stretched across the room facing the teacher and their monitor screens. This meant, of course, that the teacher couldn^"t see what the student^"s had on their monitors from the front of the class. It was necessary to go back and forth and up and down the rows to assist students and check on their progress.
SEQUENCE OF THE COURSE
Over the course of the year teaching this class, I observed
definable patterns emerge, as the weeks progressed. Perhaps the most
dramatic change occurred at about week 3 for most students. When I
entered the lab for the third week^"s class, my usually intense but
hesitant students had metamorphosed into jabbering socialites,
calling out URLs to each other, jumping up from their seats to run
around the room and see what someone else pulled up on their screen
and completely ignoring my arrival at the podium. Although somewhat
disconcerted at this totally unexpected situation, I observed that
the students were suddenly quite confident on the keyboard and
certainly self-directed. In later classes as this same phenomena
occurred I began to see it as the harbinger of success. Students now
unafraid of the technology, familiar with the tools, and excited by
the content they were discovering on their own had reached a
functional plateau and were now free-ranging delightedly.
The curriculum included students accessing the virtual classroom at least once during the week between lab sessions. They were instructed to send email each week from the attendance page, then proceed to the exercise area and explore the URLs posted there and be prepared to discuss their discoveries in class the following session. These seemingly simple tasks actually require a fair degree of device control. Some students, especially the older ones, needed the entire seven weeks to accomplish this.(Owston 1997) [10]
Each week seemed to have a definable flavor which became more pronounced over the sessions I taught. While a complete examination would run many pages, perhaps just look over my shoulder here for a capsulized glimpse into the virtual classroom as the weeks unfolded:
Week 1: " how do i know if have a browser
Characterized by excitement, hope, and fear, this is where nurturing
the concept that the student really *can* control this environment
begins. An entertaining brief history of the Internet to sets the
tone, then the class moves right into booting up, logging on and in
the process, device control: the six ways of manipulating the mouse,
keyboard shortcuts, and configuring preferences in the browser
windows, and identifying and understanding all the visual cues in the
browser windows
"I think the Internet is rather overwhelming vast; I am sure that nearly anything one might want is out there, it's just a question of *finding* it!" Doctor, Week 1
Week 2: "OK, everyone remember how to scroll?"
Fear is becoming our friend but frustration with the hand/eye
coordination becomes an issue. Here is where we find out who has
*trigger finger*. [11]This individual(s) becomes the center
of attention as I call everyone over to that machine and demonstrate
the *3 Finger Salute*. [12]This is usually met with relief
and for many, signals a sense of control over this ^"stubborn
computer^'
(Turkle 1984) [13]. Everyone assiduously works on correctly keying in the URL (more device control) and the correct email address. As soon as I explain that these things are not written in English and they should cease to read them as such, tensions ease somewhat. One of the big thrills begins this week when they email each other in class and receive the emails.
"Virtual Classroom certainly makes sense for this type of class--but I ran into a lot of slowness and non-working. It was also frustrating when passwords didn't work, but it all worked out fine, just time consuming." Marine Engineer, Week 2
Week 3 "Teacher?! We don"t need no stinking teacher!"
This is a turning point for many students, resulting in the
triumphant chaos in the classroom I referred to at the beginning of
this section. (Gates 1995) [14] Here we
spend a little less time working on device control; they can make the
connections between the visual cues on the screen and what is
happening to their queries. They no longer call out ^"Are you sure
that^"s the right URL? I can^"t get there!" and instead patiently
rekey in the URLs. They know what hypertext is, how to recognize it,
and how to access it. At this plateau, with their confidence up, we
tackle search engines for real work and they reap the delights of the
Right Click Trick.[15]
"I have had a little trouble with the [virtual] classroom, But I think that it'll work out in the end. All of the bugs are simple ones but it's new so I understand. I am glad I took this class because I am learning a lot of stuff." High School Student, Week 3
Week 4:"Please, people, sending each other warnings about
viruses *is* the virus!"
