The Web as Instructional Tool

Advantages and Disadvantages

By Mark A. Francek

Diverse, Current Content

Lack of Reviewed Content

The Web functions much like a continuously updated encyclopedia. It can provide nearly instant access to research reports, images, lesson plans, bibliographies, public domain software, video, and sound. For example, using the Relative Plate Motion Calculator
(http://manbow.ori.u-tokyo.
ac.jp/tamaki-html/nuvel1.html), students can discover how quickly North America is moving toward Asia or when the sun will rise and set, or using the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s CLIMVIS site (www.ncdc.noaa.gov/
onlineprod/drought/xmgr.html), they can create a climograph for hundreds of U.S. locations all without leaving a computer terminal. The latest local weather information, such as temperature, barometric pressure, and wind direction, can be related to front location and precipitation patterns. Students can stay abreast with current discoveries within the sciences by reading free online journals such as Science in the Headlines
(www.nas.edu/headlines), Nature Science Updates (http://helix.nature.
com/nsu), Science News (www.sciencenews.org), Scientific American (www.sciam.com), and ScienceDaily (www.sciencedaily.com).
 

Nonetheless, the Web still lacks a universal review process, and no firm consensus as to what constitutes a “good site” has been established. Material in academic books and journals has gone through a peer review process in which the scholarship of a particular author can be judged. The reliability of a source can be further evaluated through footnotes and references. Information on the Web may have gone through such a process, or it may not have. It is often hard to tell.

The Web also offers students the opportunity to critically review sites for content, organization, scope, and audience—fostering the higher-order thinking skills society expects from its members. Schrock (1999) gives examples of student exercises for critiquing Web sites. (For a more complete discussion on the factors to consider when evaluating the quality of a Web site see Crum [1996], Descy [1997], and Gregory and Brown [1997].)

Commercially funded review sites like Netscape’s Hot Sites of the Week and What’s Cool seem geared toward identifying sites on the basis of visual appeal rather than academic merit. Consider the Relative Plate Motion Calculator. Although useful academically, there is little chance this site would be a “Site of the Week” because it is neither flashy nor appealing to a wide audience.

Another problem is that Web resources are often transient: What happens when a reference cited on the Web site is permanently deleted?

Time Saved

Time Wasted

The Web allows 24-hour access to data, images, movies, graphics, and research articles without moving from a terminal or worrying when the library will close. Gathering the same information through a conventional library search could take many hours.

Still, users are likely to waste a lot of time on the Web because it lacks a well-defined information infrastructure for conducting research. Hyperlinks often act as tantalizing morsels, bytes that promise to lead to the one ideal source. In the process of linking, however, it is all too easy to waste time by connecting to unrelated topics. Many sites lack a statement quickly identifying its purpose, scope, and audience. As a result, even advanced search options will yield matches that are nonspecific or irrelevant, leaving the user frustrated rather than enlightened.
 

Using premier search engines (sites that locate Web resources based on user queries) like AltaVista and Hotbot makes information searches easier, especially when employing advanced search techniques. (Read more about searching in this issue’s other feature articles: Metasearching the Net and Teaching Students to Use the Internet as a Research Tool.)

Sometimes, the transfer of information itself can waste time. The “Earthviewer” program (www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/
vplanet.html), for example, allows views of the earth from a variety of distances and perspectives and would be a helpful site in illustrating Earth–Sun relationships. Unfortunately, tapping this site requires the transfer of large graphic files resulting in slow response times. This is a particular problem during the peak use period, which in the United States and Canada occurs between 2 p.m. and midnight Eastern Time.
 

Another way to access quality sites is to take advantage of the time other people have spent reviewing the Web. Whether as a hobby or a job, many individuals are offering themselves as corrective “lenses” to the Web, screening sites for academic content. Some sites regularly feature valuable science information (e.g., The Learning Studio’s Top Ten Picks and The Scout Report—http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
Scout/report/current/index.html). Such periodicals as Learning & Leading with Technology, Database, the Reference Librarian, Electronic Learning, Internet World, and Technology & Learning regularly list useful Web sites.

Time is also wasted when alternative sites must be found to replace old sources that were changed or deleted.

Reaching Remote Audiences

Unrepresentative Users

Web resources can be accessed by anyone with a modem and Web browser software. Posting course syllabi, practice exams, course notes, exercises, and study guides can link students at remote sites with instructors. Faculty–student interaction can be further improved by encouraging real-time dialogue in chat rooms. Chat rooms are attractive to shy students who may prefer a more anonymous mode of interaction. In the future, increases in bandwidth will allow wider use of videoconferencing or “see you–see me” technology. This innovation will give students live access to content area specialists or the ability to collaborate on projects with other students at distant schools and universities.

Nonetheless, those who access the Web are unrepresentative of the general population. Rather than being independent of geography, income, age, gender, and education, users are typically American, affluent (mean income: $57,300), older (median age: 37.6), male, and better educated (Kehoe, Pitkow, Aggarwal, & Rogers, 1999). More and more schools and libraries are incorporating Web technology, but the success of this endeavor varies because of local funding, teacher training, and access to tech-support personnel.

Assignment Flexibility

Plagiarism

The huge repository of image, graph, table, sound, and movie files available on the Web offers the opportunity to enliven reports and presentations. In most cases, students simply have to copy and paste these materials directly into word processing programs or multimedia presentation programs such as PowerPoint.

These advantages, however, need to be balanced against the ease with which blocks of text can be cut and pasted from the Web into word processing or other programs, increasing the potential for student “cyberplagiarism.” Like conventional media, material from the Web must be properly cited. This problem can be minimized, though, by showing students how easy it is to cut and paste citation information into the reference section. In addition, make students aware of the consequences of engaging in plagiarism. See the Modern Language Association of America (MLA) (1999) and Walker and Taylor (1998) for a review of accepted citation formats for information from the World Wide Web.
 

Forms-based Web sites (sites that feature dialog boxes allowing user input) give the instructor greater flexibility in tailoring exercises to the interests of students. One example of such a forms-based application is CLIMVIS for analyzing climatic data. Rather than being constrained by the choices selected in a laboratory manual, students are free to choose climatic data from thousands of U.S. weather stations.

Cost Savings

Prohibitive Investment Costs

Forms-based servers that model environmental phenomena are alternatives to costly software packages. Examples of such servers are the Plate Motion Calculator and the Penman Calculator (www.tfrec.wsu.edu/
Orchard/pET/pETCalc.html) for modeling potential evapotranspiration.

At the same time, the need to access movies, view larger and larger images, and participate in Web videoconferencing—with the least amount of delay—begins an ever-spiraling cycle of costly computer upgrades. Can schools afford the high start-up and maintenance costs associated with RAM-rich computers?

Mark Francek (Mark.Francek@cmich.edu ) is a professor of geography at Central Michigan University. His research interests include geographic information systems, soils, and Earth science teaching methods, and he teaches courses in physical geography and soil science. An avid cyclist, he has twice pedaled a bicycle across the United States. Contact him at the Department of Geography, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859.