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Interfacing with a digital archive (ISLA) in enhancing elementary school geography instruction and learning

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Interfacing with a digital archive (ISLA) in enhancing elementary school geography instruction and learning

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INTERFACING WITH A DIGITAL ARCHIVE (ISLA)
IN ENHANCING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
GEOGRAPHY INSTRUCTION AND LEARNING
by
Rex O. Patton
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
August 2000
Copyright 2000 Rex O. Patton
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UMI Number: 3054894
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
School of Education
Los Angeles, California 90089-0031
This dissertation, written by
------------------- Ra x O.—Pa t t o n -------------------------
under the direction o f h i.s. Dissertation Committee, and
approved by all members o f the Committee, has been
presented to and accepted by the Faculty o f the School
o f Education in partialfulfillment o f the requirementsfor
the degree o f
D o c to r o f E d u c atio n
May 9 , 2000 __ ___
“ MTfdJUi
Deem
DissertationCommittee
Chairperson
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Dedication
In honor o f my mother, my friend ... Zella Jewell Cutsinger Patton, who loves all
7 o f her children deeply and unconditionally (so completely different and unique that
each one of us is) - who taught us to embrace integrity and accomplishment and to feel
that we could reach fo r the stars — and who always gives freely of her love, her time, her
understanding, and her soothing words o f encouragement during the times we need it
most. I love you, mom.
A nd in honor o f all six o f my brothers and sisters — whom I appreciate and love
more and more as life goes on:
To m y sister, Barbara Jean Patton, whose spirituality and profound gift fo r
seeking and finding the answers in this universe, has inspired us all.
To my brother, Danny Ray Patton, a great husband and father - who chose to be
somebody special in this life.
To my brother, Benny Lee Patton, who has always had the gift o f grasping the
most out o f life. Thanks fo r the ride, Ben, as there are no dull moments with you around.
To m y sister, Teresa M arie Patton Brown, whose sensitivity, compassion,
creativity and love o f macaroni I ’ll always remember and treasure.
To my brother, Albert Wayne Patton, who taught me many lessons on being a
better brother over the years and who has two o f the most beautiful and precious children
in this world.
To my sister, Linda Darlene Patton al-Hayek, whose gift fo r love and life and
finding the best in people has made me so proud to be her brother.
i
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A nd in honor o f my aunt, Rose Cutsinger Copher, who gave us m any wondeiful
and exciting opportunities as children that we would never have had otherwise and to
whom I ’ll always love fo r having been given those opportunities — and fo r always
standing by her family.
A nd lastly, in honor o f my good friend, Cristian Ruiz Vazquez, who understands
how great it is to have a best friend from another country and another language.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I sincerely want to thank the following people for their assistance to me at one
time or another throughout this incredible endeavor the last four years and four summers:
My advisor and committee chair, my friend, Dr. Edward Kazlauskas throughout the past
several years, who never complained or criticized and who always knew the right thing to
say to me - and to the two other members of my Dissertation Com m ittee, Dr. Stuart
Gothold, for being such an incredible and insightful professor, mentor, and stalwart of the
whole cohort experience in urban education - and to Dr. Robert Baker, whose integrity
and M idwestern values made me work and work and work. Dr. Kazlauskas’, Dr.
Bakers’, and Dr. Gotholds’ proteges over the years are like a fam ily extending itself
throughout many states of this union and onward onto foreign soils. I’ll certainly never
forget you! I am truly grateful for all of your guidance and have a much better
understanding today of how you got where you are and what it took to get there!
I would also like to thank the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for
the Humanities for their support of the doctoral cohort experience in urban education and
ISLA — and again, Dr. Edward Kazlauskas, for extending to me the opportunity to get
involved with ISLA. A special thanks to my good friend, Dr. (soon to be) Jose Cantu,
Principal of Hammel Street School in East Los Angeles, and future superintendent, who
was a true friend and companion not only throughout this doctoral dissertation, but also
through all of our classes together in our cohort throughout the last four years.
A very special thanks to the University of Southern California and to the Rossier
School o f Education for a really wonderful environment to study for my doctorate. You
are truly my alm a mater!
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Rex O. Patton
Ed.D.
Dr. Ed Kazlauskas
ABSTRACT
Interfacing With a Digital Archive (ISLA)
In Enhancing Elementary School
Geography Instruction and Learning
This design study explored the opinions and recommendations of six expert teachers regarding
how a digital geo-spatial archive, Information Systems for Los Angeles (ISLA), can be
integrated into the elem entary school geography curriculum . The focus was to merge the
eighteen National Geography Standards with hypermedia to provide guidance for the continued
development o f ISLA. The study was accomplished through analysis of usability, standard web-
based evaluation criteria, relationship to geography curriculum standards, and learning
opportunities (cooperative, exploratory, non-linear, and higher-order thinking skills). Six
teacher-participants were selected because of their expertise as elementary school teachers and in
curricula design, including the Internet. This study answered six research questions: (1) What
are the National Geography Standards including the concept o f geographic literacy, (2) What are
the cognitive issues related to human-computer interaction in conjunction w ith learning
geography and the design and deployment of interactive hypermedia, (3) W hat are the
implications o f ISLA for teaching and learning, (4) Can elementary school students improve in
learning geography through interfacing with an interactive hypermedia such as ISLA, (5) W hat
are the issues in a technological approach to curriculum development, and (6) W hat are the
possible evaluation approaches that can be used to evaluate the use of ISLA by students? The
study accumulated descriptive performance and satisfaction data, and evaluated the creation and
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implementation o f six units of lesson plans integrating technology with ISLA attempting to
improve the instructional process in Geography. From an analysis of the six units there was the
realization that there had to be a good understanding between the instructional development of
planning a geography unit regarding the type of learning opportunities, and to the extent to which
elementary school students with some Internet experience can use ISLA to perm it them to
complete the geography unit from the lowest level o f conceptual complexity to increasingly
more complicated permutations. It was suggested that the ISLA archive continue to develop new
models for elem entary school usage which could delineate further a system o f hierarchical
benchmarks or rubrics of standards-based performance assessments of skill levels regarding (1)
computer skills, (2) Internet skills, or (3) a new on-line visual organizational model of ISLA.
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Table of Contents
Dedication . . . . . . . . i
Acknowledgement . . . . . . . iii
List of Figures . . . . . . . vi
Epigraph . . . . . . . . vii
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................. 1
1.1 Statement of the Problem . . . . . 7
1.2 Purpose of the Study. . . . . . 9
1.3 Research Objectives. . . . . • H
1.4 Importance of Design Study. . . . . 12
1.5 Project ISLA (Information Systems for Los Angeles) . 15
1.6 Limitations/Delimitations . . . . * 21
1.7 Definition of Terms . . . . . . 22
CHAPTER 2. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE . . . 27
2.1 National Geography Standards . . . . 28
2.2 Human-Computer Interaction . . . . 38
2.3 Definitional Background of Hypermedia, Adaptive
Hypermedia and Navigational Tools . . 43
2.4 Cognitive Issues in Structuring/Designing Hypermedia . 54
2.5 Potential Concerns for Multi-modal Presentation. . 64
2.6 Integration of Computer Technology and Interactive
Learning in Geographic Education. . . 73
2.7 Issues in a Technological Approach to Curriculum
Development with a Comparison of ISLA and the
USC Digital Library. . . . . 78
2.8 Summary . . . . . . . 89
CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY . . . . 94
3.1 Research Design . . . . . . 94
3.2 Participants . . . . . . . 94
3.3 Instrumentation and Materials . . . . 95
3.4 Variables in the Study . . . . . 105
3.5 User Testing . . . . . . . 106
3.6 Evaluation of Student Learning and Outcomes . . 107
3.7 Evaluation of User-Oriented Dimensions . . . 108
3.8 Other Potential Assessment Approaches . . • 110
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CHAPTER 4. R E S U L T S ..............................................................
4.1 Participant Characteristics . . . .
4.2 Results of Lesson Plans for Creating a Model of a
Standardized Curriculum Instruction Design
for ISLA . . . . .
CHAPTER 5. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS
BIBLIO G RA PH Y..........................................................................
A P P E N D I C E S ..........................................................................
A. Consent Form . . . . . .
B. Pre-Screening Questionnaire (Assessing Teachers’ Use of
Technology and Technology Use Survey) .
C. ISLA and Geography/ESL Lesson Plans and Written
Follow-up . . . . . .
113
114
116
161
172
183
183
186
203
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Figure 2.4a.
Figure 2.4b.
Figure 4.1.
Figure 4.2.
LIST OF FIGURES
A Semantic Network for HyperCard
A Quantitative Representation of OCTR .
Technology Integration Proficiency Chart.
Teachers “A” Through “F” and Their Units of
Lessons . . . .
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Epigraph
[IJmagine what it would be like when
trying to find something in the libraries
and databases o f the world, where
organization was done by someone else
who had no idea o f what my needs were.
Chaos. Sheer chaos.
[Norman, 1988, p. 215]
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1. INTRODUCTION
For decades educators and the general public have complained about the lack of
geography know ledge among both children and young adults in the United States
(Winston, 1986; Natoli and Gritzner, 1988). Many media and professional journals have
published countless articles criticizing the geographic ignorance of students and young
adults in the United States (Helgren, 1983; Herman, Hawkins, Barron, and Berryman,
1988; Salholz, Katz, and Wright, 1986; Solorzano, 1985). A nationwide Gallup poll in
1988 found that Americans’ knowledge of geography was worse than the geographic
awareness of people in other countries, especially amount young adult 18 to 24 years old.
Different surveys have indicated that American students were basically geographically
illiterate when it came to geographic locations (National Geographic Society, 1988;
1989). The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessment conducted
in 1988 and released in 1990 showed that students’ knowledge of geography was, indeed,
very poor. On average only 57 percent of the students surveyed answered correctly to the
geographic locational questions asked (NAEP, 1990). Former President George Bush
used this geographic illiteracy as evidence of the need for educational reform, “When
some of our students actually have trouble locating America on a map o f the world, it is
time for us to m ap a new approach to education” (National Geographic Society Education
Foundation, 1989). Former Secretary of Education Lauro F. Cavazos, in a letter reacting
to the NAEP results, said, “Unless we place a new emphasis on the study of geography,
we are passing on to our children the stewardship of a world they literally do not know”
(Cavazos, 1990). Because of this crisis of geographic illiteracy, former President George
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Bush included geography as one of the five core subjects in the national A merica 2000
education strategy (U.S. Department of Education, 1991).
M inim um geography standards em phasize that the geographically inform ed
student should know and understand the five skills o f asking, acquiring, organizing,
analyzing and answ ering geographic questions (G eography for L ife: N ational
Geographic Standards, 1994). These standards list two main perspectives — one is the
spatial perspective, which is the “fundamental characteristic underpinning geography”
and the other is the ecological perspective, which “reveals Earth as a complex system of
interacting physical and human forces.” Both are mindsets that present an expansive
view of the world on a scale that ranges from local to global. Myron Dembo (Speech to
Doctoral Cohort, USC 1997) believes that this expansive view of the w orld and it’s
peoples is essential if our democratic society is to compete better and make better
geopolitical decisions in the 21st century. However, across the research literature, there
is also little consensus on the best methods to teach geography effectively (Forsyth,
1988). According to Forsyth, many students see geography as being dull and routine, and
an exercise in memorizing facts and figures. However, Standard 1 o f the National
Geography Standards says that students must be geographically informed enough “to
know and understand how to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and
technologies to acquire, process and report information from a spatial perspective.”
D uring the 1990’s, new innovations in com puter and telecom m unication
technologies have brought about new ideas and methods in learning geography through
digital geographic data with the emergence o f the Internet and the W orld W ide Web
(W W W ). The shifting of information from text-based instruction to electronic or
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hyperm edia-based instruction allows students to produce and dissem inate more
information at a faster pace (Frank, 1994). However, also more than ever before, new
technologies, through hypermedia information infrastructures, have inundated the
marketplace trying to merge with the process o f education in an attempt to capitalize on
making money through the advent of these new technologies without taking into account
differences in the users of those systems.
The term hypermedia is an expansion of the concept of hypertext to include other
forms o f digital inform ation, e.g., graphic im ages, audio, video and anim ation.
H ypermedia has gained tremendous popularity in recent years by providing high
resolution texts and graphics and instant communication. Could this potential m erger
between hypermedia and education finally be an opportunity to improve the instructional
process in geography through appropriate integration of technology via inform ation
processing and through interactive hypermedia such as the Internet and the W W W ? Is it
possible for elementary school students, for example, to tap into a digital archive and
interface with interactive hypermedia for the instructional purposes o f learning and
expanding on a geography lesson by demystifying the technology and providing relevant,
interdisciplinary, and easy-to-implement activities for the classroom?
According to Ebersole (1997), this potential m erger of traditional geography
in s tru c tio n w ith hyperm edia is p ro b le m a tic because the in te ra c tiv e
hypermedia/multimedia designer must create a user interface that collects and organizes
useful content and facilitates access to that content. Second, effective interactive
hypermedia must also be created for a user interface for different age and ability levels.
Another potential problem is that this hypermedia interface should be created with special
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consideration for the mental processes that the end user will be utilizing (Ebersole, 1997).
And in this case the end users will be elementary school students. Ebersole goes on to
state that the problem is that there are com plex issues with regard to the “attention,
com prehension, and memory of inform ation seekers using interactive m ultim edia.”
Ebersole counsels that designers o f interactive hypermedia need to take into
consideration literature on cognitive psychology, human factors, psycholinguistics,
semiotics and communication theory. Also, “system design should result in an interface
that is easy to learn, effective, and pleasant to use” (Molich & Nielsen, 1990). Recker
(1995) argued that “hypermedia systems” and the “indices and structure of the system
should be based on cognitive aspects of the users of that information.” According to
Recker, how the user interacts with the media environment and the user interface should
be based on cognitive theory. Preece (1993) argued that human-computer interaction
must also take into account psychological limitations such as memory load, perception,
and attention.
This linking of associated ideas/skills in traditional geographical instructional
methods w ith hypertext/hypermedia is analogous to the way that the human brain
functions for memory and recall. If the com puter is an extension of the human brain,
hypertext and hypermedia describe the process by which ideas are categorized and linked
by associative indexing. A simplified description of human memory uses familiar term s
to describe the linking association of new sensory stimuli, or “chunks” o f information,
with form erly processed information. Bush (1945) may have originated this line o f
reasoning when he wrote: “The human mind ... operates by association. W ith one item
in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts,
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in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells to the brain.” Bush’s
observation and the continued development of associative network theory have provided
a conceptual foundation for the development of hypertexts.
Bush’s observation seems to be saying that the traditional printed geography
textbook is incompatible with our pedagogical aims -- at least with regard to the potential
o f associative thoughts comparing the human brain to hypermedia. Theories regarding
learning and cognition traditionally have been that some body of knowledge external to
the learner (textbook, teacher’s lecture, etc.) had to be taught the student and received by
the student. Bednar et. al. (1991) talks about an alternative view o f the learning process
w hich has been labeled constructivism, experientialism and semiotics. In this view,
“ knowledge is an active process of construction, not the receipt o f inform ation from
external sources.” Do these recent technological advances in hypermedia really have the
ability to shift classroom learning from a passive textbook mode in geography to a new
engaged and constructivist model in which students are doers as well as thinkers? This
m odel is based on the simple belief that students learn better when they are active
participants in what they are studying. According to Bednar et. al. (1991), being actively
engaged in the learning process means students should be able to make some of their own
decisions, think critically, and learn within contexts that are meaningful to them. When
students are presented with these authentic, challenging, and multidisciplinary tasks and
allowed to explore a subject from their own particular point o f view, they have a
opportunity to grasp the subject matter better (Kulik, 1994).
Hypertext is a technology that supports information retrieval and search tasks.
However, these tasks are not necessarily correlated with instruction. One of the most
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significant potential problems in learning from hypertext is integration of the presented
information into knowledge structures (Jonassen, 1989). Learning requires that users not
only access information but also interpret it by relating it to prior knowledge. This
relation to prior knowledge is called generative learning. Generative learning occurs
when learners relate information meaningfully to prior knowledge.
Today’s advanced hypermedia and telecommunications technologies are hyped as
being powerful constructivist tools that could potentially be used to support engaged
learning with the correct system designs. W ithin a geography fram ework, these
technologies are billed as having the potential to provide students with additional
opportunities for: (1) authentic, project-based, investigative learning w ith digital
portfolios, (2) access to global information resources, and (3) increased interaction
among students, teachers and the global information community. However, the problem
is that after more than ten years of haphazard/untested designs, and the m arketing of
these new design products as a panacea to public education, there has been no real
concerted effort to create a system design that is easy to learn, effective and pleasurable
to use (Molich & Nielsen, 1990) — and one that addresses the age and ability level of the
user effectively across the board. In fact, according to The Psychology o f Human-
Com puter Interaction (Card, Moran & Newell 1983), “there remain the m ini-horror
stories — of (design) systems where, after the fact, it became clear that either the nature of
the lim itations o f the user were not appreciated, and some design foolishness was
committed.”
As the introduction states, we are in the midst of a crisis of geographic illiteracy
am ong our young people, and we have had no m easurable im provem ent in a
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geographically informed student who “knows and understands how to use maps and other
geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process and report
information from a spatial perspective (Standard 1 of National Geography Standards).”
Accordingly, the design of educational hypermedia software is a multi-faceted problem
according to Eklund (1996). It’s triumphs, failures, and impacts are interdependent on
many intricate, inter-related aspects. Effective educational hypermedia software must be
based upon an understanding of student learning and cognition, the target classroom
context, the subject-m atter domain, and the capabilities of the underlying technology.
Also, “only with a clear sense of the theoretical foundations we hold concerning learning
and cognition can we appropriately speculate about the textbook (hypermedia) o f the
future” (Bednar et. al., 1991).
1.1 Statement of the Problem
Advances in com puter and telecommunications technologies are creating an
information infrastructure in which vast amounts of inform ation are being stored in
electronic form on com puters connected over complex telecommunications links that
allow users around the world to exchange this information (Frank, 1994). These new
“information highways” are expected to have a catalytic effect on our society, industry,
and universities sim ilar to the advent of the telephone in the early twentieth century
(Burnhill, 1991). However, as the amount of this information increases, users must cope
with torrents o f inform ation flowing from numerous sources but have few means of
determining if inform ation they need does exist and, if so, w here to find it. “This
problem promises to become more acute” (Gould & Pierce, 1991).
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If students, as early as elementary school, are not learning the basic frameworks
in geography, or have little place geography ability to locate major countries, etc. on a
world map, how can using hypermedia such as a digital archive like ISLA (Information
Systems for Los Angeles) help improve student learning? What is the cognitive
psychology with regard to instructional development in hypermedia that utilizes the
critical thinking skills that schools need to create to address these needs? To what extent
can elem entary school students w ith som e Internet experience use new ly
designed/developed interactive hyperm edia to permit them to access geographical
information at the lowest level of conceptual complexity, and then in increasingly more
complicated permutations? For example, does the ability to interface with the Internet or
other interactive hypermedia potentially allow elementary school students to comprehend
a geography unit better and in compliance with minimum state and national standards?
Also, what exactly are the skill levels needed to interface with and search and retrieve
across space and time for students in elementary school to be able to comprehend that
geography unit?
The problem for schools is to truly integrate interactive technology/hypermedia
into the curriculum and develop a dependency on it — so that it can’t be auxiliary because
the curriculum will be embedded right into the hypermedia. The procedures need to be
clarified in terms of how you access it. W hen different players are accessed, then how
can you put these concepts together — and then how does that relate to conceptual
scaffolding in terms of development? How can measurement techniques be utilized as
built-in exercises? How can this progression then be followed up and treated as the
developm ent of a “shell,” so that decisions can be made en route to any barriers that
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arise? How can the very functions of certain hypermedia be used as content? Instruction
System Design (Gagne, 1985) is a good example o f a technology curriculum organized in
a hierarchical, spiraling goal structured manner with both performance and learning
mechanisms operating under the control of some goal or subgoal.
1.2 Purpose of the Study
The purpose o f this design study was to obtain the opinions and recommendations
(including a unit of lesson plans, surveys,workshops, etc.) from six expert educators
regarding how this digital archive, ISLA, could be integrated into the curriculum through
a geography unit. This integration was done through analysis of usability, standard web-
based evaluation criteria, relationship to geography curriculum standards, and the type of
learning opportunities (cooperative, exploratory, non-linear, and higher-order thinking
skills). Could the use of ISLA be implemented in an elementary school setting with
regard to the cognitive psychology of hyperm edia in conjunction with an online
geography unit? Could hypermedia (ISLA) be used as an instructional medium to
promote meaningful understanding and higher-order thinking among elementary school
students within a geography instructional unit?
The mental structure of knowledge has been a topic of debate for many years. For
example, children encounter a large number of thematic maps in school, usually in their
geography or social studies textbooks. Research in cartography and psychology (based
on the theories of Jean Piaget) suggested that children might not have some of the
cognitive abilities necessary to understand and use them atic maps. However,
cartographers have little knowledge about the types of thematic maps that children of
different ages and abilities can understand. The results of several studies (McClure,
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1992) suggested that children develop some of the cognitive abilities necessary to
understand thematic maps at a younger age than Piagetian theory w ould predict.
Educators should be able to introduce thematic maps to children as young as eight years
old.
McClure (1992) stated that one study’s purpose was to develop and appraise a
conceptual model for map skills acquisition in grades kindergarten through eight based
upon cognitive field theory. Eight geographic map skills, derived from review of several
other studies, were arranged in a hierarchical m anner within grade levels. Six
contributing components to the map skill acquisition model were identified in the
literature. The components were organized into a conceptual fram ework. The
components were: (1) learning theory; (2) teachers’ knowledge o f map skills; (3) the
demonstration base used in the classroom; (4) instructional strategies; (5) supervision and
coordination; and (6) proper sequencing of map skills. The established hierarchy of skills
were merged with the conceptual framework to form the conceptual model for this study.
The findings were that the conceptual model developed in this study offered an
implementable guide enabling teachers to improve student’s map skill proficiency.
This study was a qualitative test study. The six teachers involved were selected
on the basis of their expertise as public elementary school teachers and in curricula
design, including the Internet. They were from two different schools. N either the
teachers nor the schools were identified in the study. The major dependent variable for
this design study on ISLA were attitudinal responses from six teachers, who were experts
in the field o f technology and teaching, regarding perform ance on an aggregated
perception, which determined how far elementary school students could go in completing
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online geography lessons and building online digital portfolios, etc. The important result
was the determination and expertise of the teachers and their knowledge of how students
have the ability to continue to interface through an entire geographic unit — using prior
knowledge of the comprehension of the interface features and problem-solving measures.
The results of this design study also provided insight into how best to develop
instructional curricula approaches in geography in conjunction with ISLA, along with
assessment approaches, that could be used to improve instructional objectives in
geography in the classroom and beyond. Did the results of this design study suggest that
elementary school students could use a digital data archive (ISLA) to promote higher-
level thinking skills to reach minimum national geography standards? In addition, did the
results of this im plementation study support the use of a digital research archive in
elementary school? We also wanted to learn from this study if evidence would be
forthcoming that verified that the use of a digital data archive tended to increase student
interest in learning geography by encouraging students to becom e actively
(constructivism) involved in the learning process.
1.3 Research Objectives
This design study of ISLA answered six research questions:
1. What are the national geography standards including the concept
of geographic literacy?
2. W hat are the cognitive issues related to hum an-com puter
interaction in conjunction with learning geography and the design and deploym ent of
interactive hypermedia?
3. What are the implications of ISLA for teaching and learning?
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4. Can elementary school students im prove in learning geography
through interfacing with an interactive hypermedia such as ISLA?
5. W hat are the issues in a technological approach to curriculum
development?
6. W hat are the possible evaluation approaches that can be used to
evaluate the use o f ISLA by students?
This research attempted to define interactive media and considered the design o f
interactive hypermedia from the perspective of the cognitive processes engaged by the
authors and users of the system ’s architecture and content, along with how ISLA as an
example of interactive hypermedia could be used as a vehicle for geography instruction.
1.4 Importance of Design Study
This dissertation was not be a traditional study -- it was a design study on learning
geography through ISLA. Could ISLA be the hyperm edia conduit for im proving
geography skills as mentioned above? The outcome was a quality verified, research-
based instructional product, however the instructional product was incidental to the
instructional development “shell” that had generalizable value across curricula. The
developmental research and engine that drove this project was to know enough about the
cognitive psychology of learning through human-computer interaction to take advantage
of ISLA’s capability to support both very linear and simple learning exercises to very
com plex conceptual development requiring tracing over tim e and the intricate
interactions o f many other layers. The analytical and empirical part of the geography
framework were the theories of knowledge and learning, the development of concepts,
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environmental support and the dimensionality of the project through the concepts of time
and space.