We next dispel the bugaboo of the Net, viruses. The students are able
to integrate the device control techniques with navigation. They
follow along on a site, drill down to their target and download the
information into a directory structure. We tackle the glossary with a
pop quiz here, right after discussing compression. Freeware is very
popular this week. As hand/eye/mind coordination improves, we discuss
theoretical netiquette issues like intellectual property and
copyright as well as the ethics and costs of spamming while
navigating to relevant sites at the same time.
^'I've been in the classroom a few times this week[ using the student bulletin board]. Still waiting a reply from Monica. I've discovered she's also from Montana and has information regarding campgrounds on the way there." Middle School Teacher
Week 5: ^"OK, like I'm using these Boolean techniques but I
still can't find ...."
Questions about how to do it better, faster are common now. We settle
down into issues of content and more sophisticated navigation and
tool usage. To bring back those who are out cruising on their own, I
move the communications beyond the class and out to listservs. This
is a real test of skills: finding, subscribing and posting to a list
requires the use of nearly all their new tools (and most of the class
time). Then a bit on USENET. (Words of caution precede this trip to
USENET. In fact, if I have a lot of younger students in the class, I
don^"t go there. This is made somewhat easier by the fact that our
campus does not subscribe to any news services. We work with
DejaNews, instead.)
^'I tried to sign up for a list. I found one that sounded interesting on chocolate. The blurb said to sent a request in a certain format to a certain address to request more information to make sure the list is a public list, etc.... So I did and got a response back with the exact same information LISZT had. Computers are always so much fun even if you don't understand them!" City Librarian, Week 5
Week 6: ^"Would you give your credit card number to a complete
stranger??"
The students move confidently now into substantive issues like safe
shopping. Again, using a shopping cart exercises many of their newly
learned skills. Their vocabulary is much expanded and they exhibit no
hesitation asking about incomprehensible acronyms like SSL. Here we
evaluate the sources of information we find and question the vendors
about their wares. The concept of shareware, *try before you buy*,
sparks a long discussion about the future of consumerism as we know
it.
^'My purpose in taking the class was just to force myself to have to figure out how to get started, get somewhere, etc. (Not real high expectations.) Lots of the language is real new to me and I just needed to hear it for awhile and begin to try. So my expectations have been fully met. I now use the net every night at home for research and e-mail and with kids at school." Business Woman, Week 6
Week 7 : "Par-tay!"
By this time, the students are doing so well with the device control,
navigation and communication aspects that no one pales at the
introduction of plug-ins. They are better able to digest yet another
complex set of instructions to achieve a goal; for example, getting
the Shockwave plug-in to see a QuickTime movie. Then, we head for the
chat rooms. Java crashed some of the computers, but that didn^"t
deter them from huddling together over another more powerful
computer. Socialization continues at a very high level and
friendships are forged. (I am aware of at least once romance which
blossoming out of class emails.) The final exam is usually a hunt for
a particular nugget of information which they have to find, verify or
debug, and download. Finally, I hand out certificates emblazoned with
the Netscape browser logo which everyone accepts with justified
pride.
"I"m going to frame this and put it on my wall, yes ma'am! Right in my office next to my law degree." Elderly Attorney, Week 7
CONCLUSION
I did one course, session 5, without a virtual classroom, just to see
if made much difference in how students learned the core
competencies. The course didn^"t run as well. I used more handouts
and talked a lot more *about* techniques rather than illustrating in
the virtual class environment and having students practice there. As
a whole, the class seemed a little slower in developing their device
control skills. Certainly in the cases of vocabulary and email, they
did as well as the other classes. I also found myself interrupted a
lot more and spent more time at individual stations with students
which made it more difficult to keep the group together. (Always a
challenge given the range of computer experience!)
Overall, I found the virtual classroom to be the ideal tool to introduce people of all experiential levels to the Internet. In a familiar environment that they could go to any time at their own pace, most students felt more at ease and better able to absorb instructions and then later, use those instructions to accomplish their online tasks in a short period of time. In the areas of device control and navigation, I found that a familiar environment with everyone working on the same example on the same page kept the group learning together better and faster than the students who used disparate real-life examples on the Internet.
ENDNOTES
[1]Nicholas Negroponte, well
known lecturer and professor at MIT wrote in Being Digital, ^"In the
same ways that hypertext removes the limitations of the printed page,
the post-information age will remove the limitations of geography.
