Teaching and Learning via the Network
Crafting the New Learning Enterprise:
Tales From the Log
Project Number 10 - 1994
M. S. Vijay Kumar
Associate Director of Computing and Information Systems
Mount Holyoke College
Dwight Hall
South Hadley, MA 01075
(413) 538-2598
Fax: (413) 538-2246
vkumar@mhc.mtholyoke.edu
Other Individuals And Organizations Associated With The Project
Donna Van Handel
German Language Department
Mount Holyoke College
Kevin Prime
Chemistry Department
Mount Holyoke College
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Sandra Ward
Library
Mount Holyoke College
Jeannie Jones
Library
Mount Holyoke College
|
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Jurgen Botz
Systems Consultant
Mount Holyoke College
|
Abstract
[Hallo! Ich heisse Christina, und ich bin in das erste Jahr an Mt.
Holyoke. ....... Ich finde Fernsehen langweilig, und ich schaue nur ein
Paar Programme zu--Star Trek, Cheers, und manchmal Sport Programme. Ich
mag Programme die Natur und Kultur, aber meistens gibt es nichts
interessant, und es gibt zu viele Werbungen, manchmal mehr Werbungen als
Programme! Tschau! Christina [Mount Holyoke student]
Christina! Findest du "Star Trek" auch sehr gut?! Toll! Ich bin
ein "Trekker!" - Benjamin, student at Ohio State"
"Hallo! Ich habe einen interessanten Artikel in die Deutschland "News
Groups" gelesen. Rafael Kobylinski aus der Technische Universitaet
Muenchen hat ueber der Somalia-Aktion der USA geschrieben und hat diese
Situation mit die Situation der Bosnien vergleicht." ]
Students at Mount Holyoke College are using the Internet to communicate
with their peers at Ohio State, North Carolina State University and in
Germany and using resources available on the Internet such as
de.*newsgroups, Germnews, etc. to improve their oral and written
communications in German. According to Donna Van Handle who teaches
German the Internet has not only provided rich opportunities for
contextualised writing but for new relationships (and even new
vocabulary) to be created.
In Chemistry 150 Kevin Prime, a Chemistry instructor provides access
through gopher and a WWW server to class notes, images of molecules as
well as an experimental electronic museum that include archival images
from different periods of the evolution of the Science programs at the
college.
Deut 210 , History and Chemistry 150 are examples of courses at Mount
Holyoke that are using the Internet to augment and amplify the
educational experience of students.
These instructional projects are part of a growing collection of
collaborative initiatives being developed by members from Computing, the
library and faculty from Mount Holyoke and the five-college community.
Included in this collection are Mount Holyoke's academic infosystem, the
automated library catalog and the course catalog for the five colleges,
as well as specialized databases. These projects are the building blocks
of the evolving instructional and scholarly infosphere at Mount Holyoke.
They are also helping us examine and articulate the educational potential
of emerging national and global networks in a small liberal arts
college..
Project Criteria
The projects described here present simple, adaptable and scalable
illustrations of using tools and resources available through the Internet
to add value to the instructional process - be it through creating a
highly accessible, resource-rich and unified learning environment as in
the case of the Chemistry course, through enabling collaboration and
conversation between communities of learners as in the case of the German
Language course or extending the notion of experts as in the case of a
Computer Programming course.
Taken separately, the individual examples are indicative of different
benefits (and dynamics) of a networked teaching and learning environment
such as: efficient course administration through use of resources such
as gopher, ftp and Newsgroups to facilitate class communication and
information sharing ; effective utilization of traditionally disparate
and difficult to access resources - video clips, images and library
reference materials (Chemistry); utilizing widely available , current
and relevant information in Newsgroups rather than expensive alternatives
to create engaging and active learning environments (German, History).
Viewed together,and in the overall context of the network based services
being developed at Mount Holyoke and the 5 Colleges, these projects
represent the evolving transformations in the curriculum and culture of
the college as well as a redefinition of how information services are
developed and delivered.
Audio-visual requirements
A suitably configured Macintosh
w/ connection to the Internet and a Mosaic Client
projection
More 3.1 software
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