The measurem ent instrument o f this study was the expertise of six elem entary
school teachers with technological and curricula expertise from two different elementary
schools. These six teachers trained at USC on the ISLA internet site. They focused on
the developm ent of the system designed for a curriculum that integrated what we knew
about technology because technology has far outstripped our ability to use it from an
instructional point of view. A digital research archive such as ISLA is an instrument and
it is a relational type o f instrument model. It has all of the spatial and tem poral
coordinates that allows a student to deal with vast amounts of information in a systematic
way. The developm ental research was a m ajor focus of this study. The teachers
them selves acted as their own control group. The national geography standards
themselves are a flat data base, so this project was the difference between a relational
data base and a flat data base. But as we looked at the geography standpoint, the
standards told us what we needed to do in terms o f content, progression, etc. and then
what this study did was to develop the conceptual scaffolding that allowed the teachers to
know when to introduce complexity. This allowed us to look at different ability levels
and achievem ent levels, how flat you had to stay for how long before com plexity was
introduced. Hence, we took one geography piece at a time, one instructional segment of
a unit, and started with a prototype design so that the contribution of this study was to
come out with a “shell,” so that others could “pack” that “shell” in the future.
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This design study was slanted in the following framework:
1) Formation: product justification, research and literature support,
etc.;
2) Instructional specifications: ensuring content of teachers’ training
at USC was consistent with contemporary notions in the subject matter fields and was
consistent with the cognitive learning principles that fueled the integration of ISLA with
traditional instruction;
3) Item and prototype trvouts: em pirical tests regarding the six
teachers developing a prototype unit in geography regarding the use of a digital archive
(ISLA) for instructional content of a specified type and conceptual linkage;
4) Product development: after all o f the above elements had been
worked out, this was an opportunity to obtain empirical verification that the product
worked by open forums on which questions and evaluation were provided in terms of
compliance, e.g. use of ISLA, geography standards, evaluation in terms o f teaching
strategies, e.g., curriculum instruction design that could be standardized, etc.; and
5) Operations analysis: a finished prototype from a series o f lessons
plans that described thoroughly how the system worked and how it could function under
unsupported conditions. Also, cues on the generality o f the “shell” and some hints on
how best to pack the “shell,” regarding how did this all change teaching and learning, and
how did this assist in problem solving skills, etc. The outcome o f this design study was
how did all of this help define the requirements for ISLA by the creation of a model of a
curriculum design which was intemet/web based.
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Through ISLA, students can observe the face of the earth from high above its
surface. Studying the location and arrangements o f physical and human elements is only
a part of the science of geography. Having established the patterns of different things,
geography next calls for an “explanation” o f these patterns. An interdisciplinary thematic
unit could also be developed on the movement of cultures and groups to and throughout a
region over time. Such a unit could incorporate topics such as history, geography,
migration, multiculturalism, art, architecture, and music. Examination of this topic could
be accom plished using such ISLA resources as: historic and contem porary maps,
household data, newspaper text and clipping file content of events, inform ation on
com m unity leaders and governm ent representatives, and entertainm ent venues,
photographs of buildings, churches and temples.
1.5 Project ISLA (Information System for Los Angeles)
Project ISLA is a digital geospatial library effort which is intended to “maximize
access to a critical mass of interdisciplinary data about Los Angeles in multiple formats
for the purposes of research, teaching, and public access” (Hunt & W egner, 1996;
Kazlauskas, 1999; Kazlauskas, 1999, Kazlauskas, Ethington, W egner & Hunt, Li, 1997).
Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, its holdings include multi
disciplinary digital archives in a variety of formats concerning the history, culture, people
and places of the Los Angeles region. Its method o f search and retrieval involves a
space/time/full-text/format index. ISLA goes beyond other digital library projects in that
it allows search definition in historically appropriate settings (tem poral com ponent);
formats involve some materials that are considered atypical for spatial indexing (such as
texts and photographs) which normally indexes map data; and users have the option of
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retrieving inform ation indexed not only by spatial and temporal indices, but also by
conventional indices as well.
The expressed goals of ISLA involve the specific requirements for researching
large urban regions in a multidisciplinary fashion. Large metropoli like Los Angeles are
only effectively knowable from many finite vantage points, each merely a small segment
of the w hole living historical entity. ISLA maximizes access to a critical mass o f
interdisciplinary data about Los Angeles in multiple formats. Information, therefore,
does not cumulate, and each new generation is forced to repeat the efforts of previous
researchers in finding information. Allowing access to information by the universally
applicable param eters of space and time, in additional to conventional indices, eliminates
many o f these traditional search and retrieval limitations. This aids the process o f
learning about and solving long-term questions and problem s facing all large
metropolitan regions at the end of the 20th century.
ISLA ’s principal features (University of Southern California 1997) include:
1) Space defined searching: Because ISLA is an interface and a
database constructed for studying a specific region, it is by nature a spatially-structured
information system. It seeks to capitalize upon the spatial dimension of information in
order to provide powerful new ways of accessing that information. Researchers typically
wish to study places. ISLA is designed to enable the user to ”ask questions” about places
and areas, and to give the user every possible tool for locating and exploring the places
which make up greater Los Angeles.
Operationally, this means that students define their search by “clicking
and dragging” a box (or multiple boxes) on a map. The map is actually constructed o f
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digital spatial layers including satellite im agery and current and historical
orthophotography (aerial photography with distortion removed so that the features are
represented in their true geographic locations). Also, the user may choose from among
several possible GIS (G eographic Inform ation System ) vector layers, such as
neighborhoods, streets, zoning, land use, census areas, etc. Every effort is being made to
lend a realistic, lifelike appearance to the map using satellite imagery at the small-scale,
and very high resolution orthophotography at a large-scale. Also, data layers will be
projected into California State Plane V for a more realistic display, and ease of movement
and definition across the map is facilitated with location features (such as zoom and
center), and extensive gazetteer functions. Spatial layers are offered at relevant scales
with associated labeling functions. The goal is to facilitate search and retrieval across
time and subject for sites as small as a single parcel, or as large as the entire region.
2) Tim e defined searching. M etropoli are not only spatial
constructions: they are historical constructions as well. A student may be interested in
finding m aterials about the African American community in the 1940s, or about
architecture in the 1920s. Date ranges can be chosen and “hits” (representing results) of
searches will be displayed on a time-line. As ISLA gradually acquires more historical
spatial layers, users will be able to define their search within an historically-appropriate
spatial environment. That is, a researcher exploring changes in an area over time might
be able to pick several dates of orthophotography, roads, or parcels upon which to define
her/his search. These historical data layers are being entered gradually because a great
deal of technical work is required. The goal is that, eventually, students will not need to
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guess from the present concerning the past in defining a search, but will be able to
integrate historical specification in their search requests.
3) Subject and keyword searching. ISLA draw s on the most
advanced search and retrieval methods already developed by library and information
scientists for textual catalog records and full-text documents. The ISLA interface allows
full-text searching through USC Library’s own information system (BRS-Search
software). This includes search of the subject entries or other cataloging fields, the
gazetteer, abstracts, or the full-text of textual items. More significantly, students will be
able to specify for search and retrieval an interactive combination o f spatial location,
time, subject, or format. All database objects will be linked by north, south, east, west
spatial coordinates, but provision is made for loose as well as precise definition of
coordinates to facilitate appropriateness in spatial indexing. Once a search request has
been made, the bibliographic information will be displayed with hypertext links to the
texts, imagery, or video. The design allows for student interaction in both directions, i.e.,
from and to search definition and results display.
4) Format defined searching. Since its inception, a primary goal of
the ISLA project has been to create a system capable of providing uniform search and
retrieval access to a very wide variety of information formats: textual, quantitative, still
photographic and graphic, time-based (audio, video, film), and spatial data. Very
advanced software systems have been developed for digitally handling all these data
form ats, but to date, no single interface has been designed that can weave them all
together in an open, user-defined search. “Multimedia” methods are quite common, of
course, but these are typically limited to system-defined “links.” ISLA is not a
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multimedia system in the commonly understood meaning of that term. Instead, it seeks
to enable com plete freedom in the spatial, temporal, subject, and format definition of
searches. Thus, if a user is interested only in finding rare photographs of the Central
Avenue corridor in the 1930s, that user can draw a box around the target space and
specify only “photographs” in the format window. But the user can specify any number
of formats, and by this method make new and powerful connections between different
kinds of data. Thus, earth scientists and biologists might link geophysical or biodiversity
data to land-use maps or historical photos showing the changes in the built environment.
Further, ideas suggested to the student can be pursued interactively by asking new
questions o f the system in different formats: a keyword search on “environm ental
toxins” might turn up several important studies of the LA region.
5) A standards-based library collection. ISLA, like many developing
digital library initiatives, is fully committed to maintaining all library cataloging and
formatting standards, in order to facilitate the wide-area exchange of inform ation.
Materials are only “ingested” into the ISLA system according to these standards. ISLA
ingest procedures are designed to be compatible with those of Project Alexandria
(NASA/NSF/ARPA funded Digital Library), complying fully w ith Federal Geographic
Data Com m ission (FGDC), and with the Library of Congress and Text Encoding
Initiatives (TEI) standards. Widely applicable ingest procedures will facilitate shared
cataloging and data and will maximize the access and exchange of information over the
National Information Infrastructure (Nil).
6) Wide area distributed database searching. Combining all of the
design goals above, the ISLA project hopes eventually to integrate its search interface
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with the catalog records of area archives, initially through the Southern California
Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC). In this way, students may locate materials
wherever they may be held, long before such materials may be “digitized” and stored in a
common database. The primary goal of ISLA is to maximize access, and not merely to
build an electronic database. Although a local client-server model is being used during
the Prototype construction, ISLA’s most serious commitment is to be available via the
Internet (through the World Wide Web or its successors) during the 1997-98 year of the
project.
7) Protection for proprietary spatial data providers. The ISLA
database is being constructed to allow consistency and precision across data layers. That
is, searches across varying data layers will result in consistent retrieval. The basis for this
consistency is provided by the use of primarily two data sets, the City of Los Angeles
parcels and the Thomas Brothers vectors as a basis for the spatial component to the
system. These two data sets, claiming spatial accuracy to one and ten feet respectively,
provide the planimetric base for the registration o f other layers such as NAPP II (National
Aerial Photography Program, Flight Two) aerial photography and Fairchild historical
aerial photography.
8) Search results: providing access to area resources. A fter
conducting searches, the ISLA students will have many options, ranging from studying
archival collection materials on the computer screen, to downloading (when permitted)
images, texts, quantitative data, etc., to their own computer for further analyses. In many
cases, the user will have simply learned about the existence of a collection in an archive
in the Los Angeles area about which she/he was not aware. The ISLA system will
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provide as much information as that archive has supplied, and the user may then travel to
and use that archive in the time-honored manner of consulting the archivists and the
inform ation itself. Where possible, ISLA plans to provide WWW links to these
resources. In this way, the ISLA project is planned to enhance, rather than compete with,
the established institutional framework of hundreds o f valuable repositories of
information about the region.
1.6 Limitations/Delimitations
Delimitations: This study was confined to a group of six elementary school
teachers who received training sessions on ISLA at USC. These six teachers were only
identified as Teachers A through F and there were no direct link to their names. This
study gathered attitudinal responses from these six teachers based on their expertise and
the six teachers were from two different schools. These schools were also not
specifically identified in the study. Those having contact with the human subjects
included USC com puter lab personnel, the tw o principals of the two schools, and
Professor Ed Kazlauskas, Chairman of the dissertation committee.
Limitations: Instructional and measurement techniques for this implementation
study were related to conceptual scaffolding in terms of development for a prototype
instructional unit in geography using this digital archive (ISLA). These instructional and
m easurem ent techniques of how far elem entary school students could progress in
working on a geography unit through the digital archive, ISLA, were utilized through
built-in exercises (lesson plans) based upon the experience and expertise of the six
teachers involved. These measurement devices created a “shell” so that it could be used
across curricula. The major dependent variable for this design study on ISLA were the
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experience and expertise of the six teachers involved, which were assessed by the
prototype instructional units (lesson plans) regarding the completion of online geography
lessons and how far they could go within the hierarchy of learning applicable search and
retrieval uses of ISLA itself.
1.7 Definitions of Terms
"Address” is a description of where to find a piece o f information on the Internet.
“ Application ” is a program that allows you to do something useful with your
computer.
“ Archive ” is a file or files that have been grouped together. They may have been
compressed so that they are smaller.
" B ro w s e r ” is a program used to find and look at documents stores on the
Internet.
"Cognitive m edia” is the design of cognitive learning environments which are
based on the cognitive theory of the inferential and learning processes of human users,
and encompass different strategies for problem solving and learning.
"Digital geospatial libraries” (aks: digital spatial libraries) are collections of
database materials in multimedia format encompassing text, image, and relational digital
map data, allowing easy integration of these various types. There are multiple and rich
data pathways for accessing data. Metadata (data about data) is used to describe holdings
which are accessible to remote users and other libraries. The design of the system
incorporates a full database life cycle and includes a powerful discovery user interface for
illustrative and explanatory interaction. Security features not only provide the means to
list and image holdings of interest but also to download the holdings once located (ESRI,
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1994). Other aliases for digital libraries are “virtual library” and “library without walls”
(Dijkstra, 1994).
“Download ” is to copy files from another computers onto your own computers.
“E-mail ” is electronic mail. It is a way of sending messages via computers.
“Full text ” is a term which has not been clearly defined; the inference is made
that full-text databases incorporate all types of data, including citations, the complete text
o f articles in which all of the words are searchable, graphic materials, etc. (Sievert, 1996).
“GIS, or geographic information system ” is a collection o f geographic data,
hardware, software, and staff systematized to capture, store, analyze, update, display and
m aintain various forms of geographically referenced inform ation which allows for
complex geographic data processing and spatial analysis (ESRI, 1994).
“GUI, or graphic user interface, ” is a graphical control center or display screen
o f options allowing a user to interact with or communicate with a com puter in order to
perform a variety of tasks; it typically consists of lists and buttons which are manipulated
w ith a com puter mouse (ESRI, 1994). Examples are M acintosh desktop and PC
Windows environment.
“Hardware ” is the equipment that makes up a computer network.
“Home pa g e” is an introductory page containing links to other pages on a web
site. The page that a browser displays when you start using it, is also called the home
page.
“Human-computer interaction ” is defined by the Special Interest Group on
Computer-Human Interaction as the study of major phenomena surrounding interactive
computing systems designed, evaluated and implemented for human use.
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“Human fa c to rs” may be defined as “the scientific study of the [mental]
interaction between people, machines, and their work environm ent with emphasis on
organizational and psychological interaction” (M artin, 1990). Also known as
ergonom ics, it is closely related to human-computer interaction but is not human-
com puter interaction. Information is discovered and then applied regarding human
behavior, abilities, limitations, and other characteristics in order to design systems and
environments for productive and effective use by humans (Sanders & McComiick, 1987).
“Hypermedia ” or “ Interactive Hypermedia ” is the merging of formerly separate
media in a manner that allows associations or links between the various elements. Text,
graphic images, audio, video and animation, all in digital form, make up the form and
functional elements of this medium.
“Hypertext ” is a document that contains highlighted text or pictures linked to
other docum ents. W hen you click on hypertext, the linked docum ent will be
downloaded.
“Interactivity” implies a dialogue between two parties; it is the extent to which
users can participate in modifying the form and content of a mediated environment in real
time.
“Information-seeking, information retrieval or search and retrieval ” will be used
interchangeably; information-seeking is the more humanistic term, indicating a process in
which users deliberately engage with the express intention of effecting a change in their
state of knowledge, rather than seeking something already known (retrieval) or in which
com puters match and display information as a result of hum ans’ “searching” behavior
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(Marchionini, 1995). It is from this humanistic perspective that these terms should be
used.
"Iterative design ” is defined as a cycle of designing, testing and measuring, and
redesigning continuously throughout a product’s development life cycle (Gould & Lewis,
1985) in order to detect problems within requirements specifications by cycling through
several designs, and with each pass, making incremental improvements to each (Dix et
al„ 1993).
"Internet’’ as a term, is used in this study interchangeably with The Net, the
World Wide Web, WWW, the Web, and on-line delivery.
"L ink” is a connection between two computers. The highlighted text or pictures
in a hypertext document.
"Log ” is a file which keeps a record of the files you have used and changed,
things that have happened and messages received during an on-line session.
"Log on/log in ” connects a computer to another computer.
"M a ilb o x ” is the place where e-mail is kept for a user by an Internet service
provider.
"Media cognition ” is the study of mental processes engaged by interaction with
the media.
"M etadata ” describes the characteristics o f data including its condition, quality,
and content, among other attributes, and is critical in the development of digital spatial
libraries and other advanced database systems (ESRI, 1994).
"Modem ” is a device that allows computer data to be sent down a telephone line.
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“M ultim edia" implies the use of several different types of data at the same time.
For example, the digital spatial library discovery tool is a multimedia application because
it can access and display cartographic, tabular, and image data at the same time (ESRI,
1994).
“N etw ork” is a number of computers and other devices that are linked together
so that they can share information and equipment.
“Online service” is a company that gives you access to its private network,
containing various kinds of information, and usually gives you access to the Internet.
“Performance ” is a variable measured by the quantification of benchm ark tasks
via task scenarios which are described later in this section and is related to the
effectiveness and efficiency of the user’s ability to accomplish the stated tasks; a few
examples are time to complete tasks, steps to complete tasks, and error recovery rate.
“Protocol ” is a set of rules that two computers agree to use when communicating
with each other.
“Sender ” is a computer or the software on a computer, that makes itself available
for other computers to use.
“S ite ” is a collection of web pages set up by an organization or individual; a
computer network that is joined to the Internet.
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2. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Initiating this review of the literature are the development of national geography
standards including the concept of geographic literacy. Secondly, this review discusses
the psychological cognitive perspectives with regard to human-computer interaction and
hyperm edia which provide a sound fram ework for this design study o f learning
geography through ISLA in an elem entary school setting. This study, through the
exam ination o f learning through hypermedia systems, seeks to provide guidance for the
continued evolution of ISLA, a digital archive developed at the University o f Southern
California. ISLA, a graphical user interface which utilizes state-of-the-art technology,
provides access to databases in the humanities.
What follows is an examination of the national geography standards, along with
the psychological cognitive issues and models for structuring interactive hypermedia in a
m anner w hich compliments the learning of geography through hum an-com puter
interaction. This study touches upon but does not concentrate on neither important
aspects o f com puter science nor information science. Instead, this study offers a
psychological perspective because of the concern for the human aspects o f hypertext use
in an elementary school setting. Also, according to the literature, psychological problems
are often more responsible for the failure of effective system use than technical problems
(McKnight, Dillon and Richardson, 1993).
Section 2.1, directly following this introduction, provides a background o f the
development o f the national geography standards. Section 2.2 provides background to
this paper by discussing a veiy brief overview of psychological cognitive processing as it
applies to computers and human-computer interaction. This brief overview presents a
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very brief historical review of information-processing psychology along with covering
the physiological aspects of human cognition by discussing a “Model Human Processor”
(Card, M oran & N ew ell, 1983). Section 2.3 follow s with a definitional
background/explanation of hypermedia, adaptive hyperm edia and navigational tools
along with some sequential definitions. Section 2.4 presents an overview of the cognitive
issues and models for structuring hypermedia and implications for learning geography in
an elementary school setting. Section 2.5 expresses some potential concerns for multi
modal presentation. Section 2.6 focuses on the integration of computer technology and
interactive learning in geographic education. Section 2.7 focuses on issues in a
technological approach to curriculum development with a comparison o f ISLA and the
USC Digital Library. Lastly, Section 2.8, gives a summary of the literature review.
2.1 National Geography Standards
This literature review begins with a discussion of national geography standards
which are interwoven throughout the discussion of the concept of geographic literacy —
the concepts that help students to become geographically literate. Beyond these
geography standards, the question is how can computer technology and experience on the
Internet, in conjunction with geospatial digital libraries like the USC Digital Library or
Information Systems for Los Angeles (ISLA), help students attain geographic literacy?
In the past decade, instruction in geography from grades K to 12 has been
organized around the five themes of geography: location, place, human/environment
interaction, movement, and regions. The popularity o f these content organizers sets the
stage for the developm ent o f two additional, more com prehensive instructional
frameworks: the “Six Essential Elements” and the “Eighteen Geography Standards”
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within the elements. These two interlocking frameworks provide the structure of the new
publication Geography for Life: National Geography Standards 1994. It is important to
keep in mind that the five themes and the standards look at the same geographic universe.
The themes represent an instructional approach; they allow a particular focus to be given
to the lesson o f the moment. The standards comprise the geographic subject matter,
skills, and perspectives of geography.
National standards for geography begin with two perspectives in geography: (1)
the spatial perspective and (2) the ecological perspective. Perspectives are points of view
by which people look at the world. These are based on life experiences that incorporate
values, attitudes, and beliefs. In Geography for Life (1994), there are two main
perspectives that provide focus for the 18 standards. One is the spatial perspective, which
is the fundamental characteristic underpinning geography; the other is the ecological
perspective, which reveals Earth as a complex system of interacting physical and human
forces. Both are mindsets that present an expansive view of the world on a scale that
ranges from local to global. Myron Dembo (Speech to Doctoral Cohort, USC, 1997)
believes that this expansive view of the world and it’s peoples is essential if our
democratic society is to compete better and make better geopolitical decisions in the 21st
century. However, across the research literature, there is also little consensus on the best
methods to teach geography effectively (Forsyth, 1988). According to Forsyth, many
students see geography as being dull and routine, and an exercise in memorizing facts
and figures. However, Standard 1 of the National Geography Standards, says that
students must be geographically informed enough “to know and understand how to use
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maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process,
and report information from a spatial perspective.”
The five national skills in geography are (1) asking geographic questions, (2)
acquiring geographic information, (3) organizing geographic information, (4) analyzing
geographic information, and (5) answering geographic questions. Geography for Life
(1994) helps students clearly see the world as a blend of physical and human phenomena
through the application of a set of five skills especially appropriate for geography.
Knowing how to use these skills is essential to implementing the 18 national standards
because the skills present a framework for a mode of inquiry unique to geography. These
skills, which m irror the scientific method, are an extension of the geographic skills
originally presented in Guidelines for Geographic Education (1984). They are intended
to help students build their competence in geography from kindergarten through 12th
grade, and beyond.
The six (I-VI) national essential elements and eighteen (18) geography standards
include:
Essential Element 1: The World in Spatial Terms. Geographers strive to
observe and understand the ordered patterns that blanket Earth’s surface. W here things
are, how they are arranged, why they are in such locations, and how these various
phenomena relate to each other are all aspects of seeing the world in spatial terms.
Standard 1. How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools,
and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial
perspective. Maps are the most commonly used representations of detailed geographic
inform ation on features of places. Along with other tools such as globes, aerial
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photographs, satellite images, and statistical databases, they bring the whole world into
focus. M aps range from simple sketch maps to complex Geographic Inform ation
Systems (GIS) analysis.
Standard 2. How to use mental maps to organize information about people,
places, and environments in a spatial context. A mental map exists only in the mind’s
eye. It represents each individual’s knowledge of the location of geographic features
such as countries, cities, seas, mountain ranges, and rivers. A mental map is also made
up of approximate size dimensions and cultural characteristics. In scale, it may include
our route to a local store or theater, or it may serve as the framework for the location of
the Khyber Pass, Brasilia, or the Yangtze Gorges. This map grow in com plexity as
experience, study, and the media bring us new geographic information.
Standard 3. How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and
environments on Earth’s surface. Human structures organize space. Pattern,
regularity, and reason inherent in the location of cities, factories, malls, cemeteries, and
other human landscape creations. To understand the spatial patterns and processes that
organize Earth’s surface, it is essential to know concepts such as distance, direction,
location, connection, and association. Understanding these concepts enables one to say
what factors influence a locational decision for a hospital, a county seat, a sanitary
landfill, or a regional shopping center.
Essential Element II: Places and Regions. Geography is concerned with the
nature of places and the characteristics of regions. Why are things where they are?
W hat identify do they have? How are specific places and regions characterized? How
are they linked with other places and regions? What physical and human components
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appear to give them definition? The three standards in this element begin to explore
perception and environm ent appreciation. The geographically inform ed person
understands that geographic learning is built upon a variety of perpetual frameworks as
well as objective data.
Standard 4. The physical and human characteristics of places. Places may
be distinguished by their physical and human characteristics. Physical characteristics
include landforms, climate, soils, hydrology, vegetation, and animal life. Human
characteristics include language, religion, political and economic systems, population,
and quality of life. Places change over time as new technologies, resources, knowledge,
and ideologies are introduced and become part of a place’s geography. Such change
leads to the rise and fall of empires, may derive from shifts in climate or other physical
systems, or may be generated by population expansion.
Standard 5. That people create regions to interpret Earth’s complexity.