Digital living will include less and less dependence upon being in a
specific place at a specific time, and the transmission of place
itself will start to become possible." p.165.
[2]^'^'The medium is the message^' means, in terms of the electronic age, that a totally new environment has been created." p. vii wrote McLuhan in 1964 at the very eve of the creation of the Internet.
[3]. ^"The cyberspace experience is destined to transform us in other ways because it is an undeniable reminder of a fact we are hypnotized since birth to ignore and deny--that our normal state of consciousness is itself a hyperrealistic simulation." wrote Howard Rheingold, Howard in Virtual Reality, p. 387. I have to say that I agree totally with Rheingold on this fascinating point and perhaps the ecstasy of the experience is what my boyfriend perceived in my demeanor.
[4]In one of *the* greatest books on interface Bruce Tognazinni got it exactly right: ^"People don^"t want the most abstract interface. they want multiple channels of information. They want neither just words nor just pictures. They want both. The more visual, verbal, vocal, and tactile the interface is, the more natural it feels, the more feedback and response it provides, and the more confident the user becomes." Tog on Interface, p. 126. He spoke of operating systems, games and entertainment; I found his axioms apply equally well, if not better, to educational computer-mediated experiences like virtual classrooms.
[5]By comparing cyberspace to a theatrical production, and further, one based on ancient Greek notions of theater, Brenda Laurel puts the construction of the a virtual classroom beyond mere pedagogy. For me the challenge became knowing how to teach certain mundane tasks, such as mouse control, using high theater techniques.
[6]Tognazzini: ^"The user's sense of control arises from neither tyranny nor anarchy but from the freedom of a supportive environment constructed of reasonable and consistent rules." p. 225
[7]^"Develop a simple, smooth design model, reflective of the needs of the user, no the limitations of the hardware or the difficulty of the coding process." p. 131, Ibid.
[8]I have always been struck with McLuhan^"s analogy of words v images: ^"Suppose that, instead of displaying the Stars and Stripes, we were to write the words ^"American flag^' across a piece of cloth and to display that," p.82.
[9]^"Until the electric age, higher education had been a privilege and luxury for the leisured classes; today it has become a necessity for production and survival," p.103. Ibid. This has certainly been the case with many of my students, both in the university environment as well as the private sector, where many intimidated adults, even those nearing retirement, are expected to use the computer the boss put on their desk.
[10]Ron Owston mentions in the section titled ^"Web Appeals to Students^" Learning Mode^' that ^"students in public schools and in a good many colleges and universities do not know a world without the computer^'. I found this to be equally true in the opposite sense: the older students were much more verbally oriented and had difficulty in the visually icon-rich environment of the WWW.
[11] I came up with this term after observing so many people clicking uncontrollably on the mouse when their queries or efforts received no immediate response. Oftentimes, although this trigger action is what causes the computer to crash (overloaded with commands it can't process), most people were unaware that they were even doing this!
[12] Simultaneously holding down the Control-Alt-Delete keys which in Windows 95 indicates the non-responsive application, allowing one to End Task rather than improperly shutting down the computer.
[13]Turkle, Sherry. (1984) ^"In the child^"s animistic world, objects can have the power of active agents, with unknown, perhaps sinister intentions...They play with and manipulate objects to get a sense of control over their powers," p. 41. This is true of adults as well! ^"It doesn^"t want to go there!" ^"This thing is so stubborn!" ^"Maybe it has a virus." All these animistic attitudes became less prevalent as the course progressed. Placating the gods of the computer gave way to accurately using the devices.
[14]As a visionary, Bill Gates^" comment in The Road Ahead is already a known factoid: ^"The [information] highway will alter the focus of education from the institution to the individual. The ultimate goal will be changed from getting a diploma to enjoying lifelong learning, " p. 204. Indeed, I felt I was most effective as a *facilitator* of learning rather than a repository of teachings. I wanted to reconfigure the real classroom to position myself not at the front of the class, *sage on a stage* style, but at the back of the room where I could see the monitor activity and function better as a coach.
[15] Holding down the right button on a two-button mouse over an image in Windows 95 calls up a popup menu which allows you to choose to save the graphic image on a WWW page.
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Kapi`olani Community College
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