Zdena Lustigova

Remote and open laboratory in science education — Technological, educational and psychological issues

This paper will describe how a scientifically exact and problem-solving-oriented remote and virtual science experimental environment might help to build a new strategy for science education. The main features of the new strategy are (1) the remote observations and control of real world phenomena, possibly materialized in data, their processing and evaluation, (2) verification of hypotheses combined with the development of critical thinking, supported by (3) sophisticated relevant information search, classification and storing tools and (4) collaborative environment, supporting argumentative writing and teamwork. Remote and Open Laboratory has been developed and used by Charles University in Prague since 1996, offered to science students and teachers since 2003.

A New Virtual and Remote Experimental Environment for Teaching and Learning Science

This paper describes how a scientifically exact and problem-solving-oriented remote and virtual science experimental environment might help to build a new strategy for science education. The main features are: the remote observations and control of real world phenomena, their processing and evaluation, verification of hypotheses combined with the development of critical thinking, supported by sophisticated relevant information search, classification and storing tools and collaborative environment, supporting argumentative writing and teamwork, public presentations and defense of achieved results, all either in real presence, in telepresence or in combination of both. Only then real understanding of generalized science laws and their consequences can be developed. This science learning and teaching environment (called ROL - Remote and Open Laboratory), has been developed and used by Charles University in Prague since 1996, offered to science students in both formal and informal learning, and also to science teachers within their professional development studies, since 2003.

The role of virtual and remote labs in promoting conceptual understanding of students

Laboratory-based courses play a critical role in science education, yet there is a disagreement between science and engineering educators about whether and which types of technology mediated lab works should be involved to promote better conceptual understanding, design skills and professional skills of learners. In this study we focused on the evaluation of an efficiency of different types of e-labs, using Ma, Nickerson four dimensional models of educational goals. We found different patterns and enlarged the model to 5 dimensions. We tried to clearly specify the differences, advantages and disadvantages of all 3 kinds of e-labs according to educational goals to be reached. We also tried to investigate which aspects of the laboratory experience are most essential to learners and if those lab characteristics have a relationship to learner characteristics or prior experience.In the second part of the study we focused on investigating (not verifying) the hypothesis, that it is not the actual nature of the laboratories, but the beliefs that students and teachers have about them, that may determine the effectiveness of different lab types.

New e-learning environments for teaching and learning Science

Online learning is developing along the lines of integrated learning and combining multiple approaches; but until now, it has very rarely included virtual and remote experimental environments to form a unified body of information and knowledge.

Learning object repositories as a way to teachers communities

This paper presents a short part of a larger comparative study of national or international projects and existing Web sites, aiming at creating learning objects repositories and presenting themselves as environments for building virtual communities. The general description of selected sites and projects is followed by the identification of key factors, out of these accessibility to public, browsing and contributing materials, publishing rules and functions are illustrated, compared, and discussed in the paper. The authors, also the developers of one of the compared sites (Telmae), aim to help the project managers to identify critical features, which might affect the project sustainability and maintenance of the site after financial sources are restricted

Mining physiological data for automated feedback in virtual learning environments

Authors present the great potential of data, obtained from real time physiological measurement, for immediate and individualized reaction on the learning process of the learning subject in virtual learning environments. The simple, non invasive, easily available and cheap methods like eyes tracking, blink rate and blink speed measurements, electrodermal activities measurements, and heart and/or respiration rate, are emphasized for their potential to reflect decreasing attention, increasing visual or cognitive information load, task difficulty, tension, stress and fatigue. Presented paper highlights the advantages and constraints of different data acquisition approaches, as well as constraints, done by hardware and software limits, and discusses their future potential for the out of laboratory uses.

Building Virtual Communities and Virtual Teams of Science teachers – the case of Telmae

As an example of national and international effort on this field, and concrete model of solution, the author presents TELMAE Virtual Community Environment (VCE) and Learning Object Repository (LOR), developed at Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague, for interactive online support of science education and educators. The virtual community of teachers was built mainly within the frame of “State Information Policy in Education Program” (2002–2005) when app. 500 physic teachers participated, and within “New Ways to Science Education” project (2006–2008, app. 350 participants).

Role of Online Supportive Environment in Professional Development of In-service Teachers - Case of TELMAE

The paper provides a structured overview drawing on the results of the first four years of a country-wide activity focused on professional development of science teachers. This activity, organized by the Laboratory of Distance Education, Charles University in Prague within the framework of the State Information Policy (SIP) in Education Program, started in 2001, and it has become one of the top online learning activities in the country. The paper introduces the whole developed system of in-service teacher training on a “voluntary basis” and focuses on the TELMAE Science Teachers’ Online Supportive Environment, developed also at the Laboratory of Distance Education at Charles University. The TELMAE supportive environment incorporates several features and communication, information, monitoring and controlling tools used for management and coordination of distributed systems of online courses. The key factors of the project are discussed at the end of the paper.