Regions are defined as having one or more common characteristics that give them a
measure of unity and make them distinct from surrounding areas. As worlds within
worlds, regions simplify geographic analysis by organizing a specific area into a unit of
explicit physical and human elements. The criteria in the definition of a region can be as
precise as coastline or political boundaries, or as arbitrary as the general location of
people loyal to a specific athletic team. Regions are human constructs, created to
facilitate the understanding of a large, varied, complex, and changing world.
Standard 6. How culture and experience influence people’s perceptions of
places and regions. Perception o f all places and regions depends upon personal
experience, culture, age, gender, and other factors. It is sometimes said that there is no
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reality, only perception. In geography there is always a mixture of both. For example, a
wilderness can be attractive to a camper, a source o f anxiety for a child, and a nuisance to
a pioneering farmer.
Essential Element III. Physical Systems. There is an order to the world that is
created by the steady interplay of Earth’s physical systems. The atmosphere is in steady
motion with moving air masses reacting to different pressure zones. The hydrosphere is
continually moving water via the water cycle. Erosion wears down the lithosphere and
builds up sedim entary layers in the seas and lakes. A nimal populations move in
continuing response to physical systems that make up their environment, just as plant
communities respond to their physical settings. A geographically inform ed person
understands the nature of these physical systems and the influences they have on Earth as
a setting for human life.
Standard 7. The physical processes that shape the patterns of Earth’s
surface. Physical processes create natural landscapes and environments arrayed across
Earth’s surface in spatial patterns. Understanding these forces is indispensable in daily
decision-making, e.g., evaluating homesites in earthquake zones or flood plains, or
building a highway along the ocean coastline. There is a systematic order in this
continual remaking of Earth’s surface. The geographically informed person understands
the interplay of systems, forces, boundaries, thresholds, and equilibrium as they influence
patterns on Earth’s surface.
Standard 8. The characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems on
Earth’s surface. Ecosystems are communities o f living things — plants and animals —
interacting with each other and with the physical environment. Ecosystems are dynamic
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and ever changing. They are self-regulating, open systems that maintain flows of energy
and matter that naturally move toward maturity, stability, and balance. By understanding
how these systems and processes work in shaping the physical environment, students will
be better able to comprehend the basic principles that guide environmental management.
Such knowledge will enable them to anticipate the consequences o f ongoing human effort
to transform Earth’s landscapes.
Essential Element IV. Human Systems. Just as there is an inherent order in
Earth’s physical systems, there is order in the systems humans have developed in search
of safe, productive, and satisfying niches on Earth. Patterns emerge as humans move,
settle, develop economic interchange, and initiate systems of cooperation or conflict. A t
the base o f this order in human systems is an inclination tow ard environmental
perception, appreciation, and m odification. As people create system s of spatial
organization, they attain greater appreciation for the significance of specific places,
resources, and environmental assessment. To the geographer, all human systems are
fundamental to the six essential elements, for they provide the blueprint by which human
use of Earth achieves not only order and utility, but also pollution and depletion.
Standard 9. The characteristics, distribution, and migration of human
populations on Earth. The characteristics and distribution of human populations are
never static. Factors such as natural increase, war, fam ine, disease, and rate of
urbanization play decisive roles in where people live. At any one time, some populations
are bound to be migrating — leave one place, striking out for a second, possibly settling in
a third. The factors that give definition to a nation’s population profile, patterns of
grow th or decline, and inclinations toward m igration com bine to be significant
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geographic inform ation as we attempt to determine how Earth will probably have to
support more than six billion people before the year 2000.
Standard 10. The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth’s
cultural mosaics. Culture defines each group’s unique view of itself and others, and
includes the m aterial goods, skills, and social behavior transmitted to successive
generations. It is expressed through art, language, beliefs and institutions, the built
environm ent, and numerous other features. Cultural patterns are never static. They
change in response to human migration, diffusion, and the steady introduction of new and
competing cultural traits.
Standard 11. The patterns and networks of economic interdependence on
Earth’s surface. The goods that we need daily to make life work have sources all over
the world. Economic networks at all scales, from local to global, have been developed to
promote the efficient interchange of goods. Linkages of transportation, communication,
language, currency, and custom have been fashioned out of the human desire to have
more than what is available locally. For United States citizens, learning about the nature
and significance of global interdependence is an essential aspect of being geographically
well informed.
Standard 12. The processes, patterns, and functions of human settlement.
Settlem ent is one of the most basic human responses to the environment. As social
animals, humans achieve proximity, shared environments, and the opportunity to engage
in effective economic and social interaction through settlement. Nearly half the human
population has opted for city residence. However, there is a vast variety of cultural
landscapes in urban settings, just as there is in village and town settings for most o f the
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rest o f the population. In all varieties of settlements, cultural landscapes reflect local
resources and human preferences.
Standard 13. How the forces of cooperation and conflict among people
influence the division and control of Earth’s surface. The tendency to divide space
into segments that provide identity and a sense of security is universal. This human drive
covers all scales, from individual homesteads through neighborhood and city limits to
state and national boundaries. We have long declared borders, built walls, demarcated
rivers and mountain ridges, and had arbitrary lines mapped across deserts. This trait
relates to a wish to enclose that which we desire or perhaps exclude that which is feared.
M ultinational alliances as well as community interest groups are all motivated by the
human capacity for expression of cooperation and conflict in the control of Earth’s
surface.
Essential Element V. Environment and Society. Hum an fascination with
remaking the landscape into something new seems to be as old as humankind itself.
From pit dwellings to the most complex skyscraper, we have steadily made efforts to
craft more productive, satisfying and aesthetically pleasing niches. The ramifications of
environmental modification by human action will be a dom inant theme of the next
century as we develop ever more powerful technology. Geography will be a major force
in understanding these changes and helping to guide future changes in the landscape.
Standard 14. How human actions modify the physical environment. When
humans first occupied the environment, levels of technology w ere low enough that
modifications of the physical setting were generally simple, although significant over
time. However, as we have developed more powerful technology to assist us in such
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m odification, we have made hot areas cool, cold areas warm, dry areas gardenlike, and
wet areas habitable. Changing the landscape has become a signature of human use of
Earth, and will be a significant theme as we see just what we have gained (and lost) in
such transformations.
Standard 15. How physical systems affect human systems. Expanding
settlement of flood plains, coastal margins, and seismic zones has brought us face-to-face
with striking evidence of ways in which physical systems have profound effects on
human systems. Less dramatic — but ultimately more significant — aspects o f the effect
o f physical systems on human systems are such issues as freshwater use, ozone depletion,
global warming, and soil loss. Knowledge of E arth’s physical systems will be critical to
the human use of Earth in the years to come and is central to Geography for Life.
Standard 16. The changes that occur in the meaning, distribution, and
importance of resources. We extract, process, market and consume those things we
value in the environment. The activity related to putting values on resources, and the
subsequent demands on the environment, establish patterns of economic, political, and
cultural interaction. Some natural resources w e require: air, water, vegetation — and
space. O thers commonly uses, such as oil, tin, diamonds, bananas, and coffee, have
gained their value by human decision that generally relate to levels of technology and
econom ic development. A geographer must understand what makes an item a resource,
and what the subsequent geographic implications of such an appraisal might be.
Essential Element VI. The Uses of Geography. Central to learning the utility
o f geography is understanding its role in history and in the development o f the diverse
patterns o f human settlement and activities. The geographically informed person should
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be able to make better use of the world at present and — perhaps most importantly —
improve the capacity for planning for the future. Using the spatial and environmental
perspectives of the geographer in conjunction with the skills outlined in Geography for
Life, we can achieve the full power of these geography standards.
Standard 17. How to apply geography to interpret the past. An
understanding o f spatial and environmental perspectives leads to a fuller appreciation of
the human use o f Earth in the past. By determining how people have assessed their own
settings, and gaining understanding of why they used their settings as they did — or
changes them the way they did — we can see the role that geography has played in our
histories.
Standard 18. How to apply geography to interpret the present; and plan for
the future. Geography leads people to think about spatial patterns, connections between
places, integration of local to global scales, diversity, and systems. With such a scope, it
is easy to see how completely geography influences the present, and how it can be
significant in achieving effective planning for the future. Issues that range from
resources to population to paths of movement all relate to the essence of geography.
Being able to put this breadth of impact to work in planning for the future is one of the
benefits of being geographically well-informed.
2.2 Human-Computer Interaction
In Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction (Card, Moran & Newell 1983),
the authors explain that milestones in cognitive psychology has progressed to the point
that our “know ledge of human cognitive behavior is advanced enough to enable its
applications in com puter science and other dom ains.” Since the 1940’s new
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“understandings and techniques” have emerged in which man has come to be viewed as
an active processor of information. From about 1975 on, these “understandings and
techniques” have encompassed the main areas o f human experimental psychology
(Lindsay and Norman, 1977): perception (Broadbent, 1958), performance (Fitts and
Posner, 1967), m em ory (Anderson and Bower, 1973), learning (Fitts, 1964), problem
solving (Newell and Simon, 1972), and psycholinguistics (Clark and Clark, 1976). Card,
Moran & Newell (1983) go on to say that society is in the middle of reinventing and
transforming itself to use the power o f computers throughout every facet of itself —
wherever information is utilized — and that reinvention and transformation has depended
upon and continues to critically depend upon the quality of human-computer interaction.
Card, M oran & Newell (1983) address how the human and the com puter
communicate with one another through an “interactive and engaging conversation whose
purpose is the accomplishment of some task.” It is a conversation or dialogue because
both the human and the computer have access to the steady flow of symbols sent back
and forth to accom plish the communication. The human and the computer can both
interrupt, query, question, command and correct the communication at different points in
the process. The computer can take equations, numerical values, or analog signals and
transform them into graphs. The computer can be used to aid students in constructing
links between these symbolic domains, such as graphs, and the real world phenomena
they represent (Kozma, 1991).
The com puter is also capable o f proceduralizing information. That is, it can
operate on symbols according to specified rules, such that a graphic object on the screen
can move according to the laws of physics, for example. These processing capabilities
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can influence the mental representations and cognitive process of learners. The goal of
designing and implementing better human-computer interfaces using psychological
knowledge began with the advice of Hansen (1971), “Know the user.” W hatever
continual evolution this human-computer interfacing takes, conversational dialogue will
continue, although the power and complexity o f the interface has grown substantially as
we will see from this chapter and from this implementation study on ISLA in Chapter 3
of this dissertation.
H um an-com puter interaction prior to the mid 1980’s, according to The
Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction (Card, Moran & Newell, 1983), was a study
of psychological functioning which included motor, perceptual and cognitive. “W hereas
much psychology tends to focus on small micro-tasks studied in isolation, an applied
psychology must dwell on the way in which all the components of the human processor
are integrated over time to do useful tasks.” For example, 25 years ago applied
psychology with regard to human-computer interaction took into account interactions
among the following: graphs, maps, and guides for easy memorization, the ease with
which commands can be remembered, the type font of characters as it affects legibility of
the commands, the number of commands in a list, and anything else relevant to the
particular interface, etc. The general desirability of such wide coverage has never been in
doubt. It appears in our vision of an applied psychology because wide coverage,
especially the incorporation of cognition, now seems much more credible than it did in
the 1960s and before. On the other hand, motivational and personality issues are not
included. Again, in the mid 1980’s there was hardly any doubt of the desirability of
including them in an applied psychology, but it is still not totally clear today how to
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integrate the relevant existing knowledge of these topics. It is a major challenge to the
information-processing view to be able to explain how knowledge and skill are organized
to cope with all kinds of complex human activities.
The domain o f human-computer interaction is an example of an unexplored
domain, although in 2000 it is less so. Today we know that the study of human-computer
interaction is inherently tied to cognitive psychology, which in turn is concerned with the
internal process of humans which cause them to think, learn, comprehend, process,
memorize and attend to various stimuli (West, Farmer, Wolff, 1991). Dix et al., (1993)
defined human computer interaction as “the study of people, computer technology, and
the ways these influence each other.” Human com puter interaction has strong skill
components. People who interact with computers extensively build up a repertoire of
efficient, smooth, learned behaviors for carrying out their routine com m unicative
activities. Human computer interaction has been defined as the study o f m ajor
phenom ena surrounding interactive com puting systems designed, evaluated and
implemented for human use, but Shaw (1991) defined it as all that the user sees, touches,
and hears while interacting with computer systems.
Yet, the interaction is also intensely cognitive. The skills are wielded within a
problem -solving context, and the skills themselves involve the processing of symbolic
inform ation. Even the most routine of these activities requires the interpretation of
instructions, the formulation of sequences of commands, and the communication o f these
commands to the computer. Card, Moran and Newell believed that the form of the
psychology of human-computer interaction, w ith its em phasis on “task analysis,
calculation, and approximation,” is also appropriate for basic cognitive psychology.
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W hen humans and computers interact, there are two distinct and typically highly complex
processors involved in the exchange: the user, and the com puter system. The user is
involved in the achievement of some goal or objective around either work or play. The
system on the other hand is mediating the achievement of the user’s objective. Both user
and system are acting upon representations in a task domain. However, the user cannot
rely only on the knowledge domain related to the task, but must effectively learn how the
system behaves relative to that domain, how the state of the system ’s information relates
to the user’s goals, and how to communicate with the system in order to achieve those
goals (Barnard, 1995).
In Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction (Card, Moran & Newell, 1983) a
human information-processor model is outlined in Chapter 2 which gives us an integrated
description of psychological knowledge about human performance as it is relevant to
human-computer interaction. Card, Moran & Newell’s Model Human Processor is useful
for “making approximate predictions of gross human behavior rather than a statement as
to what is really in the head.” The Model Human Processor is divided into three
interacting subsystems: (1) the perpetual system, (2) the m otor system, and (3) the
cognitive system , each with its own memories and processors. The perceptual system
consists o f sensors and associated buffer memories, the most important buffer memories
being a Visual Image Store and an Auditory Image Store to hold the output of the sensory
system while it is being symbolically coded. The cognitive system receives symbolically
coded inform ation from the sensory image stores in its W orking Memory and uses
previously stored information in Long-Term Memory to make decisions about how to
respond. The m otor system carries out the response. As an approximation, the
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information processing of the human will be described as if there were a separate
processor for each subsystem: a Perceptual Processor, a Cognitive Processor, and a
Motor Processor. For some tasks (pressing a key in response to a light) the human must
behave as a serial processor. For other tasks (typing, reading, simultaneous translation)
integrated, parallel operation of the three subsystems is possible, in the manner of three
pipelined processors: information flows continuously from input to output with a
characteristically short time lag showing that all three processors are working
simultaneously.
2.3 Definitional Background of Hypermedia,
Adaptive Hypermedia and Navigational Tools
Definitional Background of Hypermedia. The rapid proliferation of interactive
hypermedia is spawning new markets and opportunities for hypermedia professionals.
Transmitted over local area networks (LANs), the Internet, or on optical disk, and
displayed on a PC monitor, interactive hypermedia can take on many configurations and
can be used for a variety of purposes. Some of the applications of this new medium
include video games, edutainment, computer-based training, advertising and promotional
maneuvers. With global annual sales exceeding $15 billion, multimedia CD-ROMs and
videogames generate revenues that far surpass those generated by the feature film
industry (Miles, 1996). Political and popular support for the Information Superhighway
and the confluence of the telecommunications, television, publishing and entertainment
industries is reflected in the meteoric growth of the Internet. These conglomerates all
proliferate new and growing markets for interactive multimedia. Designing of these new
effective interactive media can be a overwhelming proposition. As stated in Chapter 1 of
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this paper, in addition to the collection and organization o f useful content, the interactive
multimedia designer must create a user interface that facilitates access to the content.
This interface should be created with special and painstaking attention to the mental
processes that the user is likely to employ. Issues surrounding the attention,
comprehension, and memory of information seekers using interactive multimedia are
complex and compelling. Interactive media designers would do well to consider the
literature of cognitive psychology, human factors, psycholinguistics, semiotics and
communication theory (Eklund, 1996).
As mentioned in Chapter 1 of this dissertation, system design should result in an
interface that is easy to learn, effective, and pleasant to use (Molich & Nielsen, 1990).
Also mentioned in Chapter 1, Recker (1995) argued that “hypermedia systems” and the
“indices and structure of the system should be based on cognitive aspects of the users of
that inform ation.” According to Recker, how the user interacts with the media
environment and the user interface should be based on cognitive theory. Also, Preece
(1993) argued that human-computer interaction must take into account psychological
limitations such as memory load, perception, and attention. Eklund (1996) says that
“hypermedia systems are based on the assumption that the student’s interpretation of the
courseware is more meaningful than that of the expert or the author.” There is a reliance
on interface design and the specification of navigational tools that are advanced such as
concept maps or graphical browsers, and the levels of search indicators to position the
student where s/he needs to be and to allow the learner to make an informed and more
accurate decision about where next to go in the lesson or training exercise (Eklund,
1996).
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The terms hypertext, hypermedia, and interactive m ultim edia are often used
alm ost interchangeably. W hether you use hypertext, hyperm edia or interactive
multim edia, the image or perception is one that is best understood as the merging of
formerly separate media in a manner that allows associations or links between the various
elements. Text, graphic images, audio, video, and animation, all in digital form, make up
the form and functional elements of this new medium. The inevitable digitization of
media and the rapid growth o f computer networks allows storage and retrieval of digital
material, local or remote, in a way that presents the material to the user in response to the
users choices. This interactivity, made possible by random access afforded by disc-based
storage and by the use of a computer as the common interface, is what sets hypermedia
apart from former attempts to combine and integrate various media.
Interactivity implies a dialogue between two parties. According to Steuer (1992),
“interactivity is the extent to which users can participate in modifying the form and
content of a mediated environm ent in real tim e.” Interactivity, in the context of
interactive multimedia, is the functionality afforded by a system that responds to the user.
Choices made by the user determine the “system’s” response to the input and the next bit
o f information presented for consideration. Interactive multimedia has received renewed
attention and exposure through the rising popularity o f the Internet, and more
specifically, the World Wide Web (WWW). The W W W , with an estimated 50 million
home pages, is the largest hypertext document o f all — incorporating text, graphics,
audio, video, and animation, tying all of these elements together with dynamic linking.
W hile still very much an evolving medium, the explosive growth of WWW sites for
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educational, commercial and personal interests has breathed new life into the study and
application of interactive media.
The design of hyperm edia learning environments called “cognitive m edia”
(Eklund, 1996) are based on the cognitive theory of the inferential and learning processes
of human users, and encompass different strategies for problem solving and learning.
Eklund contended that hypermedia systems should not be designated for the most part in
terms o f the kinds of physical media types that can be accessed. But instead, the
important frame of reference is the content that can be portrayed within a physical media,
rather than the physical m edia itself. Furthermore, the content and means of access to
that content should be structurally designed so as to be cognitively relevant to the goals
of the learner.
Media cognition, the study of the mental processes connected by interaction with
the media, is a subject o f great attraction to psychologists, sociologists, educators,
communication theorists, and media practitioners. Much research has been conducted in
the areas of perception, sensory stimulation, memory and recall, and m edia effects.
Researchers have studied how a reader engages the pages of a newspaper or magazine
(e.g., Garcia & Stark, 1991; Utt & Pasternack, 1989), and the mental processes and
effects of viewing film and television programs (e.g., Bandura, 1994; Graber, 1990;
Grimes, 1990; Reeves & Anderson, 1991). However, because of the relatively short
history of computer based interactive hypermedia, research into the cognitive processes
engaged by these new interactive, non-linear, multi-sensory, digital media is sparse.
Hypertext, as mentioned above, is a term first coined by Theodor Nelson, a self
described “rogue philosopher and film-maker,” in 1965. Hypertext docum ents are
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nonsequential, e.g., the reader can explore the content in whatever order desired. Units of
information, or “nodes,” are connected by “links.” Nodes hold “chunks” of content and
may be defined by fixed frames or sections of content within a scrolling window. Links
provide context for the content. Links may be part of the content, e.g., a word may also
be a link to take the user to a related node, or may be a separate icon or menu item. A
linked portion of text may be indicated by its style, color, or by the fact that the cursor
changes as it passes over the link. This node and link structure allows authors and
readers to create associations between related units of information that make sense to
them. The term hypermedia is simply an expansion of the concept of hypertext to include
other forms of digital information, e.g., graphic images, audio, video, and animation.
Hypertext (Nelson, 1978) defines associative links between nodes, which are one
or many screens of information. This node-link structure in the knowledge base allows
the user to move through an information space utilizing navigational tools. There is,
inherent in im plem entations o f hyperm edia courseware, an author/expert defined
structure o f the material, simply in the sequencing of the nodes and the availability of
associative links between them, but it is at the user’s discretion that this sequence is
followed. This has been the predominant approach to structuring hypertext-based
courseware to date. It is based on the idea that an expert’s sequencing and linking of
nodes, combined with a domain referenced design of interface ergonomics, provides a
knowledge structure which reflects the way learning typically takes place in the content
area. However, a fundamental limitation of this approach is that not all students are
typical. The sequencing of the material and the links are fixed, and not dependent on the
individual user’s responses or actions. Unlike intelligent systems, hypertext-based
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systems are most often a static, non-adaptive learning medium. They do not teach, but
instead provide the student with an excellent opportunity to learn o f their own accord,
and have been described as a non-pedagogical technology (Duchastel, 1992), as they
possess minimal structural knowledge of content.
W hile intelligent systems have been criticized for their structured tutoring and
their embedded assumption o f the expert’s model of domain knowledge as the basis for
teaching and remediation, hypermedia systems have suffered from a lack of structure or
expert guidance in the instructional sequence. A common problem for novice users of
such systems is one of disorientation, or “getting lost in hyperspace,” and an established
research area is the study of student paths or ‘trails’ through the material (M isanchuck &
Schweir, 1992; Santiago & Okey, 1992). This empirical approach allows researchers to
look for relationships between learning outcomes and navigational paths, with the view
that the characteristics of learner paths for high achievers provides guidelines for
maximizing learning through interface design. Consideration of interface ergonomics is a
means of addressing navigational problems users o f hypermedia experience, and a way of
avoiding representing domain and user knowledge in hypermedia. This approach is
common in the literature yet has not yielded significant gains in addressing navigational
problem s. One possible explanation for this is that well grounded techniques and
principles of instructional design have successfully been applied to interface design, and
there may be limited scope for improvement given current technologies.
As stated in Chapter 1 o f this dissertation, the linking of associated ideas in
hypertext and hypermedia is analogous to the way that the human brain functions for
memory and recall. If the computer is, in McLuhanesque terminology, an extension of
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the human brain, hypertext and hypermedia describe the process by which ideas are
categorized and linked by associative indexing. A simplified description of the human
memory uses familiar terms to describe the linking association of new sensory stimuli, or
“chunks” of inform ation, with formerly processed inform ation. Bush (1945), as
mentioned in Chapter 1, may have originated this line of reasoning when he wrote: “The
human mind...operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the
next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate
web of trails carried by the cells to the brain.”
If an interface is defined as where two different worlds meet, it would appear that
the more dissimilar the two worlds the greater the need for a well designed interface. The
study of user interface is known by a variety of terms, e.g., human-computer interaction,
human factors, and ergonomics. Advanced graphical user interfaces such as W indows
and the M acintosh OS have evolved over years of research and testing.
Interactive m edia are different from other, m ore familiar media in that the degree
of contact between the user of the medium and the mechanism that delivers the content.
Newspaper readers hold a newspaper, turn pages, and fold it under their arms. Television
viewers flip between channels with a remote control and occasionally adjust their
volume. In contrast, users of computer-based interactive media are constantly clicking
with a mouse or keyboard, selecting icons, opening windows, and otherwise interacting
with the hardware and software interface. Computer-based delivery technology requires
a more active consum er than does traditional media. Frequently this required activity is
detrimental to the process, especially for users with little experience. For many users the
interface em ployed by computer-based interactive m edia is confusing and opaque.
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Interface tools used for interactive media include the keyboard, mouse, touch screen, and
joystick. For more advanced applications, such as virtual reality, users put on a data
glove, eye-tracking goggles or helmet and even a full-body suit. The Holy Grail of
interactive m ultim edia interface design is to achieve a level of transparency that
approaches that of more traditional media. Human-computer interaction is an issue that
will continue to require considerable resources and attention if interactive media are to
thrive.
Adaptive Hypermedia and Navigational Tools. One way of alleviating the
problem of users becoming lost is through the provision of a variety of navigational tools.
These tools available in hypermedia are categorized by de la Passardiere & Dufresne
(1992) as punctual, structural or historical. Punctual aids include buttons which offer
transport to some other place in hyperspace (usually with some indication o f the
destination), as well as help buttons. Structural aids provide users with alternate
perspectives on their position and include overview maps, local maps, fisheyes, filters
and indexes. Overview maps allow the user to ‘zoom out’ to see nodes and links, while
local maps show links to the current node only. Fisheyes are devices for ‘zooming in ’ on
a node. Filters reduce the complexity of displaying links between nodes in an overview
or local map, and indexes are structural tools which provide a way of organizing the
hyperspace into a hierarchy. Historical aids attempt to place users in the inform ation
space by showing them where they have been. They include history trails, footprints, and
landmarks. History trails allow the user to review the trail through the material, without
locating that path using other tools. Footprints are system generated marks showing
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when a user has passed through a node, while landmarks are user generated for the same
purpose.
