Home School Resources
Several examples of home school resources and partnerships associated with Web-based learning are currently found in University education centers, in school districts, and in parental organizations. Below are a few examples of the type of Web support available to home schools:
When planning curricula for the elementary student population, it
helps to review some of the resources already available and determine whether
incorporating them into your environment is effective.
Outside the United States, there are several other projects that
provide resources and links to school age children around the world. These
resources include newsletters, specific curriculum assistance for grammar
school teachers, and the formation of networked organizations and experts.
The majority of Web-based resources consist of links to networks of schools
where one can then follow the links to specific projects within each school.
Some links to these projects are:
Adult Instructional Strategies
Several instructional strategies have proven useful for adults.
The table below provides a summary of the types of teaching strategies
that relate to specific adult learner characteristics.
| Adult Learner Characteristic | Teaching Strategy |
| Bring a rich reservoir of knowledge and experience that can serve as a resource for learning | Use your students as resources for yourself and for other students. Allow them to take a leadership role in the class – even to “teach” certain portions of the class to other students. Encourage dialogue that brings out their experiences. Use a reflection process for assignments (e.g., keeping journals, writing reflection papers, summarizing). |
| Possess established values, beliefs, and opinions that need an opportunity to be expressed and evaluated against the new knowledge | Take time to clarify student expectations of the course; permit debate and the challenge of ideas; be careful to protect minority opinions within the class; incorporate opposing opinions in assignments whenever possible. |
| Expect to be treated as mature, thinking individuals and wish to be part of a community of like-minded learners | Treat questions and comments with respect; acknowledge contributions students make to the class; do not expect students to necessarily agree with your plan for the course. Develop collaboration projects by using group assignments to maintain interest, help develop a learning community, and facilitate students' application of higher order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation |
| Want to feel self-directed, with opportunities for review or more in-depth research as desired | Engage students in designing the learning process; expect students to want more than one medium for learning and to want control over the learning pace and start/stop times. Encourage the learner to go beyond the immediate course content, to discover and construct new knowledge. Instead, give options for additional research or study. |
| Take a problem-centered approach to learning and desire application to the real-world environment in which they live/work | Show immediately how new knowledge or skills can be applied to current problems or situations; use participatory techniques such as case studies, role-playing, and problem-solving groups. Ask for examples of how it can be used in students' lives. |
| Express less interest in survey (theory) types of courses and more interest in problem-solving and product creation | Focus on theories and concepts within the context of their applications to relevant problems; orient the course content toward direct applications rather than toward theory alone. Encourage implementation of theories in their work/life environment and then follow up with a reflective process to help in assimilation of the theory. |
| Exhibit great variation in learning styles (individual differences increase with age, as does the desire to use a variety of styles to comprehend) | Use a variety of teaching materials and methods to take into account differences in style, time, types, and pace of learning (e.g., text, graphics, discussions, simulations, writing, direct application to their work/home environment). |
| Accept responsibility for their own learning if the subject is perceived as timely and appropriate | Establish peer study groups and incorporate peer reviews to encourage students to discuss their work. Provide a means for students to share their work with the entire class, such as creating a Web page to display their work. |
Planning and Designing Web-based Access and Interface Based on Student Needs
A typical virtual student or teacher minimum computer configuration
today might be as follows:
| Minimum Hardware Configuration | Minimum Software Configuration |
|
|
Define Page Types. Once you have defined and created a theme
template, you should next define all the page types you will need in a
typical virtual classroom environment and what elements are common to each
and different in each. Depending on your design, these pages may be combined
to form one page with internal links, or used separately. You may also
elect to have each teacher define which pages are combined and which are
separate. The key, again, is to ensure a consistent theme and navigation.
A table of typical page types is below.
| Page Type | Description | Commonalities and Differences |
| Home Page or Welcome Page | Usually serves as an introduction to the course or curriculum. Should be colorful, inviting, interesting, and motivational. | Frequently the home page will also contain navigational links. The home page should be separate from the Syllabus. Because it is the first page seen by the student, it needs to be welcoming and encouraging. |
| Navigational Page or Index Page | Introduces the structure of the course and offers quick links to important sections of the course. It may be offered as a separate page or part of a constant frame seen by the user.Make sure the links are listed separately somewhere so students don't have to go on a treasure hunt to find them. | The navigational information may be part of several other pages. It may be separated by a frame or integrated into pages. You might also select a combination wherein major category navigation is provided on the Index page and minor category navigation is provided within content or activity pages. |
| Calendar Pages | Usually a graphical calendar used to show important dates within the course. It may include assignment due dates, course start and end dates, specific test dates, etc. | May not be part of the course at all. May be made available as a pop-up window or separate frame. May be integrated with other course pages. |
| Syllabus Pages | Provides a course outline and specific instructions for taking the course and the expectations. Frequently includes due dates, assignments, and grading procedures. | Usually maintained as a separate page. May be shared by several course sections and, thus, several instructors and students. |
| Content Pages | The primary page structure within a course and may contain all the other course-related pages (activities, lecture notes, study guides) as well. This page should be the least structured as it changes significantly from course to course.If content is provided in a frame, make sure the frame can be opened as a separate page for students who want to print it. | The only template elements are usually a header and footer style and
perhaps specific background selection. These pages should allow for the
greatest latitude in individual design and use.
