=?iso-8859-1?Q?=8Aand?= yet another perspective
Kam Matray (kmatray@nps.navy.mil)
Wed, 26 Mar 1997 13:54:34 -0800
Greetings from another member of the Virtual Canyon team! May I share some
reflections on content from a "Learning System" perspective that have come
from our project staff as we build this content-rich site?
The expectations for technology today exceed current capabilities. However,
the dropping of the costs for storage and the constant increase in compression
and bandwith, suggest the time will come when all the separate functionality
found in the various media will be found as a matter of course on web sites
or their successors. For example communication functions from e-mail, fax,
pager, and voice communication are migrating to the web. Likewise, the
content manipulation tools such as word processing, hyperlinking, 3-D
graphics on the fly, and video streaming are now available on computers and
workstations. It is the hope that projects like the Virtual Canyon project
can take learning to a new level by creating the most intelligent blending
of currently available functionality and tools.
The internet is the place to facilitate such on-line learning because it is
the only single environment where direct and real-time communications meet
interactive content and refreshable data bases. For lack of a better term,
"learning system" seems to be a good description of what the Virtual Canyon
internet site will become. An on-line learning system is that place where
content, technology, and knowledge meet in a dynamic, ever growing,
client-oriented, on-line environment. It is a place that mimics a real
process by passing knowledge from experts to consumers in the best way
possible short of "being there".
Perhaps, one of the most difficult aspects of the Virtual Canyon project is
that new ground is being charted. Simple associations with books, videos,
cd-roms, or e-mail are not enough to completely understand the site's
potential. Rather, the needs for students to partipate in building their own
understanding (project-based learning) and the mirroring of superlative
real-life activity, must be translated electronically the way a great novel
is occassionally turned into a fine motion picture. While this is not done
often, when it is done well, it is because of shared views of excellance and
a well integrated team with broad support.
A learning system, then, is best designed when it takes all available
functions and tools and mimics a process that is routinely used by someone
such as a scientist and makes that available "virtually" to lay people,
students, teachers, et al. The value here is that the system is not
limited like a CD-ROM or book, it takes user input and it connects to
experts and other users. Likewise, it does not borrow the content, but
allows it to accumulate on the site and enrich the site. It is not
dictatorial, rather it is built up by those who use it and maintain it.
Kam Matray - PI, Virtual Canyon Project
Research & Development Group
Monterey Peninsula Unified School District
Box 1031 * 700 Pacific Street
Monterey, California 93942-1031
voice 408.899.9414 fax 408.899.3224
kmatray@nps.navy.mil
kmatray@monterey.k12.ca.us