W hile the navigational features of hypermedia provide opportunities for students
to undertake a non-linear use of the material, that is one which best suits their notions of
where to move within the courseware, some studies (e.g. Messing, 1990) have shown that
students tend to adopt a linear pattern of review similar to that taken with a book. Further
studies (e.g. Santiago & Okey, 1992) have attempted to classify learners according to
their beliefs about whether they have the ultimate responsibility for navigation of an
environm ent. D escribing these learners as “internal,” (accepting that control is
contingent on their actions and knowledge), or “external,” (attributing their success in the
environment as a function of external variables outside their influence), has provided
researchers with a rationale for the student’s navigational behavior in that domain. Other
learner centered factors include the influence o f prior knowledge, both specifically in the
domain under investigation as well as with hypermedia in general. Not surprisingly it has
been found that a knowledge of the subject matter correlates highly with an ability to
navigate in a non-linear way through the information space (Ohlsson, 1992); and that a
knowledge of hypermedia environments in general also predicts a greater use of learner
initiative in the use of available navigational tools.
Considerable research effort is being directed toward applying the understanding
gained from em pirical studies of student traits using com puter interfaces to create
adaptive systems with an interface management approach (e.g. Pitz, 1994). In these
systems, the interface is altered on the basis of several stereotypical user categories. The
systems attempt to trace student knowledge and provide individual advice. For example,
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Yazici, M uthuswamy & Vila (1994) used an intelligent system approach for interface
management in decision support systems. They constructed an Expert System Interface
M anager (ESIM ) which contained a knowledge base of user cognitive characteristics,
display preferences, decision tasks as well as the rules to select appropriate display
formats. The student model is used to dynamically alter the display characteristics of the
interface to suit the needs of the learner.
Other adaptive hypertext-based systems include that by Carlson & Gonzalez
(1993), who used hypertext as a basis for representing knowledge in the conceptual
design and prototype implementation of a set of knowledge templates and applied this
design to writing. The knowledge structures used in this design strongly reflect cognitive
models on which the writing process is based. The semantic net structure used was
constructed with a cognitive process model embedded in the system ’s architecture. This
was achieved through seven levels where the unstructured text is progressively organized
into the finished product.
W ork is going on at the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS) and
Stockholm University (Karlgren et. al., 1994), where a national project is underway
developing adaptive hyperm edia. This work uses adaptive search and filtering
mechanisms mainly based on user stereotypes. The stereotypical knowledge is derived
from observations of several users, and utilizes clustering and direct user input. This
method avoids the need for very advanced organization of hypermedia knowledge.
In a paper by Vassileva (1994) a practical architecture was proposed for user
modeling in a hypermedia-based information system as a means of controlling a novice’s
poor use of hypermedia links. This work recognized the navigational problems of novice
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users and applied a knowledge structure to the hypertext as a network of goals in a
hierarchy. This control was achieved by altering the size o f the browsing space on the
basis o f the user’s knowledge. This adaptive, self-im proving architecture was
implemented for an information system for hospitals. This was a task-based domain
which assumed a fixed set of goals, and the hypermedia was organized as a network of
hypertext links, goal-topic links and goal-hierarchy links. This adaptive browsing
support used a user-model based on empirical analysis of tasks performed by users.
Kobsa, M uller & Nill (1994) developed an adaptive user modeling system based
on hypertext to address comprehension problems experienced by users. The design of
this system recognized the two major problems users of hyperm edia systems face —
navigation and comprehension. In this implementation, hypertext objects alter on the
basis of the user’s current knowledge state. The system’s knowledge representation was
based on the assumption that users who deselect or bypass information do so because
they are fam iliar with it, and users who request inform ation or follow a path are
motivated by a desire to acquire the knowledge.
A user-centered approach to adaptive hypertext has been developed which is
based on the relevance of the information to the user. The user is asked to indicate,
throughout the dialogue, an assessment of the “interestingness” o f a topic and this
determines a user profile. The information relevance model does not require a highly
structured hypermedia as it does not reflect the expert’s appraisal of the student but the
student’s own opinion of the relevance of the material. The system adaptively advises
the student through the information space on the basis of the student’s ongoing indication
of what is personally relevant to them. This is a dom ain-dependent solution to
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structuring knowledge in hypertext which relies on student input and avoids stereotyping.
It does, however, rely heavily on the user’s own assessment of their needs, which may
not always be correct. For students to effectively be able to select a sequence and
strategy according to their needs, they need to have a substantial knowledge of content in
the first place.
2.4 Cognitive Issues in Structuring/Designing Hypermedia
Although the terms “hypertext” and “hyperm edia” were coined by Theodor
Nelson in the 1960’s, his thinking was strongly influenced by the earlier work of Bush
(already mentioned). As defined by Nelson, hypertext is nonlinear text. What it has
come to mean in its many emerging implementations is a set of windows on the computer
screen that are linked to information in a database (Conklin, 1987). Hypermedia is an
extension to include a variety of symbolic expressions beyond texts. Picture a document
displayed in a window on the computer screen. This document can be searched by
various means, including a Boolean key word search using logical functions such as
AND and OR. Imagine that the document is an English translation of Plato’s Republic
and that, if desired, the user could display the document in Greek as well as in another
window on the screen. In the English version, one could select a word, and the computer
could identify its corresponding word in the G reek text; this operation would be
reciprocal. There may be other information connected to a word or passage in the text.
For exam ple, a passage could be connected to a contemporary scholarly article that
comments on it; this article could be retrieved from the database and displayed on the
screen. A reference to Homer would allow the user to retrieve and display The Iliad. Or,
a word could be associated with a dictionary definition, a diagram, a sound, or a bit-
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mapped, high resolution photograph of an ancient artifact, sculpture, or building. The
name of a city or country could be linked to a map o f it. The title of a play could be
linked to a video enactment of its dramatization that could be displayed in yet another
window.
Spiro and Jehng (1990) contend that hypertexts facilitate the application and
transfer o f complex knowledge to new situations. Such cognitive flexibility requires the
representation of knowledge along multiple rather than single conceptual dimensions.
The ill-structured nature of com plex situations also requires the assem bly of
representations, rather than the retrieval of an intact schema. According to Spiro and
Jehng (1990), hypertext facilitates this cognitive flexibility because it allows a topic to be
explored in multiple ways using a number of different concepts or themes. This results in
the development of integrated, flexible knowledge structures interconnected by criss
crossing conceptual themes that facilitate the use of this knowledge to solve a wide range
of problems. Each concept can be subsequently used in many different ways and the
same concept can apply to a variety of kinds of situations.
The potential cognitive effects of such systems becom e apparent when one
compares their capabilities to the reading behavior of experts as described in the
Bazerman (1985) study. These experts read very selectively, making strategic decisions
based on a particular purpose and on highly developed schemata of their field. They
scanned tables of contents and read parts o f articles selectively and in a personally
constructed order. At times, they progressed through the text rapidly, and, at other times,
they slowed, moving back and forth within and across texts. This nonlinear reading
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would certainly appear to be facilitated by the richness of information and the nonlinear
structure of hypertext.
This process may also be facilitated by an implementation of hypertext that is not
yet widely used. Most current implementations of hypertext systems are search-and-
browse systems. The learner is presented with an established database, structured by the
author, and is free to navigate through it in whatever way he or she may want. Other
system s (e.g., Kozma, 1991; Kozma & Van Roekel, 1986; Scardam alia, Bereiter,
M cLean, Swallow, & Woodruff, 1989) allow learners to add their own information and
construct their own relationships, perhaps symbolically representing them by graphic,
node-and-link-structures. Such systems can be made to correspond to the processes
learners use when constructing interrelationships among concepts in real memory. As
Salomon (1988) points out, this may prompt learners not only to think about ideas but to
think about how they are interrelated and structured. More importantly, they provide an
explicit model of information representations that, under certain conditions, learners may
come to use as mental models o f their thinking.
As mentioned earlier, effective design of interactive multimedia will take into
account the cognitive experience o f the end user. Key issues to be considered include
local and global coherence and cognitive overhead. Turing et. al. (1995) proposed that
the relationship between cognition and hyperm edia first consider tw o difference
approaches to current hypermedia usage. The first is the unstructured navigation through
“browsable databases,” while the second employs the guided experience of progressing
through “electronic documents.” According to Turing et. al., the former provides greater
access to disparate information while the latter provide greater opportunity for structured
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learning. It is this second approach to which interactive media authors apply theories of
coherence and cognitive overhead as they relate to user comprehension. By increasing
coherence, e.g., “facilitating the construction of semantic relations between information
units,” and m inim izing cognitive overhead, e.g., “freeing processing capacities that
otherwise w ould have been bound by orientation, navigation, and user-interface
adjustment,” interactive multimedia authors can increase the effectiveness of their
product. W right (1993) suggested that the reader’s consideration of “cognitive cost”
might play a role in determining under what conditions to follow a hypertext link.
Increasing local coherence of text-based inform ation is achieved by using
established rules of gramm ar and compositions, and by lim iting the appearance of
fragmentation. The nature of interactive hypermedia is one of fragments o f interrelated
data. However, to increase local coherence one needs to minimize the appearance of
fragmentation. In a hypertext document, one way to achieve this is to provide clues as to
where a link will take the user. An unidentified link in the middle of a node creates a
situation where the reader is given the choice of ignoring the link or blindly following the
link and in doing so surrendering control to the document’s author. As an alternative,
some authors propose making links only at the end of text blocks, or in sidebars, thus
limiting the readers choices before they have fully engaged the present material. In a
hypertext document on a network., e.g., a WWW page, an author may be tempted to link
to the vast array of related texts located at far-flung web sites. While these may be
useful, caution should be exercised to prevent fragmentation which disorientates or
confuses the reader. The lack of control over linked destinations makes WWW-based
documents especially precarious.
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It is best to identify links that will take the user “off-site” to differentiate them
from internal links that simply take the user to another place in the current document or
site. In M edia Determinism in Cyberspace, a hypertext paper written by the Samuel
Ebersole, internal links are identified by the standard blue text with underline. Links that
take the user to off-site pages present the entire URL in blue, underlined text. This clues
the reader to the fact that linked site is external to the current server and once s/he takes
this link the easiest way to return is to use the BACK button. In such an uncontrolled
environment there is no guarantee that the linked site will provide an easy way back. To
confuse the situation even more, the new site may use an entirely unfamiliar metaphor or
have a look and feel that is comprehensible only to its author. In a worst-case scenario
the link may become broken and dysfunctional. If the link works and the reader finds a
functional interface, a final danger is that the reader may wander off on a trail o f links
never to find his way back to the remaining portion of your site. In order to increase
global coherence, Turing et. al. (1995) suggested that a “com prehensive overview be
provided o f the document components and their relations in terms of graphical maps or
browsers.”
Each of the issues discussed to this point involve measures taken to minimize the
negative effects o f cognitive overhead. Cognitive overhead as defined by Conklin (1987)
is, “the additional mental overhead required to create, name and keep track o f links.”
Nielsen (1990) describes “overhead” and “cognitive load” as they apply to the user’s
experience in terms o f the “look and feel” of the interface. The experience, according to
Nielsen, should be one of effortless navigation through the material without concern for
“what the computer will do or how to get it to do what they want.” According to Turing
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et. al. (1995) cognitive overhead in hyperdocum ents often results when users are
concerned about, “orientation, navigation, and user-interface adjustment.” Dealing with
what m ay be an unfamiliar user interface while trying to remember one’s “position”
within the document can put a load on the cognitive process, thus making less processing
pow er available for comprehension and learning. In summary, m inim izing the
distractions of disorientation and unfamiliarity will enhance comprehension.
Brown (1990) and other writers (Anderson, 1992; Corbett et al., 1990), Chan et.
al. 1993, Eklund, 1993) have explained how current theories and architectures in
intelligent systems have impacted upon learning theories, and vice-versa. Corbett et al.’s
(1992) description of the LISP Intelligent Tutoring System, namely LISPITS, which
instructs students in the programming language of the LISP, is based on theoretical
principles derived from a theory of cognition proposed by Anderson known as ACT*
(Anderson, 1983). ACT* theory proposes that human problem solving is enabled by a set
of production rules, and can be turned into a formal set of w ell-ordered rules about
instruction. Briefly, this is that behavior is goal driven; that there is a distinction between
declarative and procedural knowledge; that the acquisition of procedural know ledge
occurs through a sequence of productions o f a declarative nature, which through
repetition and practice are collated into larger productions; and finally that in the early
stages o f learning a working memory is needed before productions are built. LISPITS is
a well studied intelligent tutor founded on the ACT* principles, and has been criticized
for its authoritarian teaching strategies and behaviorist approach to learning.
VanLehn (1992) notes that there are tremendous difficulties in attempting to base
a wide variety o f courseware from varying knowledge domains on any one m odel of
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human cognition, and points to domain specific theories as a means of understanding
human learning. It has been the tradition in intelligent systems research to instantiate a
theory of learning through a program, and an evaluation of that program is often viewed
as reflecting that of the model of cognition on which it is based. The implementation is
an artefact o f a specific theory and its evaluation reflects the validity or otherwise of the
theory.
Jonassen (1991) has outlined issued related to integrating knowledge structures
within hypertext systems as similar to those o f integrating knowledge acquired from
hypermedia system s into the learner’s own understanding. Structuring hypertext for
effective learning is thus based on structures of learning, or cognitive models, within the
learner. According to Jonassen, domain knowledge is divided into three components:
knowledge o f declarative elements, of procedures, and of structures. D eclarative
knowledge elem ents are isolated components that rely on a working memory (e.g., I
know a2 x a3 = a5 but I don’t necessarily know why). Structural knowledge is
knowledge o f the relationships between elements of declarative knowledge (e.g., I know
a2xa3=a5 and this is because a2=axa and a3=axaxa and thus a2xa3=(axa)x(axaxa)=a5).
Procedural knowledge is the ability to effectively group a number of these declarative
elements and their links into a coarser grained “procedure” and apply it without needing
to recall the contents o f the procedure in detail, (e.g., I just use a a2xa3=a5
automatically).
Pedagogical knowledge also contains a knowledge o f the structure of the domain,
that is the interrelationships between concepts and instances; as well as knowledge of the
state of the student’s understanding of content at any time; and knowledge of a variety of
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tutorial strategies and a means for selecting a strategy that will best facilitate learning
according to these first two states. Hypermedia systems exem plify constructivist
approaches to learning (see Jonassen, 1992; Cobb et. al., 1992), where learning is
regarded as the formation of mental models or “constructs” of understanding by the
learner. In this view o f learning, the students actively build knowledge based on previous
understanding by dynamically interacting with the learning media. One practical
outcome of the theory of human learning is that the learning medium must create the
situation where the learner has the freedom to exercise judgm ent about what is to be
learned and at what pace. Hypermedia systems are a suitable delivery mechanism for
courseware which embodies constructivist approaches as they are structured to allow the
learner to take more control of lessons. The success of the learning relies on the interest,
intelligence and ability of the learner to make decisions about lesson sequence, timing
and emphasis.
It has been suggested (Jonassen, 1992) that hypermedia systems are particularly
useful in facilitating learning because hypertext structures reflect a model of learning
based on schemas. In schema theory, learning is the accumulation and organization of
knowledge structures. These knowledge structures are a representation of the
organization o f ideas in our semantic memory. Each knowledge structure exists as an
object, idea or event as well as a set of attributes which link it to other knowledge
structures. As we learn, we gain new structures and links, adding information to existing
structures (also known as accretion), or alter existing structures through a process o f
restructuring. Restructuring also involves grouping know ledge structures into
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procedures, or coarser-grained schemas. Our knowledge exists in a semantic memory
which is a network of interrelated concepts.
In the semantic net architecture, the knowledge in the courseware is organized as
concept nodes, which in Hypercard(tm) or Toolbookreg. may be one or more likely a
number of cards, or in Authorware(tm) a group containing a sequence of presentation and
interaction icons. Nodes are connected via navigational links under buttons and menus.
The nature of the button or menu describes the association between nodes.
Figure 2.4a -- A Semantic Network for HyperCard
A similar model of learning stages proposed by Chan et. al. (1993) call OCTR
suggests four stages in human learning; orientation (relating prior knowledge), coaching
(apprenticeship learning), tuning and routinization (practice with gradually more student
autonomy). This model emphasizes the constructivist view and also assumes knowledge
consists of units and links. The distinction is made between strong and weak links. The
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four stages in learning involve the creation of weak and strong links between “proper old
know ledge” and new material. The stages in the learning m odel are qualitatively
explained in cognitive terms through processes of connection (w eak links are created
between old knowledge and new knowledge), accretion (knowledge is expanded with
many new w eak links created), articulation (links are strengthened while some are
deleted), and solidification (units and links are strengthened). Chan et. al. demonstrate
the links in the design of a computer system through a tree diagram of the knowledge
architecture, represented as a learning goal hierarchy. Each node in the hierarchy
possesses a “cluster o f episodes” which is essentially a small unit of related material from
the domain.
Figure 2.4b - A Quantitative Representation of OCTR
Connection
Accretion
Articulation
Solidification
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Mosaic and Netscape are based on hypertext and rely on the user’s ability to make
informed decisions about where next to browse. They underlie a constructivist approach
where the learner accepts control of the learning. If learning is facilitated by the
formation of node-link structures in the learner, then this needs to be reflected in the
construction of the knowledge base according to the way learning takes place in the
domain.
I have mentioned the cognitive models suggested by schema theory and OCTR,
and in these theories, learning is the accumulation and organization of knowledge
structures, and are represented by nodes and links between them. The nodes are
declarative elem ents of knowledge while the links represent procedural and structural
understanding. As mentioned, in ACT* theory, the acquisition of procedural knowledge
occurs through a sequence of productions of a declarative nature, which through practice
are collated into larger productions. In other words, through repetition a node-link
becomes simply a node, an element of declarative knowledge, and the granularity o f the
knowledge in the learner alters.
2.5 Potential Concerns for Multi-modal Presentation
The fact that multimedia employs various media raises yet another topic for
inquiry. Do different media use different symbol systems to present information to the
user? Do text, a photograph, sound, and video animation each have a unique symbol
system that presents its information in a unique way? And if so, do the brain’s sensory
stores and short-term memory process these symbol systems without confounding
com plications? Salomon (1979) argued that the differences between various media is
evident and significant in two ways. First, they differ “with respect to the am ount of
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mental translation from external symbol system to internal mode that they require.”
Secondly, they differ “with respect to the kinds of mental skills that invoke in the process
of knowledge extraction.” Salomon perceived these differences to be of great importance
with regard to their impact on the use of media for educational purposes. The assumption
is that the increase in mental resources required for recoding results in a decrease in
comprehension. Wright (1993) suggested that a cognitive “bottleneck” or overload may
be the result of the multi-modal processing inherent in multimedia presentation systems.
Consistency. Two of the most important elements to consider when designing an
interactive system which will increase coherence and minimize cognitive overhead are
consistency and orientation cues. Consistency is achieved when the same actions result
in the same effect, regardless of other variables that may have changed. A consistent
interface is achieved by first selecting, and then following, an applicable metaphor. The
m etaphor is the overarching theme that captures the form and function o f the system’s
architecture. Metaphors based on ordinary and familiar concepts, e.g., a desktop, book,
travel, and stack of cards, have all been used to bring real-world concepts and
familiarities to what otherwise might be a confusing new system. According to Lynch
(1994), a successful metaphor limits the number and complexity of rules that the user
must learn “because the ‘rules’ governing the user’s interactions ought to be self-evident
in the metaphor.” Kahn (1995) and others have shown that thoughtful graphic design can
create global structure within a single web site.
A quick tour of the WWW will quickly demonstrate the diversity of metaphors
used by site authors. The one thread of consistency that runs throughout the web is near
universal compliance with most of the functions o f the Hyper Text Markup Language
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(HTM L) standard that is used to create WWW pages and the Hyper Text Transfer
Protocol (HTTP) used for communication. In addition, the robust market penetration of
graphic user interfaces or browsers, first NSCA’s Mosaic and then Netscape’s Navigator,
has m anaged to bring an additional level o f consistency to the web. H owever,
introduction o f num erous extensions, e.g., frames and tables, as well as plug-in
applications, e.g., RealAudio(tm), Java (tm), and ShockWave(tm) threaten to reduce
consistency for the sake of increased performance.
Orientation. One of the concepts repeatedly mentioned in the literature as a
means to reduce cognitive overhead is the use of cues to aid the user’s navigation through
the information “space” of the hyperdocument. The metaphor of space is common to the
world of com puter-m ediated communication. Since the invention of the telegraph,
electronic technology has allowed us to demolish the barriers of time and space. We
have come to accept the term “cyberspace” as defining a “place” where inform ation
resides in a network of linked computers. Navigating or “surfing” the web o f information
implies traveling through nodes of information, linking from one to another across the
vast sea of data. As hypermedia docum ents increasingly reside on the network,
cyberspace becomes increasingly appropriate to describe the place where the information
resides. W ith this metaphor firmly entrenched, navigation of hyperdocuments requires
that the user knows his or her position at any given time. To facilitate this, interactive
m ultim edia designers have created several techniques to promote the form ation of
cognitive m aps which aid orientation. Shum (1990) applied spatial (geography)
cognition theories to the design of hypertext documents. According to Shum users of
hypertext system s are interested in both the locations and attributes of phenom ena.
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D illon, M cK night and Richardson (1993) explored the issue of navigation by
conceptualizing it using four categories: “schemata, landmarks, routes and surveys.”
Techniques used to facilitate navigation include: guided tours, m aps, trails,
backtrack functions, bookmarks, overview diagrams, queries, and fisheye views (Nielsen,
1990, Chapter 8). An example of the backtrack and bookmarks approaches are familiar
to those who use Netscape Navigator to browse the World Wide Web. The BACK button
takes the user back to the previous “page” while the “bookmarks” feature allows the user
to store a page’s URL (uniform resource locator) in memory for later retrieval and access.
In this case the orientation feature is part of the user interface (Netscape Navigator) and
not part of the hypertext document. However, it should be noted that many of the most
friendly web sites include BACK, PREVIOUS, AND HOME navigation buttons as part
of their programming to facilitate the same goal.
Another technique that can be used to provide orientation for the user is color. A
case in point can again be made using the Netscape Navigator interface. N etscape’s
default configuration displays linked text as blue with an underline. Once the user has
made a connection to that link, the text changes to purple, thus serving as a visual clue
that that link has already been followed. Netscape allows the user to define a duration
after which the link will return to the normal blue color thus allowing the user to
custom ize the duration o f the program’s memory. In essence this allows the user to
acknowledge the reality that it has been so long since the last visit that s/he probably does
not remember the content o f that page, so the computer might well indicate that the link
has not been followed.
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According to Turing et. al. (1995) orientation cues should: (1) “identify their
current position with respect to the overall structure,” (2) “reconstruct the way that led to
this position,” and (3) “distinguish among different options for moving on from this
position.” Rivlin et. al. (1994) proposed a collection of structural tools to facilitate
orientation within hypertext documents. Using algebraic formulas for “hierarchization
and cluster identification,” the authors attempted to identify groupings of links around
“landmark” links, thus revealing the global structure of the document.
Users not only want to know where they are going, but whether it will be worth
the journey. The “cognitive distance” is defined by the cost to the user. How long will it
take, how many links, and how much cognitive energy will be expended in the process of
getting to the destination? For users of the WWW, the cost of going the distance may be
determined by the speed o f their connection to the network. The person connected by a
9600 baud modem may make different choices of where to go than the one with an
Ethernet connection. W eb sites with heavy graphical content require greater bandwidth
or more time to download, thus potentially limiting their visitors to those with faster
connections or those willing to pay the high cognitive price.
Response Tim e. Another related issue of concern to designers of hypermedia
architectures is the response time as measured by the delay between user input and
system response. When this is under the control of the system designer, e.g., a closed
system in which the hardware, software, and content resides locally, an optimal response
time is one that is perceived to be instantaneous, but one that is actually slow enough to
provide a clue to the fact that the frame has changed. According to Nielsen (1990) an
optimal duration is about a half second. Research conducted with shorter durations
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indicated that users were unaware that the screen had changed when speeds as short as
.05 seconds were used. Of course, if the system relies on a network connection or if the
content of the new screen is graphically intensive, retrieval and rendering time may delay
the display of the next screen. The more complex the content, the lower the bandwidth of
the network, and the slower the processor speed, the greater the delay will be. In such
cases it is important that the interface presents the user with an indicator that is has
sensed the users action and is proceeding to respond. This may be an audible “click” or
momentary change in the button or link that was “clicked on.”
