Why the internet is needed for additional instruction
Students miss class frequently, and for a variety of reasons. Field
trips, illness, and student government are three big causes of student
absenteeism from my senior physics class.
When students return from an absence, there are inconveniences for them
and for me. They may have missed material that is particularly difficult.
They ask for the work they missed. Possibly a laboratory activity
took place. Dealing with these instances can be difficult.
Students may come in during their lunch period to make up lab activities
or tests. They may copy the notes their peers took. Students
making up work in this way may easily feel rushed or that they are missing
out on the depth of material received by their classmates. In any case,
both parties have to deal with numerous hassles of catching up. The
internet could provide a way for students to catch up on their own time,
the students could decide when to work, how much time to spend on work,
and decide if they were ready for some type of assessment.
Traditionally, students who miss class must rely more on their textbook.
Telling a physics student to go home and study the first two sections of
the vectors chapter would be futile. Since the internet is "easily updated
and can be interactive", it can make an ideal supplement to using a textbook
for making up work.6
Sometimes, students need extra help. Even in a comfortable environment,
some may feel shy about asking questions. Homework assignments can
be impossible if a student can't come up with a plan of attack for
problems. Studying for tests would also be easier if there were some
way to guage their preparedness. Likewise, some students may feel
the need for more material about a certain topic. They may be interested
in a career related to a topic and want to see more of what they may have
to deal with. Offering materials online could provide a place for
the bored student as well as the behind student to go to find materials.
If there was one more way to present materials, students who
access them could have an advantage9.
Some students are auditory learners while others are hands-on. Others
may learn best from reading text and viewing pictures. If my lecture
confuses a student, they may find their textbook helpful. Sometimes,
there are demonstrations and lab activities that can not be done in a certian
time frame, or don't fit well with the rest of the unit. Some may
find it useful to see these demonstrations in a book or on a videotape.
Providing an additional medium for curriculum presentation will harm no
one if this material is not required as part of the class.
There seems to be a predisposition toward thinking that any new method
of teaching has some advantage, and that it should be adopted by all good
teachers. A study done at the college level showed that when a new
student driven high technology introductory physics course was first offered,
its students had a final grade .24 of a grade point higher than their traditional
lecture based peers. Some students from both sections went on to
take another physics course later. The grade difference disappeared.10
I hoped to find out if students working on materials over the internet
had any advantage. If the internet experience could provide students
with an equal footing to their in class peers, then the online format would
deserve more attention.
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