1 Introduction
In 1992, as part of their work with Global Lab, an environmentally- focused network science curriculum developed at TERC, students at Pease Middle School in San Antonio, Texas examined their classroom's indoor air quality. They determined that over the course of a school day, carbon dioxide levels exceeded the recommended limit of 1000 parts per million. Mindful of complaints about poor air throughout the school, the students went on to conduct a school-wide survey of air quality in other locations and sought the opinions of the faculty. CO2 levels in other classrooms were as high as 2100 ppm. Outdoor CO2 readings were 350 ppm. The class's results were presented to the school board, which dispatched four environmental control officers to investigate. Their teacher, Linda Maston, reported on the computer network what ensued.
They [the officers] first went into the counseling office
where the counselors and teachers told them about what was
going on. They were not impressed, so they were brought to
our classroom. As soon as we pulled out the data and the
graphs showing the patterns that we had found, they suddenly
started to take notes.
The officers decided to make readings with their professional equipment. Linda continued:
The moment of glory came this afternoon when they showed up
with the same kind of tubes we had, and their fancy pump got
exactly the same reading as we had with our syringe version!
The students used the Alice Network Software to post a request on the Global Lab network for collaborative data:
What are some of the CO2 levels that people are getting
inside their various classrooms? Ours are just extremely high.
From their Global Lab colleagues in Aiken, South Carolina, the students
received this reply:
Hello San Antonio: We read your report about carbon dioxide and
have a similar case here in Aiken, SC. All of our classrooms
have windows but we did a project which tried to test the
carbon dioxide levels in the trailers where a lot of our
classes are. Dr. Borst thought that they would have higher
levels. Not!! The regular classrooms had higher levels...
We explained this by the hallways. Regular classrooms open into
hallways, while the trailers open into the outdoors... So when
the class changes you get fresh air in the trailers. In the
regular classroom you get stale air from the hall. Kennedy
Middle School, Aiken, SC.
From their experiments, the students had concluded that high CO2 levels were the cause of the poor air at Pease. But after on-line discussions with Ken Muzal, an air quality and industrial hygiene specialist who was serving as a Global Lab mentor-scientist, they went on to conclude:
Given the nature of our school, how it was built, and the
pattern of CO2 levels that we had observed . . .it was very
obvious that we had a problem with inadequate ventilation.
The students' actions had demanded responsibility and results; in turn, the school's ventilation system was repaired. Not only had the students conducted authentic scientific research, their findings had made a true difference in their lives and in their community. As Linda concluded:
The CO2 study was [the students'] pride and joy. They were
just so pleased and proud of themselves that they had managed
to do what nobody else had been able to accomplish in 17 years.
To have their data taken seriously by adults in general, and
the district in particular, was just awesome for them.
Goals
The Testbed for Telecollaboration ("The Testbed") and its
predecessor, the Alice/Collaborative Inquiry Testbed, were
initially funded by the National Science Foundation in 1992
to test the conjecture that student and teacher collaboration
via telecommunications would have beneficial impact on the learning and
teaching of science. The expectation was that the Testbed results
would be helpful to practitioners in making use of new technology as
it becomes available to classrooms, to project administrators and
curriculum writers as they create new curriculum projects, and to
educational leaders and policy-makers as they address issues about
how best to improve science education.
A New Vision
Science education is in dire need of improvement. Educators
have learned the limitations of textbook science, where
students' involvement is limited to learning about the
discoveries of others. In contrast, a new vision for
learning science has emerged which recognizes the central
importance of students experiencing the adventure of
science. Students experience this adventure by working in a
way similar to that of practicing scientists. In this
model, students learn to think like scientists by working
with data and addressing substantive problems, and learn to
collaborate as scientists by working with peers and mentors
to plan and carry out an investigation, to communicate and
debate the findings, and to evaluate their own work and the
work of others.
Network Science
This vision of science learning is particularly powerful in
a network context where students throughout the world can
collaborate with other students and with interested
scientist-mentors. At the heart of the Testbed is an
educational model developed by TERC for the use of
telecommunications in collaborative inquiry. We call this
model "Network Science." Described in detail in Chapter 2
and embodied in curricula such as Global Lab, NGS Kids
Networkreg., and EPA/Nebraska Wetlands: A
Telecommunications Curriculum,2 this model is characterized
by investigation of real science problems, collaboration
within a class and among classrooms, shared goals, shared
data, shared knowledge building, and technology-enhanced
projects.