W hen the delay is more than a few seconds, an indication o f progress and
estimated time for completion of the process is important. The too familiar hourglass
(W indows(tm)) or watch (Maclntosh(tm)) icons serve an important function providing
feedback that something is happening and reassuring the user that the system has not
locked up. A better solution, for delays longer than ten seconds, is to provide a “percent-
done” indicator or “time-remaining” countdown clock (Nielsen, 1993). N etscape
N avigator provides such responses time feedback in various ways. W hen displaying
com plex graphics Netscape allows for interlaced GIF files to quickly display low
resolution images which are progressively upgraded to full resolution over time. Text
blocks load before graphics allowing the user to begin reading even before the entire page
is loaded. And when transferring files via FTP, Netscape presents a display containing
both percent-done and time-remaining information.
Testing Interactive Media. Interactive multimedia design based on theory can and
should be tested using empirical methodology to ascertain real-world effectiveness.
Because authors and users often have different perspectives when it com es to the
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evaluation of interactive media systems, a method to test and refine the design o f the
system is essential. Published reports have studied various issues relating to the
effectiveness of the design of the system and presentation, e.g.; whether users detect
design flaws in the human-computer interface (Molich & Nielsen, 1990), the im pact of
sem antic structuring on the user (Jonassen, 1993), and, how design impacts evaluation
criteria; e.g., richness, ease, consistency, self-evidence, predictability, readability, and
reuse (Garzotto, Mainetti & Paolini, 1995).
Nielsen (1993) proposed a system for designing and testing the user friendliness
of interactive media systems. He called his approach “usability engineering,” the same
name given his 1993 book. One o f his “usability heuristics,” i.e., consistency, has
already been addressed earlier in this paper. Others include: simple and natural dialogue,
speak the users’ language, minimize the users’ memory load, feedback, clearly marked
exists, shortcuts, good error m essages, prevent errors, and help and docum entation
(Chapter 5).
Usability Testing Procedures. Nielsen’s 1996 paper about the design of SunWeb,
the internal Web site for Sun Computers, outlines his usability testing procedure. The
four stages of this process are (1) card sorting, (2) icon intuitiveness testing, (3) card
distribution to icons, and (4) thinking aloud walk through o f page mock-up, involved
testing the interface at various stages in the design process. The first step employed card
sorting techniques to discover categories that made sense to the participants. A stack of
cards with commands were given to the participants who were asked to sort them into
categories. Next the participants were asked to group the stacks of cards into fewer
groups and to give the groups names. Cluster analysis was then performed on the results
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of all participants. The second test involved showing icons to the participants and asking
them to provide explanations for each. When the meaning o f the icon was not obvious,
the design was modified until the desired results were achieved. The third step in the
process involved asking the participants to distribute the cards from the first test,
matching them to the m ost appropriate icon from the results of the second test. The
fourth and final step was to present each participant with a mock-up o f the final screen
design, asking them to identify the icons and the related actions associated with each.
Participants were also invited to comment on the aesthetics o f the icons and design of the
screen. This interactive design process allows for design and redesign in response to the
feedback provided by representative end users.
Yet another proposal for ascertaining user reaction to the cognitive structure of
information space is to apply the “ sketch-maps” com monly used in spatial cognition
research (Shum, 1990). Shum proposed having users place cards or draw squares on a
board to represent nodes, and then draw the links that connect them. The theory assumes
that information and links not important to the users will not be evident in their diagrams.
Another usability testing procedure was conducted within the 1998 dissertation
“Elements of Perform ance and Satisfaction as Indicators o f the Usability of Digital
Spatial Interfaces for Information-Seeking: Implications for ISLA” (Thomas, 1998).
This study explored the overall usability of two Internet-accessible digital library
interfaces for inform ation-seeking in order to provide guidance for the continued
development of Project ISLA, a geospatial library under development at the University of
Southern California. The interfaces studied were those of the Journal Storage Project,
JSTOR, a subset o f the University of M ichigan’s D igital Library Project, and the
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prototype interface of Project Alexandria, an effort o f the University of California at
Santa Barbara. Twenty-three university students participated in the study w hich
em ployed convenience sampling, typical for identifying target users in the study of
usability. Participants were given a pre-screening questionnaire and an abilities test to
assess their individual differences in the areas o f com puter and internet experience,
gender, and spatial ability. Four subtests of spatial ability from The Kit of Factor-
Referenced Cognitive Tests were given to assess participants’ spatial aptitude.
Descriptive in nature, the study employed usability validation testing to assess the ability
o f participants to complete predetermined benchmark task scenarios for the performance
measures; task complexity increased with each subsequent scenario for each of the two
interfaces.
The Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction$rm sp(TM)$ was used to
measure the satisfaction variables based upon predetermined benchmark measures. At
the established benchmarks, several usability concerns were raised. The study found that
those with higher spatial ability as an individual difference outperformed their low spatial
ability counterparts on both interfaces; participants with low spatial ability required more
time to complete each task scenario than those with high spatial ability. Likewise, those
with high spatial ability rated both interfaces higher in satisfaction than their low ability
counterparts. Findings are consistent with the findings of Chen & Rada’s 1996 23-study
meta-analysis, as well as their finding that task complexity shares an inverse relationship
with task perform ance. Recommendations are made for ISLA’s digital geospatial
graphical user interface (GUI) which specifically address issues of differences in spatial
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ability, as well as temporal and other issues encountered in the use of Internet-based
GUIs (Thomas, 1998).
2.6 Integration of Computer Technology and
Interactive Learning in Geographic Education
B ackground. The aforementioned rapid proliferation of com puter-related
technologies and associated data products is dramatically changing and im proving
geographic instruction (Bishop, 1992). Interconnected electronic information systems
allows users to search for and retrieve information at remote sites. Educators now have a
variety o f choices regarding the use of digital data sets and software for demonstrating
important geographic concepts. However, as hardware and software technologies related
to computer networks, environmental modeling, animation, multimedia and interactive
learning become more available, educators must familiarize themselves with com puter
networks, software resources and digital data products. Critical evaluation of technology
is also required, including course content and project evaluation (e.g., Kemp &
Goodchild, 1992; Nyerges & Chrisman, 1989; Yasso, 1991), and determination o f
effective use of teaching practical problem-solving skills (e.g., Bartier & Keller, 1992;
Bishop, 1992; Fitzpatrick, 1990; Harrington, et al., 1988; Walsh, 1992).
Increasing amounts of electronic inform ation are in the form of geographic
datasets. Used for digital mapping and geographic information systems (GIS), spatial
data in electronic form is hailed for its ability to be quickly and easily transferred from
user to user and from application to application. Applications of digital spatial data have
begun to filter down to the average American home through personal computer software
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such as PCGlobe, a program containing digital data in the form of world maps, and
AutoMap, a program for planning automobile trips (Frank, 1994).
Spatial data, in digital or analog form, represent models of the “real” world.
While there are many kind of “real” worlds represented by spatial data, ranging from
molecular m odels to digital X-rays to CAD/CAM engineering designs, we concern
ourselves here with geographic data — data that can be referenced to the earth’s surface.
Many geographic datasets are massive in volume and contain complex interrelations o f
myriad objects on or near the earth’s surface. Changes in the real world, whether social
or physical, require changes in the datasets comprising the models. New data are
sometimes difficult and often expensive to collect (Federal Interagency Coordinating
Committee on Digital Cartography [FICCDC], 1989; Frank, 1994). Spatial data in digital
formats allow greater sharing of new data and thus a broader base through which to
distribute data gathering costs.
Digital spatial data are valued for the uses to which they can be put (Lucas &
Rose, 1991; Onsrud & Rushton, 1992). They have a longer lifespan than many types o f
data and often outlive both the hardware and software for which they were originally
designed (Onsrud & Rushton, 1992; Thapa & Bossier, 1992). Nor does time diminish the
value of old observation data (Gould & Pierce, 1991). Such characteristics differentiate
digital spatial data from many other forms of information and point to the importance o f
including digital spatial data in the information infrastructure.
“The fundamental problems with sharing data between organizational units are
related to the philosophical problem of how we express ‘meaning’” (Frank, 1994). Data
may impart one meaning in one system yet may mean something else in another system.
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This is due to our inability to create the “perfect” spatial system applicable to all users;
thus different systems support different aspects of spatial information (McAbee, 1992;
Pascoe & Penny, 1990).
Digital spatial data for geographic uses can be represented in either raster or
vector format. Raster format data divides space into regular intervals of area (cells) and
assigns values to each area. For example, a cell in a raster data set that contained 60%
land and 40% water would be assigned a value of “land.” Cells can have many values
assigned to them, but never more than one value from the same class. Data collected
from remote sensing platforms is in raster format. Vector format data delineates features
by the use of points, lines, and areas and assigns values to these elements. For example, a
line could have a value of “river,” “road,” or “property line.” Vector elements can have
more than one value assigned from the same class. For example, a river could also be a
property line. Digital spatial data may also be linked to nonspatial data sets, such as lists
of property owners, that may be analyzed with or without the corresponding spatial data.
All attempts to define intermediate forms that might support information levels o f various
systems must be quite complex (Pascoe & Penny, 1990) and will be subject to much
change over time as spatial technology evolves and new levels of spatial information are
created.
Spatial metadata has been described as (1) digital information that allows the
potential user to understand that data’s fitness for use; and (2) information on database
contents, database schema, its source and history, and its quality (Onsrud & Rushton,
1992). Spatial metadata for cataloging spatial datasets and databases must allow for users
to determine if, among other things, the data are suitable to be integrated with other data
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(Flowerdew, 1991). We must remember, however, that such data are not merely a
collection of computer maps, but are models of the real world (Al-Taha & Frank, 1992).
C ataloging. Cataloging has long been recognized, particularly in the library
community, as a method for describing a certain item and giving the location of that item.
“Geographic/ cartographic [spatial] applications are characterized by massive volumes of
data, both spatial and non-spatial, as well as the need to record their evolution in time”
(Guenther & Buchman, 1990). Because of the voluminous nature of geographic data,
they are prime candidates for cataloging — providing users with much smaller surrogates
useful for evaluating the data. Two items are of special interest when cataloging
geographic data: (1) what to include in each catalog description, and (2) how to index the
catalog entries. Geographic data indexing can be done thematically (by subject), spatially
(by location), or temporally (Ruggles & Newman, 1991; W alker et al., 1992).
Geographic data are collected at many levels of resolution, at widely varying frequencies,
and are sensitive to both the methodology used to collect the data and the methodology
used to process the data. For example, the Landsat 5 satellite collects earth resource data
across seven sensing bands at a ground resolution of 30 meters, while the SPOT satellites
collect resource data across three sensing bands at a ground resolution of 10 meters
(Aronoff, 19S9). The Landsat 5 provide greater information depth than the SPOT
imagery, but SPOT provides a more precise ground resolution of that information.
Many systems have been devised especially to handle spatial data, such as the
U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Geodex system (Larsgaard, 1992), the Research
Libraries Group’s Georeference Information Network (Carver 1989; RLG, 1989), and the
commercial Global Data Catalog (Global, 1992), which allow spatially based searches.
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However, many new systems, both text based and spatially based, have never gone into
production because of reliability problems. Users seem to tolerate certain small amounts
of incorrect or nonoptimal information but must have faith that the system will reliably
find all o f the information requested. However, some users seem to infer a mystical
intelligence in retrieval systems (Hirschheim & Newman, 1991) and may become
frustrated because the system fails to respond as they think it should. Additionally, many
systems are designed primarily for the needs of certain users o f spatial data and do not
appear to have the generality to accommodate the needs o f other possible users of spatial
data. Nor does it seem likely that a single system that would satisfy all users of spatial
data will, or should, come along in the near future.
Cataloging and indexing serve as valuable tools to determine (1) if an item exists;
(2) where it is located; and (3) the possible use and value o f the item. W hile many
cataloging and indexing systems have been transferred from paper to com puter form,
these systems still rely heavily on human interpretation o f inform ation to determine
w here an item is located and of what use and value an item might have. In the
environment of electronic networks, the distinctions between these functions may blur as
users come to expect computers to not only find information, but to also retrieve and
evaluate that information. In the case of geographic inform ation, users may expect
sophisticated online retrieval systems that allow them to define areas of interest by one or
more methods of geocoding. However, differences in geographic retrieval system
concepts and interfaces make it difficult for users to learn to use a wide variety of
systems. Methods are needed to help standardize these systems. These methods should
also be extendible so that users might eventually find, retrieve, and evaluate information
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in a single apparent operation. These problems are beginning to be addressed by the
networking community.
2.7 Issues in a Technological Approach to Curriculum Development
with a Comparison of ISLA and the USC Digital Library
This section includes a description and analysis of technology as a learning
system as well as procedures for using technology as the basis for curriculum
development. Knowledge of these should help in understanding the characteristics of the
approach and in discerning the strengths and weaknesses in the technological concepts of
curriculum.
Educational consumers are familiar with technology in the form of com puter-
based instruction, individualized learning systems, and video and audiocassettes. Many
consumers have been exposed to Seymour Papert’s fMindstorms: Children. Computers.
and Powerful Ideas') program for the promotion of technological literacy. In this
program, prim ary grade children learn to program robots and learn m athem atical
concepts by giving “turtle talk” commands to a computer, such as teaching the turtle to
draw a square (John McNeil, 1996).
As John M cNeil (1996) expresses in his book Curriculum. A Comprehensive
Introduction, most persons are less aware, however, that technology is also helpful in the
analysis of curriculum problems as well as for the creation, implementation, evaluation,
and m anagem ent o f instructional solutions. Technology as a curriculum perspective
focuses on the effectiveness of programs, methods, and materials in the achievement of
specified ends or purposes. A technological perspective has been applied in many
contexts: the development of training programs in industry and the military, the design
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of instructional system s with m atching objectives, activities, and tests, and the
development of instructional products or materials. R ecently, the technological
perspective has been a major factor in the demand for school accountability. Also, there
is a healthy dose of outcome-based technology in the curriculum offered through the new
American Schools Development Corporation, a business effort devoted to school reform.
McNeil (1996) goes on to say that technology influences curriculum in two ways:
application and theory. Applied technology is a plan for the systematic use of various
devices and media or a contrived sequence of instruction based on principles from the
behavioral sciences. Computer-assisted instruction, systems approaches using objectives,
programmed materials, criterion-references tests, microcomputers linked to storage
devices, videodisks, w orkstations, and other databases are exam ples o f applied
technology. A defining element of technology is that its systems and products can be
replicated. That is, the same results can be attained on repeated occasions, and the
system itself is exportable and useful in many situations.
Technology as theory is also useful in the developm ent and evaluation of
curriculum materials and instructional systems. In the developm ental process,
technologists formulate rules which, if followed, will result in more predictable products.
General systems philosophy is a technological framework for viewing problems
of curriculum. It emphasizes the specification of instructional objectives (usually derived
by needs assessment, a study that contrasts the student’s level of achievement with the
learning goals), precisely controlled learning activities or instructional sequences to
achieve these objectives, and criteria for performance and evaluation. Developing a
general systems philosophy also requires stressing feedback to modify the learner’s
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behavior and to adapt instruction (i.e., measurement of the achievements of the program),
recognizing the interaction between components of the instructional system, and paying
attention to the complex interactions between the program and the larger environment in
which it is to be implemented (McNeil, 1996).
At first glance, technology appears to be concerned with how to teach rather than
what to teach. Technologists think of themselves as finding efficient and effective means
to achieve specific ends. A second glance shows that the instructional sequences
produced by the technologists’s model are primarily concerned with what is or is not
learned. In focusing upon a specified objective, goal, or outcome, however, the
technologists is less likely to develop flexible instructional sequences that contribute to a
range of desirable outcomes.
Early in the 20th century, curriculum specialists such as Franklin Bobbitt (1918)
thought that methods used by industry for increasing productivity could be applied to
education. Decisions about what to teach were to be reached by analysis of what was
required in the performance of jobs. Instructional methods were to be based upon
research as to which procedures were best for maximizing student achievement toward
clearly specified objectives related to performance in the world of industry and business
(McNeil, 1996).
In the 1960s, B.F. Skinner promoted efficiency in learning by suggesting a way to
teach “more of a given subject, in more subjects, and to more students” (B.F. Skinner,
1968). His answer was to sequence learning tasks toward specific terminal behaviors,
elicit overt responses from learners to these tasks, and reinforce correct responses.
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Accordingly, curriculum was seen as a sequence of content arranged by steps or
objectives, with each step to be mastered as a prerequisite to subsequent learning.
Follow ing the w ork o f Skinner, technologists developed these rules for
constructing curriculum -program m ed lessons and training programs: (1) gain the
attention of the learner, (2) inform the learner of the expected outcome, (3) activate
relevant capabilities, (4) present stimuli inherent to the task, (5) elicit correct responses
by prompting, (6) provide feedback, (7) appraise performance, (8) provide for transfer of
learning, and (9) ensure retention.
Mastery Learning. Mastery learning is a curriculum produced by technologists.
Instructional objectives, arranged in an assumed hierarchy of tasks, are the keystone of
the system, and lesson materials are built around that arrangement. The objectives are the
intended outcomes of instruction. Each pupil must m aster them before going on to the
next step in the learning hierarchy. Mastery is indicated by successful responses to
criterion-referenced tests matched to the content and behavior specified in the objective.
Objectives in the teaching of mathematics, for exam ple, are grouped by topics such as
numeration, place value, and subtraction.
Lesson materials are matched with the objectives and allow the pupil to proceed
independently with a minimum of teacher direction. The pattern for involving the student
with the system has three parts:
1) Finding out what the student already know s about the subject. Usually a
general placem ent test is adm inistered to reveal th e student’s general level o f
achievement. The student is also given a pretest to reveal specific deficiencies.
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2) Giving the student self-instructional materials or other carefully designed
learning activities. Such activities focus on one o f the specific deficiencies previously
identified.
3) Giving the student evaluative m easurements to determine his or her
progress. Such measurements help the teacher decide whether to move the pupil ahead to
a new task or to provide additional materials or tutoring. Materials usually include
placement tests, pretests and posttests (criterion-referenced), skills booklets, a record
system, gam es and manipulatives, and cassettes and filmstrips. Paid aides and volunteers
(such as parents) assist students, check response sheets, and help to meet the m aterials
organized.
M astery learning is sometimes em ployed by teachers implementing outcom e-
based program s in that it allows individuals more time and additional clarification for
mastering units of curriculum related to the desired outcomes before proceeding.
Instructional Objectives of Classroom Technological Systems. Instrum ental
objectives have either a behavioral or an em pirical emphasis. They specify learning
products or processes in forms that can be observed or measured. There is no inherent
reason why technological systems cannot employ affective as well as psychomotor and
cognitive objectives. Typically, however, the objectives are detailed, specific, and skill-
oriented. Comm ercially available materials features objectives that are likely to be
appropriate for most children in this country. Those skills that most curriculum
developers believe to be useful in learning to read and in solving mathematical problems,
for exam ple, are often focuses of instruction. The instructional objectives o f
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technological systems thus tend to reinforce the importance of conventional goals and the
traditional divisions of academic subject matter (McNeil, 1996).
M ethods. On the one hand, technologists prepare programs and m aterials for
wide use and try to make their sequence of instruction “teacher proof,” with the learner
responding independently. Tapes and audiotapes such as those which teach English
required for amnesty examinations are a case in point. Many adults favor these self-
instructional materials with which they can practice in the privacy of their homes. One
the other hand, the technologists’s rules for sequencing instruction have been widely
prom ulgated as a model for teaching the late. Madeline Hunter’s designs for lessons
closely follow the technologist’s rules including the influence of anticipatory set,
perceived purpose, task analysis, modeling or guided practice, checks for understanding,
and independent practice when it is likely that the student will make errors (Madeline
Hunter, 1984).
Learning is viewed as a process of reacting to stimuli — attending the relevant
cues — rather than as a transactional process in which the learner influences the stimuli.
The learner is directed to attend to more significant features and is reinforced for
appropriate behavior. Goals of instruction are predetermined rather than emergent.
Individualism is restricted to pacing, corrective feedback, and supplem entary
tasks when deficiencies and misconceptions are noticed. Some students can make their
responses more quickly and require fewer exercises to learn a generalization. Individual
learners may spend time on tasks leading to behaviors already in their repertoires.
O rganization. The technologist’s curriculum is usually related to subject
disciplines such as mathematics, sciences, reading and other language arts, and fine arts,
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and to applied technical fields. Usually only a few aspects o f those fields are selected for
treatm ent at any one time. Decimals in mathematics, for example, are treated in a
separate program, not as mathematics in general. The objectives of instruction are
arranged in a fixed continuum or hierarchy of skills; and end-of-program objectives such
as the ability to multiply would follow enroute objectives o f addition and subtraction.
End-of-program objectives are precisely and operationally stated, and these objectives are
the basis for organizing instruction. The objectives are analyzed in term s of
prerequisites. Each prerequisite in turn is then stated as an enroute objective, and these
enroute objectives are arranged in an assumed hierarchical order. A learner may follow a
series o f activities or tasks such as the following: (1) define a given concept, (2)
recognize instances of the concept, (3) combine two given concepts into a principle, and
(4) combine given principles into a strategy for solving new problems. Complex subject
matter, in short, is sequenced by the simple components. A particular sequence may vary
in length from a single lesson to a course o f instruction for a year. Task analysis,
breaking down an objective into its basic elements, steps, or rules, is the chief procedure
for designing technological curriculum as well as for determining enroute tasks and the
order of their acquisition.
Evaluation. Unique to the technologist is the assumption that if the intended
learner (the kind of person for whom the program was designed) does not m aster the
specified objectives, the program maker is at fault. Learners are not responsible for their
own success or failure. Programs are developed, tried out on a sample of the intended
population o f learners, and revised according to the findings until the program attains
intended results.
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Until recently, technologists evaluated their programs only in terms of their own
objectives. Unanticipated side effects were seldom sought. Neither was the validity or
justification for end-of-program objectives established by considering the full range of
criteria that various consumers might apply to both process and product. Technologists
examined achievement but sometimes did not consider whether attaining the objective
produced desirable or undesirable effects on the community or whether the individualized
techniques and inadvertently impaired learners’ social skills. The technologist, as such,
is concerned more about the effectiveness of the process than the validity of the
objectives.
Generally, the technological approach is m ost effective for conventional, easily
m easurable tasks. Students achieve more with these techniques than they would
otherwise. The tightly structured, program m ed approach including frequent and
immediate feedback to the pupil, combined with a tutorial relationship, individual pacing,
and individualized program m ing is positively associated with accelerated pupil
achievement. Ben Bloom (1984) claims that the typical result of mastery learning studies
in the schools is that about 80 percent of students with mastery learning reach the same
level of achievem ent (A or B+) as approximately the top 20 percent of the class under
conventional instruction. Robert Slavin (1987), however, in his review o f the literature
on achievement effects of mastery learning, found essentially no evidence to support the
superior effectiveness o f mastery learning on standardized achievements measurements
and only m odest positive effects on tests designed to match the instructional program.
Technological Innovations. In the 1970s many investigators compared the live
teachers with the new innovations of the period: programmed learning, closed-circuit
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television, films, and slide tapes. In the end, they concluded that the element within a
given medium (structure, pacing, presentation) had more influence on the level of learner
success than any differences measured between different media. Similarly, today’s new
technical innovations — computers, interactive videos — do not provide learning benefits
in themselves. The creation of good programs for use with these tools in critical.
In Mindstorms: Children. Computers, and Powerful Ideas. Seymour Papert offers
a fresh alternative in the technological curriculum. Papert arranges the computer so that
young people learn to control, not be dominated by, their technological environment. To
him, the computer is a vehicle for Piagetian learning by which children are encouraged to
integrate new concepts into their existing repertoires as they manipulate objects defined
as figures on an interactive computer display. Thus children “take new knowledge and
make it their ow n by playing with it and building on it” (Robert Nergney, 1982).
Although more than 40,000 teachers have Logo in their classrooms, they tend to use it as
a means of enrichment rather than as a way to improve students’ cognitive abilities.
Robert Karplus’s model for developing a computer curriculum has three phases.
In the first phase, students play with the phenomenon, building insights through a series
of experiences in a subject area. In the second phase, students acquire concepts in the
content area, and in the third phase, students do something with the mastered content
(Robert Karplus, 1985). Examples of third-step computer activities are language arts
(creative writing and publishing of ideas), science (modeling a biological system and
predicting outcomes), arts (integrating graphic and textual material to explain one’s ideas,
composing music, or creating new visual forms).
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As a laboratory instrument, computers can be used to sense and record variables
like temperature, motion, and sound in the environment. The cooperative curriculum
project “Kids Network” (sponsored by the National Geographic Society) is a good
example of capitalizing on the sensory and recording features as K-12 students from
various parts o f the country collect data on acid rain and weather with standardized
collection tim es and procedures. These data are then pooled into a large computer.
Similarly, in language arts “Computer Chronicles,” a newspaper network allows students
in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Israel, and Mexico to write and edit articles for publication
in the students’ local newspapers.