|
| Activity Pages | May be assignments, links, special interactions designed for the course (e.g., role plays, simulations, homework specifics). Sometimes activity pages are divided into Web-based activity and non Web-based activity, such as reading the textbook. | Specific design elements for activity types should be consistent. For example, a consistent icon for chat, discussion board, whiteboard, role-play, reading, etc. However, as with content pages, these pages should allow for a great deal of latitude in individual design of the activities. |
| Lecture Notes or Instructor
Notes Pages |
Different from content pages in that these pages generally provide static information. They may be presented in a sequential structure with some navigational links forward and backward or to outside resources. | Frequently the Notes pages are included as part of the Content pages. The key is to have consistent headers and footers and for navigation to be easy to follow. Usually text based, it helps to have a template for colors of heads, subheads, indentations, etc. just as you would in a word processed document. |
| Study Guide Pages | Used as the primary source for describing how the student might best master the material in the course. Often used as a resource in preparing for tests, labs, homework, etc. | Frequently incorporated as part of the Content pages or the Syllabus. May be a summary page of several assignments contained in Content pages. Should provide common headers and footers with the rest of the course and be easy to find and navigate. |
There are a number of sites on the Web with information about Web page design. One nicely presented site with good examples is by Bonnie Skalid.
Site Screening for Children and Parents. You can purchase client software that will screen sites. Some of the popular programs are:
Another way of screening is to have all monitored browsers send their URL requests through a proxy system that checks whether the request is appropriate. The proxy computer that handles the requests maintains a list of banned sites or search words. For an example, see the site at BessNet. If you elect to do this and build your own system of banned sites or search words, you may wish to subscribe to a rating service like Shepherd.Checking Server Security. No system connected to a network is completely secure. However, there are programs that will probe your server for security weaknesses and then report those weaknesses to you. Some programs will also provide a tutorial on how to resolve those weaknesses. You can find a set of free utilities that will do this as well.
In addition, there are software packages that will audit your security system to check for holes, and packages that will check to see if files have been altered since the last time a program was run. Tripwire is a file alteration checker: A popular site for auditing packages or generating certicates of security is at Cert.org.
Secure Encryption Services. The most widely used system recognized today is Secure Socket Layer (SSL) which was developed by Netscape. To use this system, you must obtain an HTTP server that supports it. This server extension varies depending on your operating system and your geographic location.
Netscape's Commerce Server for NT/UNIX
Commerce Builder for Windows NT
For Apache inside the U.S.
try Stronghold
For Apache outside the
U.S. try Apache-SSL
Rules for Passwords. It is wise to give all users specific
guidelines when selecting passwords. Here is a list you may wish to offer
your students when choosing their password:
Once users have selected passwords and you have stored them in a password file, you may wish to run a utility to check whether the passwords are secure. One such utility for Unix systems is called "Crack." If the Crack program guesses a password, it reports the name of the user to you. This user can then be told to choose a better password.
Computer Viruses. Anti-viral software often encompasses two very separate functions -- virus scanning and virus cleaning. Most of the current top applications integrate these dual functions. It is wise to also require that remote students have a virus program resident on their computers. Two top virus scanning programs are:
There are a number of other virus packages, some that run on operating systems not supported by McAfee or Norton, and others that are Freeware. For one review of the top packages, check Stroud’s Virus Scanner Review.Education is the best preventative in your fight against viruses. Consider providing a guide sheet to students and teachers that clearly describes how viruses are acquired and how they can prevent them and eradicate them. Virus hoaxes also abound on the Web and can spread quickly through student emails. One way to educate users about hoax emails is to point them to the premier Myths and Hoax sites.
Selecting or Creating a Course Management System (CMS)
There are a number of tools available today for assisting educators and administrators in building and maintaining Web-based learning environments. The question for many educators is “which tool should I use?” Of course, there is no one answer that meets everyone’s needs. The best approach is to read reviews of tools and then to test out three or four tools by actually putting up the same class using each tool. For comparisons performed by other universities you may wish to begin your search by accessing the following sites:
Marshall
University's comprehensive site
University of Wisconsin's
Comparisons
University
of Wales' Comparisons