Web Goals: New Technology requires development of new creative resources and methods for teaching and research - not just transferring (scanning) the classical resources into the new media.
Dummies will look dumber on the Web... Just kidding! Back to KOSTIC Homepage
See: My publications and in particular "Information Revolution and Education" and "An Urgent Need for New Vision and Strategy for Use of New Technologies in Education,"
The CEO forum, a partnership of 20 top business and education leaders, issued a statement saying that the nation's public schools are "still using yesterday's methods to prepare today's children for tomorrow's challenges." They recommend that schools more aggressively train teachers and use new technology. [ http://www.ceoforum.org ]
"The extent to which a student gains a comparable pedagogical benefit from a printout of your Web resources as from the resources themselves is the extent to which you have done nothing of [pedagogical] value by moving to the Web." by Steven L. Epstein, Simon and Schuster Higher Education Group, Syllabus, Vol.12, No.2, September 1998 [ http://www.syllabus.com ]. In simple words: the Web should provide much, much more (multimedia, interactivity, etc.) than its (static) printout.
My philosophy and goals are: A good Web site should be sophisticated and take advantage of the "new tech tools," like multimedia and computational interactivity. It should have comprehensive content with compelling (and clear) graphics, instructional simulation with animation, useful audio and video, synchronous and asynchronous communications with feed-back assessment, and useful hyperlinks to internal and external resources. It has to be dynamic and alive, with continuous (life-long) updating and improvement. A "poor" example would be a Web site with "static" text and scanned material of the course syllabus, office hours, and course handouts with assignments and their solutions - still, that is better than nothing!
Some interesting comments about New Technology in Education:
Internet and NewTech allows us to do what we thought will never be possible, but also force us to do what we never wanted to do!
Will New Technology replace and endanger human?: No, it never did! Should we use New Technology?: Of course, but wisely! Question is not "Whether Or Not?," but How...! If one does not want to change…one has to adjust to the changes!
New Technology can not and is not to replace the traditional values and methods, but to enhance and complement them.
I hear ... and I forget. I see ... and I remember.
BUT, I do ... and I
understand!
…NewTech offers effective opportunities for "doing," like
interactive multimedia simulation, what-if-analysis, real experimentation, etc.
NewTech - New Opportunities! New Learning Environment - New Culture! Internet - Information Revolution!
Traditional Educator - An Expert in His/Her Field: …Teaching, Research, Services!
The 21st Century Educator - A Knowledgeable Leader, Coach and Facilitator:…Motivation, Recruitment, Retention, Outreach!
Substance is much more important than form: what you post on Web is more important than form itself. Content is more important than colors.
Quantity has no (little) value with NewTech since it produces quantity easily and fast (Cut/Copy-and-Paste or Ctrl_C/Ctrl_V). Thus, substance and quality are even more important with new technology than ever. Creativity and QUALITY… is all that matters.
It should be clearly stated that... use of new-technology should not be to promote the new-technology per se but rather to use it to be more effective in achieving the objectives.
Be aware of complexity, but make it simple!