From his historical study of the classroom use of technology since 1960, Larry
Cuban (1986) predicted that teacher acceptance of the com puter for reinventing the
curriculum is doubtful. Teachers are slow to adapt any technical innovation when they
do not see it as a practical tool for their curriculum goals and situational demands.
Instead of having their students search, sort, and create new meanings with computers,
teachers will use it to cope with the routine, tedious teaching problem s — drill,
simulation, games -- that machines do so patiently.
ISLA and USC Digital Library: Comparisons of Two Evolving W eb-Based
Digital Archive Systems. M uch information is gathered about metropolitan regions but
access to and interpretation of these data is difficult due to the fact that the data are
segm ented into discrete entities. A group of interdisciplinary researchers, in
collaboration with area institutions and community groups and various funding sources,
have been developing a web-based digital archive system to allow a more robust analysis
of a metropolitan geographic region. The basic concept behind this system is to allow
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access to wide variety of archival information from all historical periods o f a geographic
region, linked by spatial and temporal coordinates. The primary, long-term goal is to
create a system that will enable all kinds of users, from elementary school children to
advanced researchers, to search and access a rich and diverse range of digital archival
research m aterials in m ultiple format (textual, qualitative, photographic, spatial,
audiovisual). The first version of this system was released in September, 1998.
It has been noted that digital libraries can be considered some of the m ost
complex and advanced forms of information systems due to the myriad o f complexities
involved (Marchionini, 1995). This has been the case with this digital archival system.
A num ber of issues have been raised, including the fragility of a system which is
“leading” the technology, and the fact that users, such as students and non-researchers,
may not have the capability to access a system with high-end computing requirements.
This paper describes the efforts at a formative evaluation o f the evolving web-based
digital archival system. The following describes the present system (ISLA), an
alternative to this system (The Digital Library System), and the methods of gathering
input from users on these two systems. The overall purpose of this effort is to help refine
the direction of the overall digital library project.
ISLA (as previously discussed) has two main components: (1) the user interface,
an advanced W eb application enabling space/tim e/subject indexing (this interface is
known as IDA, or Integrated Digital Archive) and (2) a large database o f materials, or
ISLA. The paper has discussed/discusses the space/tim e/fulltext/format indexing to
search for and retrieve materials and, in addition, illustrates the use of the conventional
indices o f author, title, subject, or other cataloging fields, the attributes o f Geographic
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Information System (GIS) vector layers, and the gazetteer. There is an illustration of how
a user, a student for example, can take a “core sample” of a geographic area, such as a
neighborhood, street, or census area through layers of time. The materials/resources in
ISLA will also be described. These include photographs, newspaper texts, aerial and
satellite images, digital spatial data made available from Thomas Bros. Map Company
and the Bureau of Engineering of the City of Los Angeles, and data from the 1939 W PA
(U.S. W ork Project Administration) and land use maps (Kazlauskas, et al.)
On a broader front, the USC Digital Library has undertaken a more conventional
(although not to mean less complicated and less useful) digital library initiative based on
the IBM Digital Library Software. This is a more traditional library of digital objects that
can be searched by keywords that are in the structured description of the item. This
developm ent is in the mainstream of digital library developments worldwide, such as
being developed at UC Berkeley (web-site), the Russian Sate Hermitage M useum (w eb
site), the Library' of Congress (web-site), and Yale University (web-site).
The ISLA objects have metadata in their own format which contains keyword
search fields but also the GIS information for the spatial and time searches. These items
are planned to be exported out of the ISLA library and imported into the digital library
system, searchable by keyword. The items exported out of ISLA will be joined by a
number of newly ingested items from the university’s collections. There include archival
pictures and photos from a newspaper photo morgue.
2.8 Summary
Larry Cuban’s (1986) predictions don’t ring true ten years later. John M cNeil
(1996), in his book Curriculum. A Comprehensive Introduction, has proven that
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integrated m ultim edia environments bring together the sym bolic and processing
capabilities of the various media described above to help learners connect their
knowledge to other domains. Interactive videodisc environments hold the potential for
helping learners build and analyze mental models o f problem situations, particularly
social situations. Hypermedia environments are designed to help the reader build links
among texts and other symbolic expressions and construct m eaning based on these
relationships. Plausible rationales have been given for the expected effectiveness o f such
environments, but these must be tested, and in some cases serious questions have been
raised. Nonetheless, instructional designers will find these to be powerful development
environments that have important implications for practice.
For exam ple, these environments may dramatically change the nature of the
media decisions made by instructional designers. Until now, the selection of media has
been a macrolevel decision. That is, the decision — should video be used or is audiotape
sufficient? — has been based on various instructional considerations in balance, and it
applies to the entire instructional presentation and to all learners. The desirability of
presenting visual information for one component of the task would have to be balanced
against the increased cost for the entire presentation.
An information infrastructure interconnecting thousands of sources of electronic
data has spawned a new era in the Information Age (Frank, 1994). Digital spatial data, in
the form of complex models of the real world, are a part of this new infrastructure. Users
of digital spatial data will need guides to help them navigate this infrastructure to find
data appropriate for their needs. The voluminous nature of spatial datasets suggests that
data surrogates, such as data catalogs, may be useful for finding appropriate data.
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Cataloging has progressed from a manual, to a computer-based, to a network-
based environment. As users develop specialized cataloging systems to meet their
individual needs for digital spatial data, there is a great need to coordinate these efforts so
that information can be shared easily in a network environment. Digital spatial data users
have special needs that must be addressed, including the ability to assess the fitness for
use of data for their various applications and the ability to perform spatially based
searches for data. To discover how to coordinate digital spatial data cataloging efforts,
we need to look not only at developments in cataloging systems and the specialized needs
of users but also at developments in networking technology. However, digital spatial
data cataloging, digital spatial data needs assessments, and electronic networking are still
in the early stages of development. Regardless, we need to begin investigating the range
of practical alternative scenarios for development and implementation of digital spatial
data cataloging in order to achieve easily accessible and compatible sources of electronic
inform ation that will fill the needs o f myriad inform ation users of the National
Information Infrastructure.
In conclusion, technology has improved the curriculum design process. Its
emphasis on measurable outcomes and objectives has led curriculum makers to ask what
kind of outcomes are most valuable. The tendency o f the technologists’ curriculum to
maintain objectives consistent with conventional fragm ented or com partmentalized
subjects areas is currently challenged. We are likely to have more warranted outcomes as
a result of this challenge.
The influence of technologists on curriculum developers has been great. Without
technologists, prodding for evidence o f results, most developers would have been
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satisfied to provide what they thought were valid educational environments, never taking
responsibility for the consequences. More clearly to be seen is the technologists’
contribution to instructional effectiveness, the ordering of instructional sequences,
and the monitoring of learners’ progress. It is reasonable to suppose that m ore persons
can now produce an effective curriculum by following the technologists’ model. Many
of these persons may not, however, do any better or as well as the rare creative developer
following his or her own intuition. Also, digital archives like ISLA, can help the
classroom teacher create better instructional effectiveness, the ordering of
instructional sequences, and the monitoring of learners’ progress.
People who make decisions about how to develop curriculum, such as publishers
and school officials, will have to weigh the value of the technologists’ model against its
heavier development costs (often a threefold time increase over traditional approaches to
curriculum development). They may find that the higher costs are balanced by increased
learning for more students when the model is implemented.
Students like learning from interactive technology and give more time to the task
than in traditional instruction. However, the benefit is lost if the interaction is very
complex and time consuming. Students have greater mastery and remember more of
conceptually difficult tasks and problem solving when using the interactive as opposed to
noninteractive technology. On the other hand, linear video is just as effective for
teaching straightforward information and simple procedures.
In his review of interactive technologies for learning, M.J. A tkins (1993)
contrasted the contributions of technology for two orientations of learning knowledge
acquisition and conceptual understanding. Knowledge acquisitions refers to adding to
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one’s store of facts, collecting skills and procedures, making links within units of
knowledge and the like. Conceptual understanding requires the ability to explain in one’s
own words the theories of how things work and to apply scientific concepts in the real
world.
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3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design
This design study was descriptive in nature and employed validation training and
expertise to examine the usability of two Internet-based digital interfaces (ISLA and the
USC Digital Library) in order to provide guidance for the continued design of the ISLA
prototype. It is customary to em ploy descriptive/design studies in this sort o f
investigation. This section of Chapter 3 is followed by a discussion of those participating
in the study, the instrumentation and materials used, variables in the study, and finally,
the procedures for the collection and analysis of the data gathered for this design study.
3.2 Participants
Project ISLA is a digital geospatial library effort which is intended to “maximize
access to a critical mass of interdisciplinary data about Los Angeles in multiple formats
for the purposes of research, teaching and public access.” This design study on ISLA
utilized six teachers (identified as Teachers A through F) from two different elementary
schools who trained on ISLA at USC on the ISLA Internet site. These six teachers
created a curriculum unit (5 lessons or more each) from this training. This training
occurred at USC on January 6, 2000 in a computer lab. The overseers of the training
were the two principals and Dr. Ed Kazlauskas (Doctoral Committee Chairman) who
outlined the training. The purpose of this training was for these six teachers to create a
model o f a standardized curriculum instructional design (a prototype unit of lessons in
geography) which is Internet/web based. User testing of the ISLA Project was
accom plished through usability, standard web-based evaluation criteria, ability to
integrate into the curriculum, relationship to curriculum standards, e.g., national
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geography standards, and the type of teaching strategies/opportunities (cooperative,
exploratory, non-linear, and higher order thinking skills). For the purposes o f this design
study, these six teachers, also participated in a series of workshops (forums) consulting
with the other five teachers and two principals on evaluation procedures and how to
integrate ISLA into an interdisciplinary curriculum in an elementary school setting.
These forums took place in January and in early February at both school sites. This
design study also included potential interdisciplinary instructional approaches along with
assessment approaches that can be used to evaluate the use of ISLA by students.
To reiterate, the methodology included: (1) design training for the six teachers
(how to and how done) by the two principals and Dr. Ed Kazlauskas; (2) delivery o f
training to the six teachers at USC; (3) development of a prototype unit (of at least 5
lessons) in geography by each teacher; and (4) forum/focus sessions in January and
February which revolved around the following issues: (a) questions/evaluation in terms
of compliance, e.g. use of ISLA, national geography standards, evaluation in terms o f
teaching strategies, e.g., curriculum instructional design that can be standardized, and the
process that was used; (b) how does this all change teaching and learning; and (c) how
does this assist in problem solving skills, etc. The outcome of this design study helps to
define the requirements for ISLA by creating a model of a curriculum design which is
internet/web based.
3.3 Instrumentation and Materials
Instrumentation.
• Pre-Screening Q uestionnaire (Assessing Teachers’ Use of Technology and
Technology Use Survey. The results o f this design study began with an
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assessment by the two principals of the six teachers with Appendix B “Assessing
Teachers’ Use of Technology” and “Technology Use Survey,” w hich includes a
“Technology Integration Proficiency” survey (“Assessing T eachers’ Use of
Technology, Computer Strategies LLC, 1999). These assessm ents were
discussed at length with the six teachers before being chosen to participate in this
study. These six teachers were chosen to participate in this study based on their
experience and expertise in integrating technology into the curriculum and these
surveys confirm ed the tw o principal’s assessm ent. With A ppendix B new
learning environments are encouraged regarding (a) students centers activities
encouraging multisensory learning, (b) multimedia encouraging collaboration, (c)
information exchange encouraging active/exploratory/inquiry based activities, and
(d) critical thinking encouraging inform ed decision making experiences. A
Technology Use Survey (Appendix B) was conducted on the six teachers, levels
o f technology implementation were discussed, steps to improving technology
integration were discussed, and a Technology Integration Proficiency (Appendix
B) profile on each teacher was given.
ISLA Curriculum Integration Project Lesson Plans. These lessons plans
(including one entitled “Exploring Our Com m unity” by the author o f this
dissertation, Rex O. Patton) were extracted from ISLA’s Lesson Plans to highlight
the national geography standards and m ethodologies already inherent in this
digital archive. The review of these lesson plans by the two principals and the six
teachers were necessary to obtain specific information regarding the choosing of
the right teacher participants in this study in order to gather important information
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to address certain research objectives of this design study. These objectives for
the lesson plan format needed included:
(1) Background information which included nam e, e-m ail address,
school/university/ name, subject(s), grade level of students, duration, and the title of the
lesson;
(2) Brief description of the unit/lesson plans;
(3) Goals of the lesson plans;
(4) Skills required regarding technology use and national geography
standards;
(5) Objectives of each unit/lesson plan;
(6) Materials/Technology Standards/Procedures involved in the unit.
For exam ple regarding technology: (a) space-defined searching, (b) tim e-defined
searching, (c) subject and keyword searching, (d) format defined searching, (e) searching
a standards-based library collection, and (f) searching a wide area distributed database;
and
(7) Assessment, rubrics, or evaluation techniques used.
The following presents an example of a lesson taken from the ISLA archive.
Example of Lesson Plan: Exploring Our Community:
Name: Rex O. Patton
E-mail Address: rexpat@aol.com
School/University/Name: Coeur d’Alene Elementary School -- LAUSD
Subject(s): Geography/History/Social Studies/Technology
Grade Level(s): 4/5/6/7/8
Duration: Five units of one week each (60 minutes per day)
Title of the Lesson: Exploring Our Community
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Brief Description: The “Exploring Our Community” lesson is designed so that
students can learn w ant to know about their community. These questions will com e from
the field o f physical geography, ecology, history and cultural geography. Some questions
elementary school students want answered are as follows:
1. W hy does LA have so many earthquakes and fires?
2. W hat does LA have so many different kinds of people? Why did we all
come to LA?
3. W hat kind of work do we do here in LA that is related to other countries?
4. W hat is the name of the most famous, popular or interesting place in LA?
5. How can we use ISLA to help us find the answers to these questions?
The following lessons make up the unit — these lessons are besides the initial
instruction on ISLA and the different search and retrieval methods used in ISLA, etc.
1. Unit One -- M apping/graphing activities, basic geology, cataloging
regional land features, and possibly studying regional and continental weather patterns.
2. Unit Two — Understanding land use and the necessary balance between
human and natural, urban and rural, industrial and agricultural priorities.
3. Unit Three — Understanding how we use the layers of history, identifying
and cataloging/graphing on spreadsheets the worldwide immigration to LA.
4. Unit Four — Identifying the cultural mix, both past and present, identifying
regional folk art traditions (oral, musical, craft and art), and recognizing national art
forms and artists; celebrating local food and other regional trademarks.
5. Unit Five — Understanding and identifying how Latinos have contributed
to the LA community?
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Obiectives/Goals:
Skills: (1) Researching online, (2) correlated access and linking of information,
(3) pictorially representing data in spreadsheets, (4) graphing/charting setting, (5)
conveying ideas with effective and meaningful impact to express and convey a finding or
a conclusion, and (6) making a finding presentation of slides organized with graphics,
charts and graphs such as PowerPoint.
Students are provided an authentic experience to study the history, geography,
economy, culture and cultural diversity of their community. Students conduct research,
do spreadsheets, write report and invent digital portfolios about their community through
ISLA. Students com m unicate this research by corresponding by creating digital
portfolios and publishing their findings on a word processing document to go into a class
portfolio (and placed on an internet site created by the teacher and author o f this
dissertation).
Standards:
Curriculum Standards for English: Standards met for English/Language Arts
from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the International Reading
Association (IRA):
o Students read a wide range of print and non print texts to build an
understanding of themselves, and o f the cultures represented in LA County; to acquire
information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for
personal fulfillment.
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o Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g.,
conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences
and for different purposes.
o Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g.,
libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and
to create and communicate knowledge.
o Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical
members of a variety of literacy communities.
o Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own
purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
National Geography Standards:
The student will use maps to locate Los Angeles and study its geography to see
how it has impacted the growth of their community.
The student will study the physical and human characteristics o f greater Los
Angeles in regard to how their culture and experiences influence their perceptions of their
community.
The student will study the nature and complexity of economic interdependence of
Los Angeles to the forces of cooperation and conflict that shape the LA mosaic.
Technology Standards:
The student processes and retrieves information through the asking of questions
through space defined searching, time defined searching, subject and keyword searching,
form at defined searching, the use o f a standards-based library collection, and through
w ide area distributed database searching which will provide wide access to area
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resources. The student also creates documents using word processing and create digital
portfolios. The “Exploring LA” lesson was designed so that students will be able to
maximize access their to a critical mass of interdisciplinary data about Los Angeles in
multiple formats through the use of ISLA. The students also is able to maximize their
approach to learning through their prowess in human-computer interaction by dialoguing
with ISLA in a multi-disciplinary fashion concerning the history, culture, people and
places of the Los Angeles region.
Geography:
1. W hat special land features are in the LA area? Describe
2. Name any important rivers, lakes, or other bodies of water near LA?
3. N am e the important cities in the LA area, mountain regions, or deserts
near by?
4. Draw a map of the area showing the m ajor physical features of the LA
area.
Economy:
1. W hat are the main types of jobs that support the LA community?
2. W hat kinds o f jobs do the parents of your class have? Make a table or
graph to illustrate.
3. W hat products are made in the factories of LA?
4. W hat crops are grown in this community?
Transportation:
1. How do most people in the LA community get around?
2. Do you have any mass transit?
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3. W hat are the nearby airports, ports for ships, or train stations?
4. W hat is the traffic like in the LA com munity? W hat are the major
highways?
Entertainment:
1. W hat sights would you show a visitor to your city?
a. Historical sites?
b. Entertainment sites?
2. W hat sports teams are available to your community and how are they
doing?
3. W hat are some special events celebrated in your community?
4. Describe a typical day for the students in your class?
• “ISLA and Geographv/ESL Lesson Plans and W ritten Follow -up” Form
(Appendix C l. After teachers trained at USC, and after preparing a unit of five
lesson plans and trying them out in their classrooms, regarding geography with
regard to ISLA, during their follow-up forums/workshops, they include their
thoughts/views/opinions on the following:
1. The five national skills in geography are (1) asking geographic questions,
(2) acquiring geographic information, (3) organizing geographic inform ation, (4)
analyzing geographic information, and (5) answering geographic questions. How does
ISLA help students do this?
2. A fter looking at the 18 national geography standards attached, how does
ISLA help students attain these standards?
3. Your analysis of general usability of ISLA in the classroom?
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4. Your ability to integrate ISLA into the curriculum?
5. Your relationship o f ISLA to curriculum standards?
6. D oes ISLA provide learning opportunities such as cooperative,
exploratory, non-linear, etc.?
7. Does ISLA promote higher order thinking skills (problem-solving skills)?
8. Regarding an evaluation of ISLA, how do you (teachers) view ISLA with
regard to student learning and student outcomes?
9. How does ISLA support a constructivist epistemology wherein students
are able to construct their own knowledge as opposed to merely being presented with
material?
10. Can students tailor their own learning environments?
11. Does ISLA support a range o f strategies that different students might
employ?
12. W hat viable role does the instructor play when ISLA is employed? Does
ISLA encourage and support instructor mentoring and coaching behaviors?
13. How intrinsically motivating for students is ISLA?
14. Is there enough structure in ISLA to avoid confusing students yet enough
freedom to promote individual learning?
15. Are students engaged in creating and representing knowledge in ISLA?
16. Is there enough structure in ISLA to avoid confusing students yet enough
freedom to promote individual learning?
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17. W hat is the effect of ISLA on group and individual effectiveness
outcomes, including such outcomes as performance, attitude, and behavior in such areas
as time-to-complete-task, cohesion, and self-perception of performance?
18. To what extent do you feel that ISLA improves learning?
19. Please make any further comments that you feel are important to be
included in a study of this nature?
Materials.
Consent Form . A consent form (Appendix A) was developed for
participants which indicated the type of study being undertaken and its overall objective.
The form indicated what was expected of those teaching electing to participate, as well as
the fact that participation would be anonymous. The form included information as to the
format of the participants’ involvement in the study, including the number of training
sessions and forums and lessons plans that would be completed. Ideally, it was intended
that all data be collected after one training session, three forums and the culmination of
one geography unit (which included five lesson plans).
The consent form let participants know that they were free to leave if at
any time they decided not to begin or complete the study and that if they chose to
participate, procedures were in place to ensure that individual background data and scores
would be kept confidential. Participants were also informed that they would each receive
approximately $200 from the National Endowment for the Humanities in appreciation for
their participation of all the activities.
Instructions to Participants. Participants were given verbal instructions
during the training session at USC which were read from a script that had been prepared
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for this purpose. Participants also received training on January 6, 2000 at the computer
lab at USC on the digital archive, ISLA. Participants were shown and trained on each
aspect of ISLA as ISLA is described in Chapter 1. Participants were also given examples
of lessons plans and how to follow these lesson plans on the computer during the training
session. Participants were also given examples of lesson plans regarding geography and
ISLA from the ISLA database, along with “ISLA and Geography/ESL Lesson Plans and
Written Follow-Up” attached in this dissertation as Exhibit 2.
3.4 Variables in the Study
Dependent Variables
Performance Variables. These variables are defined in terms of the
performance achieved during the information-seeking process; outcome variables are a
direct result of participant performance while executing the respective training task
scenarios. The performance variables were operationalized by: (a) the ability required to
accurately understand and complete the training on ISLA and relate it to the geography
and technology standards, and (b) the ability to integrate these standards into acceptable
lesson plan formats using the digital archive (ISLA).
Independent Variables. Two of the most important considerations in the success
or failure of graphic user interfaces like the digital archieve, ISLA, according to the
literature are spatial ability (an individual difference) and task characteristics. The
literature inferred several relationships among the outcom es o f the participants’
performance and satisfaction scores/ratings and these variables.
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3.5. User Testing
U ser testing for the original ISLA included m aster’s degree students in
instructional technology at USC representing both corporate and educational sectors,
graduate students in education (Teaching and Learning), practicing K-12 teachers, and K-
12 students. U ser testing of the two systems were accom plished through usability,
standard web-site evaluation criteria, ability to integrate into the curriculum, relationship
to curriculum standards, e.g. national geography, and the type of learning opportunities
(cooperative, exploratory, non-linear, and high-order thinking skills).
For the purposes of this paper, a committee of six K-12 teachers (credentialed in
elementary education with an expertise in geography and technology) received training
sessions on ISLA at USC and participated in a series o f workshops (forums) on how to
integrate ISLA into an interdisciplinary curriculum in an elementary school setting. This
design study included potential interdisciplinary instructional approaches along with
assessment approaches that can be used to evaluate the use of ISLA by students.
Evaluation has always been a central component of the project. Evaluation was
conducted through the analysis of data generated from the investigation of the two major
areas of interest to us: student learning and student outcom es, and user-oriented
dimensions. Evaluation measured learner outcomes, attitudes, and teaching and learning
strategies em ployed. This effort included unstructured and structured interview s,
observations o f learners and instructors, exam ination of student work, and the
administration of various instruments, which included for exam ple, a computer attitude
scale, a computer competence scale, spatial ability test, task/performance measurement,
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and user interaction satisfaction. It should be noted that data from these efforts were also
used to input the summative evaluation phase.
In addition, we envisioned the use of data from an alternative assessm ent
procedure, known as authentic assessment, which examined a “portfolio” of student work
against a set of predetermined criteria.
3.6. Evaluation of Student Learning and Outcomes
There are a number of pedagogical dimensions of the digital archive ISLA that we
talked about to these six teachers in which we wanted them to evaluate. We list several
here (borrowing from the framework of Reeves and Harmon, 1993), with a sample
question for each as well as a description of how they will be measured, the types of data
collected, etc.
1. E pistem ology: How well does ISLA support a constructivist
epistemology wherein students are able to construct their own knowledge as opposed to
merely being presented with ultimate truths?
2. Adaptability: Can students tailor their learning environments?
3. Learning strategies: Does ISLA support a range of strategies that different
students might employ?
4. Experiential validity: Does ISLA support situated learning?
5. Instructor role: What viable role does the instructor play when ISLA is
em ployed? D oes ISLA encourage and support instructor m entoring and coaching
behaviors?
6. Value of errors: Does the ISLA allow students to learn from mistakes?
7. Motivation: How intrinsically motivating for users is ISLA?
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8. Structure: Is there enough structure in ISLA to avoid confusing students
yet enough freedom to promote individual learning?
9. User activity: Are students engaged in creating and representing
knowledge in ISLA?
10. Cooperative learning: Does ISLA support virtual teams?
11. Distance learning: Does ISLA support off-campus learning?
12. Achievement o f specific learning outcomes: A fter using ISLA, can
students model factories, perform analyses and simulations, interpret results, etc.?
13. Agencies: To what extent do the participatory and tutorial agents improve
learning?
Some specific examples of student learning and outcome research investigated
include the following: What is the effect of ISLA on group and individual effectiveness
outcomes, including such outcomes as performance, attitude, and behavior in such areas
as time-to-complete-task, cohesion, and self-perception of performance. An example of a
specific research question in this area could be: how effective is the collaborative ISLA
problem-solving activities in terms of group effectiveness as compared to co-located non-
ISLA groups.
