David W. Brooks

Broken Links: The Ephemeral Nature of Educational WWW Hyperlinks

The use of distributed (Internet) resources to enhance both traditional and distance education has caused much excitement in the science education community. However, one of the difficulties with relying on such freely available distributed resources has been the lack of certainty that the resources will be available for students next month, next semester, or next year. We have recently been involved in the development of three graduate-level biochemistry courses designed for high school teachers. Development of these courses relied heavily upon distributed science education resources. As a consequence, they represented a set of authentic science education resources that could be monitored over time to determine their rate of extinction. In total, the three courses contained 515 nonredundant URLs representing either scientific content of science education pedagogy. These have been monitored on a monthly basis during the 14 months since the creation of the courses (August 2000). During this period 85 (16.5%) of the URLs have ceased to function or had their content changed. The most attrition was seen in URLs with the “edu,” “com,” and “org” domain names, in which 17.5, 16.4, and 11% have already become inaccessible.

“Link rot” limits the usefulness of web‐based educational materials in biochemistry and molecular biology*

The differential stability of biochemistry and molecular biology Web page resources based on their domain designation is described. Many teachers have been excited by the potential enrichment of placing hyperlinks to Internet distributed educational resources within the class materials available to their students. However, there seems to be a belated realization that such hyperlinked resources are not necessarily stable and often disappear, causing frustration for both instructor and students. We recently developed three graduate‐level biochemistry and molecular biology courses for distance delivery to high school teachers that relied heavily on such Web‐based distributed resources. The 515 hyperlinked Web pages in these courses represent a set of authentic science education resources that were monitored for 24 months since their creation (August 2000). During this time, over 20% of the URLs have been victims of “link rot,” becoming nonviable, moving without automatic forwarding, or having their content changed.

Cookbook Procedures in MBL Physics Exercises

This paper presents the results of a controlled experiment comparing the conceptual mechanics learning gains as measured by the FCI between two laboratory groups. One group completed cookbook labs while the other completed the IE labs in RealTime Physics.

The Unified Learning Model

The Unified Learning Model (ULM) is a model of how people learn and a resulting model of teaching and instruction. The academic literature is filled with models about learning, teaching and instruction. The most obvious question then is, “Why do we need another theory/model of learning?” Our answer is that the current literature contains only limited theories about isolated specific learning and instructional phenomena. As a result each of these theories explains some, but not all learning phenomena. In addition, each tends to have its own vocabulary. The result is a hodge-podge of specific learning principles and teaching guidelines that often seem in conflict with each other.

Applying cognitive theory to chemistry instruction: the case for worked examples

The case for chemistry instruction based on worked examples is presented, using a contemporary model of human learning. We begin by detailing human cognitive architecture and outlining the Interactive Compensatory Model of Learning (ICML). Through the ICML, the role of motivation, deliberate practice and feedback are detailed as key variables in the development of expertise. Using instructional examples, the strategy of worked example-based learning is described and contrasted with more open-ended forms of instruction. The learning mechanism inherent in instruction based on worked examples is shown to be theoretically consistent with the principles of the ICML.

Using Personal Digital Assistants in Clinical Supervision of Student Teachers

Journaling is an important tool to help student teachers reflect on the nature of the student teaching experience. The communication of journals to student teacher supervisors is enhanced greatly by using e-mail. Previously we described software that can be used to enhance journaling. This software included tools to facilitate writing field notes during in-class observations by the supervisor. E-mail exchange largely has supplanted the need for an electronic journaling tool. Here we describe flexible strategies using a personal digital assistant (PalmPilot) to facilitate the development of field notes during observations. These notes are then readily communicated to the student teacher by several means including e-mail.

The Emerging Role of CD-ROMs in Teaching Chemistry

Learning chemistry requires students to relate chemical equations and other symbolic notation both to molecular or atomic events and to macroscopic laboratory observations and data. Traditionally, textbooks have provided symbolic notation with minimal pictures of either microscopic events or macroscopic events leaving the teacher and student to conjure these pictures from words. This paper describes the design of several CD-ROMs with very different strategies and focus for teaching general chemistry with large databases of visual information. Teacher tools for preparation facilitate the planning of more hands-on laboratory experiences and live demonstrations to develop laboratory observation skills. Presentation materials provide animations of abstract microscopic events and concepts to help teachers explain these molecular and atomic events. Students improve observation skills in laboratories with supplemental computer tutorials that mimic the decision making required for laboratory tasks in a virtual laboratory, but students reinforce the experience and learn techniques with practice in a real laboratory. New college textbooks on CD-ROM, that integrate the molecular animations and laboratory experiments with the introduction of new terms and symbolic representations, portend large changes in all textbooks.

Bumble Boosters: Students Doing Real Science

Bumble Boosters was a lottery grant funded cooperative project between the University of Nebraska – Lincoln Department of Entomology, the Lincoln Public Schools Science Focus Program, and the Lincoln Folsom Childrens Zoo. The primary education goal of the project was to create a community of learners to conduct authentic research on bumble bees in Nebraska. Participants were actively engaged in collecting bumble bees and placing nesting domiciles. Internet technology was employed to facilitate networking between project participants. Systematic evaluation was conducted during and after the project.

Lecturing; Multimedia Classrooms

This manuscript was developed from Chapter 14 of Web-Teaching [Brooks, 1997]. It was selected by the editor as having the information for the widest audience of this Journal. The chapter includes two topics. The first encourages teachers to convert current lecture materials to Web-ready formats and use these for in-classroom lecture presentations. The second deals with issues of creating multimedia classrooms.

Developing and Sustaining K–12 School Technology Innovation Through Lottery Grant Awards: A Multiple Case Study

This qualitative, descriptive, multiple case study investigated the impact of technology-focused grants, funded by state lottery proceeds, on four schools in a Midwestern state. Participants were selected from a list of 11 projects identified by the administrative agency overseeing the grant program as successful projects based on data the schools self-reported. At the time of the study, all projects had been completed for at least 1 year. The four schools selected for the study ranged from a small, rural school in a geographically isolated area of the state, to a large urban high school in the states largest city. Several themes evolved through interviews with 13 key school personnel: defining innovation, expectations vs. reality, individual project roles, technology planning and implementation, and the grant writing process. The data were collected through a variety of qualitative methods including semi-structured interviews, e-mail, review of formal documents, and observations of the settings in which the educator worked. Findings highlighted the differences in resources among large and small schools, the impact of individuals on a schools culture and instructional practice, the role of the states educational support services in school and curriculum innovation, and the role of technology in educational practice.