The model emerged from our work with the various Testbed projects, and is grounded in TERC's work over the past decade in developing the educational power of technology, including the curriculum projects listed above and LabNet, an on-line teacher-to-teacher forum to support the improvement of science teaching and learning. It is also informed by other educational uses of networks, including Global SchoolNet Foundation (formerly FrEdMail) and AT&T Learning Network.
The Network Science model is a general model of telecollaboration currently being developed and researched by TERC. The model is designed to be adapted for various purposes, e.g., for teachers with less experience with technology or collaborative curricula, or for the study of social sciences.
The Alice Network Software
In order to develop this model for science education, TERC
has designed and developed prototype software, the Alice
Network Software, for data representation, data analysis,
and simplified telecommunication. In addition to the
software used by students and teachers, TERC has also
designed and built an Internet-connected database that
automatically consolidates data from a large number of
sites. The goal of this technology development has been to
create powerful yet easy-to-use software that can operate
in a typical school environment, where telecommunications
is limited at present by use of modems and telephone lines
for connections.
The technical sections of the present handbook are based on the Alice Network Software versions
2.02 and 2.1. However, the software continues to develop.
At the time of publication, TERC is working on version 3.0,
a major redesign that will be more modular in character,
more flexible, easier to set up and use, and that will
utilize direct IP (Internet) connectivity down to the
classroom level (while still retaining access for
classrooms without IP connectivity). In Chapter 3 we
describe the current versions of the Alice Network Software
and how they support each stage of student
telecollaborative inquiry.
The Testbed has resources to assist projects in initiating,
establishing, and running Network Science projects. The
most recent information on the Testbed is electronically
posted at TERC (accessible via World Wide Web, Gopher, and
FTP. See Appendix C for how to access this information
electronically). All materials can also be mailed out;
please call us or send us e-mail (see How to Contact Us, p.
iv). Support services currently available include:
- The Alice Network Software (Mac and PC/Windows versions)
- The Alice Network Software Handbook
- Automated Data Sharing System
- Workshops for teachers, curriculum writers, and project administrators
- Technical support via toll-free phone and e-mail
- Consultation on curriculum design and project management
- Listservs to facilitate on-line communication
- Feldman and Nyland, "Collaborative Inquiry in Networked Communities: Lessons
From the Alice Testbed," (April 1994)
- This project planning guide
- Fostering Reflective Dialogues for Teacher Professional Development, by William
Spitzer, Kelly Wedding, and Vanessa DiMauro, TERC, 1994, a 40 page practical guide
for encouraging and nurturing reflective conversations on an electronic network. It
is based on the experiences of LabNet with a core group of 10-15 Teacher Moderators
over the past four years.
New Partners
The Testbed is looking for a range of projects to work with. We invite
inquiries from individuals or organizations with a view to incorporating
further projects in the Testbed. We are particularly interested in
projects that will extend the range of topics (e.g., geography, social
science, teacher enhancement) or participant groups. Projects in the
planning stage are generally preferred to projects already underway.
If you have a project in mind that you think would be suitable for a Testbed
project, please contact us. (See How to Contact Us ).
At the present time, the Testbed can only serve projects and not individual
teachers looking to join a project. In the future, we expect to provide a
service for teachers to log into a database and find projects to join or other
teachers with similar interests.
Project Assistance
Testbed staff are available to assist projects in a variety
of ways. For projects that are fully participating members
of the Testbed, we may provide assistance in areas such as
the following (according to availability of staff):
- help in organizing a project (setting goals, selection of sites and teachers,
scheduling, funding, staffing)
- review of curriculum materials; guidance in adapting existing curriculum
to network uses; suggestions for making good use of technology in curriculum
- teacher development and on-going teacher support (curriculum model, specific curriculum, and technology)
- assessment of student learning and project success
- on-line scientists
- connectivity, including setting up a local computer for Alice accounts, or
- establishing accounts on a computer at TERC
- setting up an Automated Data Sharing System
- partnerships: assist in finding partners to bring content knowledge,
technology skills, funding, and/or experience
Rather than a full affiliation with the Testbed, projects may want to make
use of some of the services of the Testbed. For example, a project may want to
make use of the Automated Data Sharing services; this may also be
arranged.
The Testbed has limited funding to assist with these tasks; projects with
funding are expected to assist with the costs.
Research Program
All Projects affiliated with the Testbed are asked to
cooperate with our Research Program. Each project is seen
as advancing the state of the art of telecollaborating and
the lessons learned in one project will be shared with
other projects.