3.7. Evaluation of User-Oriented Dimensions
We based our evaluation of user-oriented dimensions on Reeves and Harmon
(1993) framework for evaluating multimedia packages. Some of the dimensions we
addressed are listed below, with a sample question for each as well as a description of
how they were measured, the types of data collected, etc.
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1. Ease of use: How well are user interactions within ISLA facilitated?
2. Navigation: How easily can users orient themselves within ISLA?
3. Cognitive load: Are users overwhelmed by the number of options?
4. Screen design: Does the design violate principles of screen design?
5. Knowledge space com plexity: Can ISLA support both novice and
experts?
6. Content: Is the substance presented in a formative manner?
7. Media integration: Do the media parts form a coherent whole?
8. Functionality: Does ISLA meet its intended use?
9. Agents: How easy is it to interact with the participatory and tutorial
agents?
A specific area of investigation associated with the user-oriented dimensions was
to investigate the overall usability of ISLA interface with the intent of exam ining the
relationship of interface features to elements of performance and satisfaction for some of
the intended users, namely college students and K-12 students. Specific questions
addressed the specific features that enhanced or inhibited participant performance on
benchmarked tasks, and to determine whether difference among participants influenced
their performance in using the interface and their satisfaction with the interface.
Technology and social science teachers would use the formative progress and
process review, implementation and step attainment, and teaching and learning activities.
The steps would include progress monitoring, interviews, surveys, observations, portfolio
assessment, performance and analysis of the students and other faculty members.
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3.8. Other Potential Assessment Approaches
Besides the evaluation o f the system itself as mentioned above, other potential
evaluation approaches regarding how to implement ISLA in the elementary school setting
were discussed in a forum with between these six K-12 technology and geography
teachers. This group of six teachers received training on ISLA at USC. These possible
approaches included:
1. Creation of a com puter skills grid regarding understanding
com puters through applications. The grid provided a com prehensive overview of
com puter skills taught in a com puter lab — skills beginning with the clicking and
dragging o f a mouse to the manipulation of arrow keys and the insertion and ejection of a
floppy disk. The higher end of the grid included searching/finding and replacing text and
producing graphics on a spreadsheet.
2. Creation o f a spectrum of learning design services such as a
learning environment regarding delivery methods for technology integration and applied
learning, creation and maintenance of learning communities, and web-based multi-media
content development, design, and delivery.
3. Creation o f a grid to detect if your technology is truly integrated —
a grid such as the following produced in Technology & Learning (August, 1998).
How to Know if Your Technology is Integrated
• An outside observer would view the use of technology as a seamless
component of the lesson. Imagine that an outside observer is looking at your use
of technology. Would this person agree that it fits well with the rest of the lesson
and advances student learning?
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• Students work toward a lesson-relevant goal. When kids are spinning their
wheels and appear disinterested, something is wrong. W ith fully integrated
technology, students should have a specific, lesson-related goal when they are
working.
• The technology activity is a logical extension of the lesson. Do your
technology activities broaden students’ understanding (horizontal integration) or
give them a deeper understanding of the topic (vertical integration)? If the answer
is “None of the above,” it’s time to rethink your technology applications.
• A real problem is being solved by the use of technology. Technology should
make a lesson easier to teach, more fun to learn, or stick better in the brain.
Figure out what specific problems your use of technology is solving, and if they
don’t leap into your mind, develop activities that are solution-oriented.
• You can describe how a particular student is benefiting from the technology.
M ost instructional interventions make sense for hypothetical students, but what
about Sally or Juan? Think about how individual students are using technology
and decide if it is helping them specifically to reach the learning goals you’ve
established.
• You’d have trouble accomplishing your learning goals if the technology were
removed. This is the old “pull the ladder from under the scaffold” test. If
technology is a key part of a lesson or unit, then it would be difficult to teach
without it, or your expectations for the students would be greatly diminished.
• You can explain what the technology is supposed to do in a few sentences.
Peter Lynch, a top financial manager, gave his analysts 90 seconds to explain
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w hat a company did and why it was a good investment. If you would have
difficulty explaining how technology is improving a lesson, then it isn’t.
• AH students are able to participate. In good lessons, everybody learns. The
same is true of good technology integration. Certainly, there will be individual
differences in how well students use the technology, but all of them should
benefit.
• Students are genuinely interested and enthusiastic about learning.
Technology is motivating, and its use should get your kids fired up about
learning. Take a look at how you are integrating technology into your lessons and
make sure it motivates as well as instructs.
• More cool stuff is happening than you expected. The acid test for technology
integration is getting better results than expected. For example, the kid you had
hoped would move to a different district suddenly becomes interested, and does
fabulous work.
• A ssessing students using ideas similar to the following web-based ideas on the
following pages.
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4. RESULTS
The results of this design study began with an assessment by the two principals of
the six teachers with Appendix B “Assessing Teachers’ Use of Technology” and
“Technology Use Survey,” which includes a “Technology Integration Proficiency”
survey. These six teachers were chosen to participate in this study based on their
experience and expertise in integrating technology into the curriculum and these surveys
confirm ed the two principal’s assessment. The “Technology Integration Proficiency”
survey is shown in Appendix B on Page 181 and the results of that survey is graphed on
Page 106 o f this chapter. O f the six teachers, two rated them selves “Level Two:
Instructional Proficiency,” three rated themselves at the “Mentor Proficiency” level, and
one at the “Leadership Proficiency” level.
Descriptive highlights and results of the first data collection session w hich
focused on the six participants in the study sample are presented first in this chapter.
They are followed by the results of the training session at the USC Computer Lab and
two follow-up workshops on ISLA -- and the integration of ISLA into a geography unit
in the classroom by all six teachers. Background data was collected (general
backgrounds of the six teachers were already known) by the two principals of the two
schools where the teachers work before the training session and the follow-up workshop.
“ISLA and Geography/ESL Lesson Plans and Written Follow-up” surveys were collected
by the six teachers after an extensive six-week period of collaboration following the
training at USC on January 6, 2000. This chapter addresses the six teachers findings and
how they tried the lessons out on their classrooms. In addition, the chapter proceeds to
address a single research objective at a time.
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4.1 Participant Characteristics
Six elementary school teachers from two different schools participated in this
design study of the integration of ISLA and the creation of lessons plans regarding
geography. These six teachers had a background in using technology in their classrooms.
In their classrooms technology-based tools were integrated in a mechanical manner that
provided rich context for students understanding of the pertinent concepts, themes, and
processes. Heavy reliance was placed on prepackaged materials and sequential charts
that aided the teacher in the daily operation of their instructional curriculum. Technology
(e.g., multimedia, telecommunications, databases, spreadsheets, word processing) was
perceived as a tool to identify and solve authentic problems relating to an overall theme
or concept.
Technology access in these six classrooms was extended beyond the classroom.
These teachers actively elicited technology applications and networking from business
enterprises, governmental agencies (e.g., contacting N ASA to establish a link to an
orbiting space shuttle via INTERNET), research institutions, and universities to expand
student experiences directed at problem-solving, issues resolution, and student activism
surrounding a major theme/concept. Technology was also perceived as a process,
product (e.g., invention, patent, new software design), and tool toward students solving
authentic problems related to an identified “real world” problem or issue. Technology, in
this context, provided a seamless medium for inform ation queries, problem solving,
and/or product development. Students in the upper elementary classrooms o f these six
teachers had ready access to and a complete understanding of a vast array o f technology-
based tools to accomplish any particular task.
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Demographic Data - “Assessing Teachers’ Use of Technology
The six teachers chosen from two schools participating in this design study were
given the “ A ssessing Teachers’ Use o f Technology” Integration P roficiency
questionnaire and the Technology Use Survey packet to fill out. Levels o f authority
ranged from (1) Entry, (2) Adoption, (3) Adaptation, (4) A ppropriation, and (5)
Invention. Levels of technology integration in the classroom were listed as (1) teacher
usage with students, (2) teacher planning, (3) teacher understanding, (4) scope and
sequence, and (5) teacher participation. These six teachers were graded from Level 0
(those with little knowledge or desire and who never use technology with their students)
to Level 5 (teachers who design and implement their own environments and who create,
take risks and go beyond existing models for technology usage). Figure 4.1 below shows
how the six teachers rated themselves on the “Technology Integration Proficiency”
shown on Page 181. Please review Appendix “B,” “Technology Integration Proficiency”
model before analyzing this chart.
Figure 4.1. Technology Integration Proficiency
Levels
0-5
Teacher
A
Teacher
B
Teacher
C
Teacher
D
Teacher
E
Teacher
F
Teacher Usage
with Students 4 4 5 5 5 5
Teacher
Planning 4 4 4 4 4 4
Teacher
Understanding 4 5 5 5 5 4
Scope and
Sequence 4 5 3 4 5 4
Teacher
Participation 5 4 5 5 4 5
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4.2 Results of Lessons Plans for Creating a Model of a
Standardized Curriculum Instruction Design for ISLA
Research Objectives
Research Objective #1: What are the national geography standards including
the concept o f geographic literacy? How were these standards addressed in the
lesson plans of the six teachers within this design study? Compare these lessons
plans with the six lesson plans pulled from the ISLA data archives.
The major dependent variable in this design study on ISLA was attitudinal
responses from the six teachers who are experts in the field of the integration of
technology into the curriculum and teaching, and regarding perform ance on an
aggregated perception which determined how far elem entary school students went in
completing online geography lessons and building online digital portfolios. In analyzing
the data from the lessons plans of the six teachers, and in comparing these six units to the
six units of lessons obtained from the ISLA data archives, one can see that each unit of
lesson plans addressed at least two aspects of the national geography standards.
Teacher “A ” developed a third grade unit o f lessons on geography and social
studies entitled “How transportation affects the growth of a city.” This unit included
seven lessons o f one hour each duration. This unit used Standard 11 of the National
Geography Standards regarding “patterns and networks of economic interdependence,”
Standard 14 regarding “Human actions modify physical environment” and Standard 17
“How to apply geography to interpret the past.” These three national geography
standards were used in conjunction with the California State Social Science Content
Standards for Grade Three: Continuity and Change, along with giving students
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technological access to concrete evidence through photographs of how transportation has
changed over the past century, and encouraging students to use deductive reasoning to
determine how changes in transportation have affected the growth of Los Angeles.
In this lesson students used ISLA to familiarize themselves with various modes of
transportation used between 1870 and 1956 in Los Angeles. They used dow nloaded
historical photographs to prepare and present a report to their classmates about how
transportation has changed over the past century and how that has affected the growth o f
Los Angeles. According to Teacher “A,” ISLA provided a visual format that stimulated
students to ask geographic questions about Los Angeles. It also provided easy
acquisition of geographic information, thus allow ing students to answer their own
geographic questions. Teacher “A” goes on to say that ISLA directly addressed most o f
the 18 national geography standards with an emphasis on thinking of the world in spatial
terms, human systems, and the uses o f geography.
In the open forums of January and February several teachers mentioned that, with
regard to the grid “How to know if your technology is integrated” (Technology &
Learning. August, 1998) illustrated at the end of Chapter 3, many of the eleven points
were brought out clearly in these lessons. They said that experience told them that an
outside observer would definitely view the technology as a seamless component of the
lesson. Also mentioned was that students did work toward a lesson-relevant goal and that
the technology activities were logical extensions o f the lessons. The only caveat
m entioned was that all students were able to participate but there were individual
differences in how well each student used the technology, but all of them benefited.
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Teacher “B ” developed a third grade unit of 10 lessons of 40 minute durations
entitled “Back to the Past Los Angeles Tourist Agency.” Using ISLA, cooperative
groups of students produced a travel brochure and travel poster featuring aspects of life in
Los Angeles from a chosen 20 year span on a class-created time line. Students evaluated
photos from the time span based on the potential interest of visitors to Los Angeles.
They learned to use descriptive language in a persuasive writing style. Groups presented
their brochure and poster to the class. Finally, information from the presentations was
charted interactively to compare interesting features from each time period in order to
note continuity and change. The objective was to identify and label geographic features
of Los Angeles on a map and participate in placing photos of city landmarks on the map.
Teacher “B” says that ISLA has maps, pictures and written information about historical
Los Angeles and that this utilizes the five National Geography Standards skills o f (1)
asking geographic questions, (2) acquiring geographic inform ation, (3) organizing
geographic inform ation, (4) analyzing geographic inform ation, and (5) answering
geographic questions. Additionally, Teacher “B” says that this unit addressed all six
national essential elements and all eighteen national geography standards.
Teacher “B” went on to explain that, with regard to the grid to detect if your
technology is truly integrated (Technology & Learning. August, 1998), his students were
genuinely interested and enthusiastic about learning via ISLA and the com puter in
general. Teacher “B” says that real problems were solved by the students meshing ISLA
and technology within the boundaries of the geography lessons.
Teacher “C” developed a third grade unit consisting of 20 days (at least one hour
per day) entitled “Early Los Angeles.” Within this lesson students discovered why Los
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Angeles was established and they also learned about the influence of settlers, including
the settlers’ cultural traditions and contributions. They looked at pictures of early
buildings to determine this influence. Students on a field trip took pictures with a digital
camera in downtown Los Angeles that reflected the early years of the city. This unit
utilized m ost o f the 18 National Geography Standards but concentrated on Standard 3
“How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environments on Earth’s
surface.” The teacher went on to say that ISLA provided an archive of images that were
ordered both geographically and chronologically. The images compelled curiosity and
even w ith free exploration the children asked questions and sought further related
information. ISLA provided practice with time and space as related to a geographic
region. It was possible to track the impact of populations on our city over time through
ISLA. Accessing information built knowledge o f our city’s geographical features and the
impact of these features on population settlement over time.
Teacher “D” developed a unit of five lessons of 50 minutes in duration. The title
o f this unit is “Los Angeles - A Changing Pluralistic Society”. In this unit students used
National Geography Standards No. 2 “How to use mental maps to organize information
about people, places, and environments in a spatial context,” No. 3 “How to analyze the
spatial organization of people, places, and environments on the Earth’s surface, and No.
10 “The characteristics, distribution, and com plexity of E arth’s cultural m osaics.”
Students reviewed geographic locations in Los Angeles and observed photographs o f Los
Angeles, especially in the downtown area. Students learned about our connections to the
past and the ways in which traditions had developed and left their marks on current
society. Students also described the physical and human geography and used maps,
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photographs, and charts to organize information about people, places and environments.
At the end of this unit, students were able to use the Internet and they also used ISLA to
find information about our city by comparing and contrasting these geographical areas
and tracked their changes over time. Observing photographs in detail and comparing
them to today helped students to examine migration patterns of ethnic groups within the
Los Angeles area.
Teacher “E” developed a unit on “Los Angeles: Nuestra Ciudad.” Teacher “E”
explained that in third grade children are ready to look beyond their immediate home life.
They begin to ask questions about their community and draw com parisons with other
neighborhoods. They are more interested in learning about the place where they live.
The framework for this lesson was “continuity and change.” Teacher “E” says that he
saw most of the eighteen National Geography Standards being addressed in this lesson
because they all were interrelated. Children began to think about continuity and change
in their own locality and nation. By exploring their locality and locating some of the
features that were built by people who lived long ago, children made contact with times
past and with people whose activities had left their mark on the land. Students described
the physical and human geography and used maps, tables, graphs, photographs, and
charts to organize information about people, places and environments in a spatial context.
Students became more familiar w ith and felt connected to their community. Students
understood who were the members of their community in the lesson. The students
acquired map skills by using and locating places on a Thom as Brothers map of their
community. Students improved internet navigational and research skills. And lastly,
students recognized basic human and geographical features of Los Angeles.
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Teacher “F ” used a different approach with his unit o f lessons entitled “How to
Access ISLA ’s Digital Archives.” In this regard Teacher “F ’ concentrated initially on
N ational G eography Standards No. 2 “How to use maps and other geographical
representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a
spatial perspective.” The objective was that students learned how to access and retrieve
images from the ISLA archives and printed images to study the geographical area of Los
Angeles. The teacher reminded students on the procedures of how to access the Internet
by taking them on a step-by-step tutorial using his/her own term inal and TV monitor.
Addresses and commands for the computer were written in chalk/dry eraser marker on
the whiteboard/chalkboard. This process was repeated to insure comprehension by the
class.
In the second lesson of this unit, students learned m ap reading skills by the
teacher asking them to locate landmarks in the city of Los Angeles. These landmarks
were pre-selected by the teacher. These pre-selected landmarks covered the cardinal
points and the center o f the city. National Geography Standards No. 1 “How to use maps
and other geographic representation tools or technologies to acquire, process, and report
inform ation from a spatial perspective” were used. The developm ent of this lesson
included:
1. Show students a city map that has been blown up and attached to the bulletin board;
2. Review the compass rose in connection to the school and the center of Los Angeles;
3. Review directional words and other appropriate vocabulary;
4. Discuss a landm ark and it’s meaning. Next view photo o f landm ark such as lake
(Echo Park). Show where this landmark belongs in the city;
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5. Talk about few other landmarks such as harbors and mountains;
6. View photographs previously printed out from USC archive;
7. Explain how these landmarks are o f Los Angeles and place them geographically;
8. Discuss their location in terms o f East, W est, North, South and in relation to
downtown Los Angeles and the school site; and
9. After placing all the photographs on a map, hand out the map sheet and ask students
to read and find in their map a landmark that the teachers calls out orally.
The next and last lesson in this series reminded students that after com pleting the
previous activity the student should be able to increase his/her awareness of the make up
of the immediate community which increased spatial perception and ability. This lesson
utilized National Geography Standard No. 2 “How to use mental maps to organize
information about people, places and environments in a spatial context.”
In comparing the units of lessons from the six teachers in this design study and
the six units of lessons taken from the ISLA web site, the lessons had striking similarities.
All twelve units addressed most, if not all, of the 18 national geography standards. These
lessons strove to observe and understand the ordered patterns that blanket Earth’s surface.
These lessons showed how to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and
technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.
These lessons showed how to use mental maps to organize information about people,
places and environments in a spatial context. All twelve lessons addressed physical and
human systems and patterns em erged as humans move, settle, develop econom ic
interchange, and initiate systems of cooperation or conflict. These lessons talked about
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the characteristics, distribution, and migration of human populations on Earth, along with
the patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth’s surface.
In one unit called “Rivers o f Change” students in grade three learned more about
our connections to the past and the ways in which particularly local, but also regional and
national, government and traditions had developed and left their marks on current society,
providing common memories. Emphasis was on the physical and cultural landscape of
California, including the study of American Indians, the subsequent arrival of immigrants
and the impact they have had in forming the character of our contemporary society. In
“M exican-Am ericans: Yesterday, Today and Tom orrow” students gained a deeper
understanding o f culture as it had uniquely evolved in Los Angeles. Students delved into
historical events and conditions that affect(ed) the Los Angeles M exican-Am erican
com munity. These lessons revolved around Essential Element V: Environment and
Society, which included National Geography Standards 14, 15 and 16.
In still another unit these standards o f how human actions modify the physical
environm ent and how physical systems affect human systems, students listened to and
discussed the text, A Visit to Olvera Street, by Anne Ingram. With a teacher created
picture file, the teacher introduced Fire Station #30, a legendary African-American fire
station located at 1401 Central Avenue, in downtown Los Angeles. This created an
interest in the rich, diverse, unique and historical background of their surrounding
environment, which was home to these two historical landmarks. These same National
Geography Standards were expressed in “Exploring Our Community” and “Exploring the
Various Regions o f Boyle Heights: Continuity and Change,” along with m eshing
technology and California social science standards.
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Research Objective #2: What are the cognitive issues related to human-
computer interaction in conjunction with learning geography and the design and
deployment o f interactive hypermedia?
The study o f human-computer interaction is inherently tied to cognitive
psychology as is expressed in the literature review of this design study. Cognitive
psychology is concerned with the internal processes of human beings which cause them
to think, perceive, learn, comprehend, process, memorize and attend to various stimuli
(W est, Farmer, W olff, 1991). As mentioned in Chapter 2, Bush (1945) originated this
line o f reasoning when he wrote: “The human mind ... operates by association. W ith
one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association o f
thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells to the brain.”
And again, Dix et al. (1993) defined human computer interaction as “the study of people,
com puter technology, and the ways these influence each other.” Shaw (1991) defined it
as all that the user sees, touches, and hears while interacting with computer systems.
Because o f this, the heart of the determination of the success o f human com puter
interaction - and elementary students’ ability to successfully apply it - is interface
usability.
The development of interactivity in com puter systems affects user expectations.
W ithout this interactivity related to user expectations there would be no graphical user
interfaces, which means that there would be no W orld Wide W eb (Manaris & Slater,
1996). According to Ziegler & Bullinger (1991), the purpose o f human com puter
interface models is to “identify perceptible relevant components of complex hum an
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com puter interaction phenom ena and to denote the relationships between these
components.”
As the W orld W ide Web (and ISLA) teaches us, human com puter interaction
occurs smoothly and efficiently when there is a timely flow of information (through an
interface) which is relatively free of error states in both the user and the computer. This
information flow and feedback through the interface is one of the most critical features
(Norman, 1995).
The information processing model of cognition talked about in Section 2.4, Chan
et al. (1993), renders a firm substructure for interface design. It suggests that the
working memory of human beings is limited to five or six chunks or nodes (links) of
inform ation which continues to build on one another. Ingwersen (1996) talks about a
cognitive approach model which proposes that an student’s cognitive space consists of
interchangeable structures of cognition, which is acted upon by cognition, emotion, prior
knowledge, and a history of experiences and social issues over time.
Because of the inherent nature of human computer interaction, the six teachers in
this design study developed (with full cognizance or not) units of lesson plans which
addressed the cognitive psychology of human computer interaction. In addition, they
addressed Project ISLA as a digital geospatial library with its own methods of search and
retrieval that involves a space/time/full-text/format index. ISLA’s formats involve some
materials that are considered atypical for spatial indexing (such as texts and photographs)
which norm ally indexes map data; and users will have the option of retrieving
information indexed not only by spatial and temporal indices, but also by conventional
indices as well.
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W ithin the six units of geography lessons, the following are different modalities
or methods (Thomas, 1998) used by the students to interact with ISLA, which is still
evolving:
(1) Command line interaction: In all six units of lessons the students were able to
accomplish this by simply using the function keys and single characters which allowed
them direct input of instructions to the computer. Students learned how to access ISLA
by directly typing in keywords to obtain data. With practice even primary and upper
elementary students were able to follow a hierarchy of tasks to be performed which were
graphed and memorized.
(2) M enu-driven interaction: In all six units of lessons the students were able to
follow a menu o f options which was less complicated than com mand line interaction.
Graphics and other data was guided by the computer and this type of interaction relied
less on memory. Students were able to follow a menu to download and print photos to
use in a report. Students continued photo search using ISLA and tried using other
keywords to enhance their search.
(3) Natural language (through speech or in written form): This type of interaction
is relatively new and the contextual syntax of the English language is difficult to teach to
a machine, however, it is being continually upgraded through research (Dix et al., 1993;
M anaris, 1996). In all six units of lessons students used written form to access the
Internet, word processing software and the printer. However, on new Apple G3s (and on
other systems) voice commands from the computer are used to compliment written
instructions.
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(4) Questions and queries . This type of computer interaction is a question and
answer form at and is easy to learn and use, requiring mostly “yes” and “no” responses.
This kind of search is mostly used for information retrieval o f some kind.
(5) Form fill-in: This kind of interaction is used mainly for data entry or data
retrieval which uses repetitive tasks. This kind of human computer interaction is used
mostly for data entry or retrieval also along with repetitive tasks. Students from the six
units of lessons used this kind of interaction also for searching and downloading images
from the ISLA databank. After several days or lessons in doing this students became
familiar with the databank and images. During an ISLA lesson, for example, a photo
analysis was filled in regarding questions such as “What do you see in this photograph?
What is the place? What is happening in the photograph? What is the most important
person in the photograph? How do these people relate to each other in the photograph?
Primary students need this type of cognitive analysis.
(6) Direct manipulation : Human computer interaction regarding this type o f
interface require manipulation of graphical objects on the com puter screen. These
objects are manipulated usually with a mouse (Myers, 1996). Other objects include
windows, icons, and pointers.
(7) Speech recognition and speech synthesis : Speech recognition and speech
synthesis is where speech is input into a computer and translated into text or other forms
of inform ation. This is usually done through a visual display interface which helps
students with special needs such as those with visual problems.
(8) Human perception : As it is categorized in these six units of lessons,
inform ation is perceived, stored into memory, and then processed and applied. As
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humans we do this through our five senses with sight, touch and hearing being the
important contributors for human computer interaction.
(9) Cognitive abilities : As mentioned in the literature review in Chapter 2,
cognitive abilities are those internal abilities which allow for the definition of the mental
capacities or intelligence of humans such as perception, memory, the ability to reason,
and to problem solve. Hypermedia systems should consider the cognitive abilities or
styles o f their users.
(10) Spatial Ability : Spatial ability is associated with problem-solving tasks
which encom pass conceptual abstract associations. Spatial ability is necessary for
students to learn and comprehend the searching mechanics of human-computer interfaces
in inform ation seeking tasks. As Chapters 1 and 2 infer, spatial ability is an innate
cognitive characteristic involving abstraction in general, physical orientation, symbolic
logic, proposition reasoning, and in general reasoning and memory (Vigil, 1988).
Throughout the six units of geography lessons, and also throughout the six lessons
from the ISLA archive, it was a given that students with the best spatial abilities were
able to effectively complete tasks in less time, and with better memory. One of the most
noted m odels o f human computer interaction is Norman’s Execution-Evaluation Cycle.
The student (or the teacher) “conceives a plan of action, executes the plan, monitors the
com puter interface to determine the results of execution, and finally, formulates a plan
for further action (Dix et al., 1993).
The two major phases o f Norman’s (1988) model are execution and evaluation
which com prise a total of seven stages, “The Seven Stages o f Action.” The first stage
involves the determination of a goal. The next three stages focus on execution and
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involve formulating intention, designating an action sequence, and executing the action.
The final three stages involve perceiving the system state, interpreting the system state,
and evaluating the system state relative to the goals and intentions (Norman, 1988).
The m erger of ISLA with geography lessons has created a user interface for
different age and ability levels. All six teachers in this study were able to plan, create and
im plem ent lessons in the classroom which addressed cognitive ability with human
computer interaction.
Research Objective #3; What are the implications fo r ISLA for teaching and
learning?
In Chapter 1 we asked whether it was possible for elementary school students to
tap into a digital archive (ISLA) and interface with interactive hypermedia for the
instructional purposes of learning and expanding on a geography lesson by demystifying
the technology and providing relevant, interdisciplinary, and easy-to-implement activities
for the classroom. As stated in Chapter 1, Ebersole (1997) states that the problem is that
there are com plex issues with regard to the “attention, comprehension, and memory of
information seekers using interactive multimedia.” ISLA has taken into consideration
literature on cognitive psychology, human factors, pyscholinguistics and communication
theory. B ush’s observation was that the traditional printed geography textbook is
incom patible w ith our pedagogical aims - at least with regard to the potential of
associative thoughts comparing the human brain to hypermedia. Theories regarding
learning and cognition traditionally have been that some body o f knowledge external to
the learner (textbook, teacher’s lecture, etc.) had to be taught the student and received by
the student. Again, Bednar et al. (1991) talks about an alternative view of the learning
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process which has been labeled constructivism, experientialism and semiotics. In this
view, “knowledge is an active process of construction, not the receipt of information
from external sources.”
ISLA is a system design that is a powerful constructivist tool that supports
engaged learning. Within a geography framework, it has the potential to provide students
with (1) authentic, project-based, investigative learning with digital portfolios, (2) access
to global information resources, and (3) increased interaction among students, teachers,
and the global information society.
Project ISLA is a digital geospatial library effort intended to “maximize access to
a critical mass o f interdisciplinary data about Los Angeles in multiple formats for the
purposes of research, teaching, and public access” (Hunt & Wegner, 1996; Kazlauskas,
1999; Kazlauskas, Ethington, Wegner & Hunt, Li, 1997). The six teachers involved in
this design study chose the following six titles for their six units of lessons regarding
geography and ESL:
Figure 4.2. Teachers “A” Through “F” and Their Units of Lessons
Teacher A “How Transportation Affects the Growth of a City” - Students will use
ISLA to familiarize themselves with various modes of transportation
used between 1870 and 1956 in Los Angeles.
Teacher B “Back to the Past Los Angeles Tourist A gency” - U sing ISLA,
cooperative groups of students will produce a travel brochure and travel
poster featuring aspects of Los Angeles from a 20 year span on a class
created time-line.
Teacher C “Early Los Angeles” - Students will discover why Los Angeles was
established and the influence of the early settlers, including their cultural
traditions and contributions.
Teacher D “Los Angeles - A Changing Pluralistic Society” - Students will learn
about our connections to the past and the ways in which traditions have
developed and left their marks on current society.
Teacher E “Los Angeles: Nuestra Ciudad (Our City)” — In third grade children are
ready to look beyond their immediate home life. They begin to ask
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questions about their com munity and draw comparisons with other
neighborhoods. They are interested in learning about the place where
they live and why it does not offer more parks, recreational areas and
beautiful homes. This lesson plan proposes to help the third grade child
in East Los Angeles begin to think historically and understand the basic
structure of a community.
Teacher F “How to Access ISLA’s Digital Archive” - Students will learn how to
access and retrieve images from the ISLA archive and print images to
study the geographical history of Los Angeles.
These six units of lessons are compared with the six units of lessons from the
ISLA data archives: (1) “Rivers of Change,” (2) “M exican Americans: Yesterday,
Today and Tom orrow,” (3) “People and Places — Olvera Street and Fire Station #30,” (4)
“Exploring Our Comm unity,” (5) “Exploring the Various Regions of Boyle Heights:
Continuity and Change,” and (6) “Our Barrio: Our Community/Adams & Normandie.”
The essential points in this research objective is w hether or not, after these six
teachers developed units of lessons plans on ISLA and geography, what were their
answers to the follow-up questions regarding ISLA and geography. These questions are
answered below.
• The five national skills in geography are (1) asking geographic questions, (2)
acquiring geographic information, (3) organizing geographic information, (4)
analyzing geographic information, and (5) answering geographic questions.
How did ISLA help students address the national skills in geography? ISLA
provided a visual format that stimulated students to ask geographic questions
about Los Angeles? It also provided easy acquisition of geographic information,
thus allowing students to answer their own geographic questions. ISLA also had
maps, pictures and written inform ation about Los Angeles. Questions were
form atted from pictures and maps, inform ation gathered and organized and
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analyzed. ISLA provided an archive o f im ages that were ordered both
geographically and chronologically. The images compelled curiosity and even
with free exploration the children asked questions and sought further related
information. And lastly, it provided students the ability to organize and analyze
data on how the geography of Los Angeles had changed over time.
• After looking at the 18 national geography standards attached, how did
ISLA help students attain these standards? ISLA directly addressed most of
the standards, with an emphasis on thinking o f the world in spatial terms, human
systems, and the uses of geography. ISLA provided practice with time and space
as related to a geographic region. It was possible to track the im pact of
populations on our city over time through ISLA. Accessing that information built
students’ knowledge of our city’s geographical features and the impact of those
features on population settlem ent over time. ISLA caters to standards in
elem entary school. It was good in that the students observed ethnic cultural
influences in Los Angeles, particularly in the development of Los Angeles. By
observing many historical photos, students made connections to the past.
• Your analysis of general usability of ISLA in the classroom? During the
forums all six teachers in the study believed that students as low as second grade
benefited from the data available on ISLA and could successfully access it. For
upper grades the data became even more valuable. According to the six teachers
the third grade curriculum lended itself to ISLA as students had specific pictures
and maps to look at and gather information. One task at a time started with a
center activity. Teachers began whole group format and progressed to smaller
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groups and ability levels. ISLA was a flexible resource that was used for multi
level instruction. Really effective quests developed through ISLA required
scaffolding skills and concepts over time. Also, hardware to project the ISLA
images onto a screen or large TV in front of the classroom in order to scaffold
experiences with ISLA was necessary. ISLA was a good resource to use in
exploring the historical development of Los Angeles. It was only limited in that
some of the photographs didn’t clearly show East Los Angeles. And also, some
students had difficulty downloading some of the photographs.
Your ability to integrate ISLA into the curriculum? All six teachers said that
it was very easy to integrate ISLA into the curriculum since it applied easily to
social studies and was used in both written and oral presentations. Many quests
and projects were developed which bridged across many areas of the curriculum.
ISLA catered to most elementary grade levels. It was also very im portant
regarding fourth and fifth grade curriculum as it dealt with the historical
development of California and the United States.
Your relationship of ISLA to curriculum standards? Many elementary social
science standards referred to social systems in California and Los Angeles,
making ISLA a valuable resource for meeting state and district standards. ISLA
fit in perfectly with third grade social studies standards which had to do with
community past and present. ISLA also had many possible applications within
ESL, social studies, and writing instruction. It was also an interesting resource for
art processes.
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• Did ISLA provide learning opportunities such as cooperative, exploratory,
non-linear, etc.? According to the six teachers in the study ISLA provided
opportunities for students to work independently and in cooperative groups and
ISLA allowed students to develop the ability to explore various avenues of
thought while conducting a search. Students worked in pairs or a pod of three
very effectively. ISLA was definitely conducive to group projects, as well as
individual exploration. It was an interesting resource for daily writing
experiences, writing process and developing historical fiction. In my class
students worked together very well in accessing photographs. The process was
very constructivist in that students examined photographs and talked about the
differences in comparing things they saw in the photographs with what is
happening today.
• Did ISLA promote higher order thinking skills (problem-solving skills)?
ISLA encouraged the development of higher level thinking skills in order to
pursue a search, apply previous know ledge, and com pare and contrast
information. When engaged in ISLA questions usually spanned Bloom ’s higher
order thinking skills matrix. Projects developed with ISLA as a resource
dem anded more analysis, organization and synthesis than do many current
textbook treatments of California history, for example. ISLA also allowed
students to explore and compare historical sites and customs.
• Regarding an evaluation of ISLA, how did you (teachers) view ISLA with
regard to student learning and student outcomes? ISLA was definitely a tool
that could be used, under proper guidance, to enhance student learning. The key
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word was guidance. Subtle learning occurred from casual perusal of ISLA
images, but deep learning resulted from structured planning on the teacher’s part.
O f course, the outcomes had a direct relationship to the teacher and the way s/he
uses ISLA. ISLA was flexible, easy to use and an ample tool and resource that
gave students a chance to interact with concepts of continuity and change in our
city. Its effect on learning outcomes depended on the quality o f the process that
the teacher coached dents through and if adequate skills were scaffolded through
instruction.
How did ISLA support a constructivist epistemology wherein students were
able to construct their own knowledge as opposed to merely being presented
with material? ISLA stimulated students to construct creative geography-based
projects. All six teachers believed the high interest it triggered supports authentic
student learning, which is more valuable than spoon-fed teaching. Students
looked at m aterial, made their own questions, took notes, com pared and
contrasted, etc. Again, the teacher needed to set the stage. ISLA was indeed a
com pelling resource. Such a compelling and interesting resource motivated
questioning and curiosity. This natural curiosity lead to a series of teachable
moments where the learner became more o f a leader in their own learning. ISLA
also gave students a chance to explore for themselves and follow up to their own
ability levels in search and retrieving. ISLA thus allowed students to create their
own knowledge in what they saw and produce rather than what they read in a
textbook.
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• Did students tailor their own learning environments? W ith the proper
instruction, students were fully capable, even at a young age, of tailoring their
own learning environments. One teacher commented “Ideally speaking “yes,” but
in reality we have a long way to go before this happens.” However, other
teachers said that the students certainly participated and strove toward that goal.
In order to tailor their own learning environments students needed to have basic
literacy developed in local geography, passage of time, and basic use o f
technology. Use of keywords/concepts as an umbrella under which many images
and documents were organized is a concept which was difficult for children who
are still pre-operational cognitively. The more experienced children became with
the preceding concepts the more able they were to create their own learning
environm ent. Children with limited experiences in these literacies needed the
learning environment in ISLA designed for them. They were able to tailor their
own environments if they had built up their skills in computers and the Internet.
• Did ISLA support a range of strategies that different students were able to
employ? ISLA was used by younger students whose teachers chose to do the
research themselves and then have the children simply type in keywords and
choose particular images to view, or it could have been manipulated fully by more
advanced students. ISLA supported different learning modalities through an
information access structure that was advantageous to students with strong visual-
spatial skills as well as search modes through keywords. ISLA also allowed those
students who had difficulty reading to understand what Los Angeles looked like
in the past.
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What role did the instructor play when ISLA was employed? Did ISLA
encourage and support instructor m entoring and coaching behaviors? The
instructor’s role ranged from teaching students how to use the mechanics o f the
program to guiding students in developing strategies for developing their own
searches to scaffolding the creation o f an inquiry-based learning event. There was
always room for mentoring and peer coaching, and ISLA neither enhanced nor
detracted from the availability of that behavior. The teacher was the key to the
success of this program as young children had to be guided and modeling was
necessary. Initially, the teacher needed to provide a mix of direct instruction and
opportunities to explore. With time, the teacher’s role developed into that of a
coach that answered questions with questions. The instruction was very important
also because young students needed the support to guide the use o f ISLA.
How intrinsically motivating for students was ISLA? The six teachers in the
study thought that ISLA was highly motivating for students. They all commented
that the students thought that the images were fascinating. It could have been as
much or as little as the teacher made it to be. The six teachers found that intrinsic
motivation came from what happened from birth to school, etc. Some students
had to develop with every year building on the previous one. Of course, students
were interested in the story of life in the past. The photo archives in ISLA had an
ample number of photos that expressed a human story through faces, clothing,
buildings, transportation, and physical features. Students were amazed at some o f
the photographs. They had never seen photographs of early Los Angeles. The
more they became involved the more they wanted to become involved.
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• Was there enough structure in ISLA to avoid confusing students yet enough
freedom to promote individual learning? W ithout a doubt, ISLA was
structured in an easy-to-use, clear manner. It did not channel learning, but rather,
allowed for the free development of numerous intellectual quests. Third grade
students, for exam ple, had to have structure in the limitations of the assignment.
Once they had experienced exploration, there was more freedom. There was also
enough balance between structure and freedom if experiences with ISLA were
scaffolded by the teacher. Some student-made local m aps and timelines with
images might helped as a stable reference point for students.
• Were students engaged in creating and representing knowledge in ISLA?
Students were certainly engaged in creating and representing knowledge in ISLA.
The creativity they expressed lay in the value of the questions they asked and the
answers they sought while using ISLA. The six teachers said that you have to
start small with clearly defined goals. The teacher had to provide numerous
experiences creating knowledge through the use of the images students whose
lives were limited to their immediate neighborhood and who had no functional
literacy at home needed more structured experiences in making inferences from
the photos or differences between photos.
• What was the effect of ISLA on group and individual effectiveness outcomes,
including such outcomes as performance, attitude, and behavior in such
areas as time-to-complete-task, cohesion, and self-perception of
performance? The six teachers believe that ISLA encouraged effective group
and individual work. Students were on-task, excited and focused when they used
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ISLA. They were pleased with the outcomes of their intellectual searches and
inspired to continue seeking more information and to broaden their knowledge.
If effective lesson strategies had been carried out and students had regular,
consistent experiences perform ance outcomes should be positive. Tim e to
com plete task behaviors in a projected manner based on ISLA resources was
better for many students especially if there was another cool step to complete with
further technology. Group cohesion required many group experiences and was
not especially enhanced by technology.
• To what extend did you feel that ISLA improved learning? To a great extent,
ISLA improved learning. It was motivating, interesting, valuable, and employed
a range of intellectual behaviors. ISLA had a lot of visual information to support
learning. Students benefited from this. ISLA was very constructivist in nature
where the students were doers as well as thinkers and because o f this students
learned better when they were active participants in what they were studying.
Extended classroom projects and activities were necessary. ISLA also gave
students a chance to work with an archive of primary resources and create their
own learning. The process was motivating and that improved learning in and of
itself.
• Please make any further comments that you feel are important to be included
in a study of this nature? To one of the six teachers, ISLA was valuable not
only for its geographic content, but because it was used in so many different ways
to pursue a wide range of discovery-based learning projects. She said that a
keyword index would be useful. The students made several tries with different
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synonyms and at times it took adult tenacity to find words that yielded results.
Currently, keywords have to be pre-selected by the teacher in order to direct
exploration constructively. A keyword index would help students develop their
own director for exploration. Also ISLA is great if children have access to many
technological materials. They must be able to be fluent computer users to make
adequate use. The students downloaded many photographs, but because of the
lack o f other resources it was difficult to compare the photographs. I believe it
was a great resource for a curriculum that focuses on the history of Los Angeles.
R esearch Objective #4 : Can elementary school students improve in learning
geography through interfacing with an interactive hypermedia such as ISLA?
M inim um geography standards emphasize that the geographically inform ed
student should know and understand the five skills of asking, acquiring, organizing,
analyzing and answering geographic questions (Geography for Life: National Geography
Standards, 1994). Again, there are two main perspectives - the spatial perspective, which
is the “fundam ental characteristic underpinning geography” and the other is the
ecological perspective, which “reveals Earth as a complex system of interacting physical
and human forces.” Standard 1 of the National Geography Standards says that students
must be geographically informed enough “to know and understand how to use maps and
other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process and report
information from a spatial perspective.” According to the six teachers in our study and
the six other lessons from the ISLA archive, Project ISLA addressed most if not all of the
18 national geography standards and was a very sound method for students to learn
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geography standards — along with building up a repertoire of technological and cognitive
skills for all other subjects as well.
All six teachers involved in this study addressed the fact that because ISLA was
an interface and a database constructed for studying a specific region, and it was by
nature a spatially-structured information system. ISLA was designed to enable students
to “ask questions” about places and areas, and to give the user every possible tool for
locating and exploring the places which make up greater Los Angeles. Teacher “A” used
N ational G eography Standard No. 11 (“Patterns o f N etw orks o f Economic
Interdependence”), Standard No. 14 (“Human Actions Modify Physical Environment”),
and Standard No. 17 (“How to Apply Geography to Interpret the Past”) in her lesson on
“How Transportation Affects the Growth of the City.”
Teacher “A” developed a unit of lessons to allow third grade students to use ISLA
to familiarize themselves with various modes of transportation used between 1870 and
1956 in Los Angeles. The students were asked to take a neighborhood walking field trip
and use a digital cam era to record present day modes of transportation, such as fire
engines, buses, Metro trains, Amtrak trains, and cars. The students then downloaded
photographs to prepare and present a report to their classmates about how transportation
had changed over the past century and how that had affected the growth o f Los Angeles.
This unit of lessons not only addressed three of the eighteen National Geography
Standards but it also addressed the California State Social Science Content Standards for
Grade 3: Continuity and Change. This unit also addressed California State Social
Science Content Standard No. 2.1 which allowed students to differentiate between those
things that happened long ago and yesterday. It also addressed the geographical theme of
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movement. It gave students technological access to concrete evidence, through
photographs, of how transportation has changed over the past century. W ithin a
technological framework, this unit taught students how to access ISLA on the computer.
It taught students how to use keywords to find images in ISLA and how to print them out.
It also taught students how to use a digital camera, dow nload photographs on the
computer, and to print them out. This unit of lessons also encouraged students to use
deductive reasoning to determine how changes in transportation had affected the growth
of the city.
Teacher “B” used a more interdisciplinary approach within a unit of 10 lessons of
40 minutes each. Using ISLA, cooperative groups of students produced a travel brochure
and travel poster featuring aspects of Los Angeles from a chosen 20 year span on a class
created timeline. Through this method students experienced Social Studies Standard No.
3.1 through selecting and organizing photographs in a timeline, a brochure, a poster and
an interactive class chart. Students also wrote to communicate effectively and were able
to distinguish between fact and opinion by learning about persuasive writing styles.
Students also acquired descriptive and geographic vocabulary and gained experience in
presenting their work orally to a group.
Teacher “C” again used most of the National Geography Standards because ISLA
concentrates on the specific region of Los Angeles. In this unit of lessons students
discovered why Los Angeles was established and the influence of the settlers, including
their cultural traditions and contributions. They looked at pictures of early buildings to
determine the influence of these settlers. They also took pictures in downtown Los
Angeles that reflecteed the early years of the city. Students described Los Angeles as it
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looked in 1870-1900 through ISLA photographs of East Hill Street at 2n d Street in 1872.
Students identified and located San Pedro Street and 2n d Street in 1870, and La Placita in
1870-1900 photographs. Students also gathered information about settlers and compared
and contrasted East Los Angeles with present day Los Angeles.
Teacher “D” reviewed many of the geographically historical locations in Los
Angeles in a unit of five lessons of 50 minutes each. Again, many of the 18 National
Geography Standards were intertwined in this unit of lessons, with lessons regarding
students learning about our connections to the past and the ways in which traditions had
developed and left their marks on current society. Students described the physical and
human geography and use maps, photographs, and charts to organize information about
people, places, and environments. Students in this unit had the opportunity to explore
and browse the ISLA web site, download photographs of Los Angeles and its peoples,
compare and contrast geographical areas and track their changes over time. This allowed
students the time to examine ethnic diversity and how it has helped shape our destiny in
Los Angeles. As students examined maps and charts that show ethnic patterns of Los
Angeles, students traced migration patterns o f different ethnic groups as their emigrated
to Los Angeles.
Teacher “E” also took a look at how elementary students were ready to take a
look at the Los Angeles beyond their immediate home life. In this unit of lessons
students began to compare ISLA’s maps to those of the Thomas Brothers guides, along
with using secondary sources to compare them to ISLA’s sources. Students described the
physical and human geography and used maps, tables, graphs, photographs and charts to
organization inform ation about people, places and environm ents in a spatial context.
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This unit began with an overall study of Los Angeles and as the unit progressed students
began to ask questions about their own community o f East Los Angeles and drew
comparisons with other neighborhoods. This unit culminated with students making a
topographical map of the natural regions of Los Angeles using clay and paint to denote
elevation. Through the whole unit students improved Internet navigational, research and
geographic skills by students taking 4 index cards and making a personal timeline o f two
year increments. Finally, groups of students made (on large butcher paper) a large three
column chart with the headings “Los Angeles Then,” “Los Angeles Now,” and “Our
Community,” and categorized the chart from all of the details, historical photographs and
other data collected through Project ISLA and utilizing the National Geography
Standards.
Teacher “F” took the students into an even larger unit o f lessons with very
detailed planning and organization. Students learned how to access and retrieve images
from the ISLA archive and print images to study the geographical history of Los Angeles.
M aterials used and incorporated “mini” lessons learned included computers, large TV,
connector cables, access to Internet, chalk/white boards, chalk/dry erasers, scotch tape
and inventory sheets. The teacher demonstrated how to enter the Digital Image Archives
of the University of Southern California. Students were guided step-by-step in the
photograph retrieving procedures and then they learned how to create a digital portfolio
and a HyperStudio portfolio using the photographs. This lesson took five days and used
an incremental rubric to be perfected over time. At this point other materials were used
to blow up a map of the city and attach it to a large bulletin board, included a compass
rose, a photograph of school placed on map, 8-1/2 by 11 sheet map with landmark names
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and locations on it, and photographs of pre-selected landmarks printed from USC Images
archives. These photographs were of downtown Los Angeles, Pershing Square, USC
campus, UCLA campus, General Hospital, San Gabriel Mountains, Echo Park lake, Los
Angeles Harbor, Santa Monica beach, and the City of Glendale.
At this time Teacher “F” extended the lesson to include National Geography
Standard No. 2: “How to use mental maps to organize information about people, places
and environments in a spatial context.” Students created a Venn diagram in groups to
show how their community is different from other communities that they studied. This
detailed information was added to their HyperStudio presentations and presented orally in
group sessions.
In Chapter 1 of this design study, McClure (1992) suggested that children develop
some of the cognitive abilities necessary to understand thematic maps at a younger age
than Piagetian theory would predict, and that educators should be able to introduce
thematic maps to children as young as eight years old. The six teachers in this design
study are in agreement with those suggestions. Technology as it was merged with ISLA,
along with the National Geography Standards, helped students improve in learning
geography through interfacing with an interactive hypermedia such as ISLA. McClure
(1992) stated that the study’s purpose was to develop and appraise a conceptual model for
map skills acquisition in grades kindergarten through eight based upon cognitive field
theory. Eight geographic map skills, derived from review of several other studies, were
arranged in a hierarchical manner with grade levels. Six contributing components to the
map skill acquisition model were identified in the literature. The components were
organized into a conceptual framework. The components were: (1) learning theory, (2)
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teachers’ knowledge o f map skills; (3) the demonstration base used in the classroom; (4)
instructional strategies; (5) supervision and coordination; and (6) proper sequencing of
maps. The established hierarchy of skills were merged with the conceptual framework to
form the conceptual model for this study. The findings were that the conceptual model
developed in this study offered an implementable guide enabling teachers to improve
student’s map skill proficiency. Again, all six teachers in this design study suggested that
ISLA could be a m ajor part o f learning geography and utilized the digital archive of
ISLA as a major tool in that enterprise.
Research Objective #5: What are the issues in a technological approach to
curriculum development?
The six teachers in this design study suggested that the use o f technology as a
learning system tool, along with procedures for using technology as the basis for
curriculum development, are becoming indispensable. McNeil (1996) expressed in his
book Curriculum. A Comprehensive Introduction, that technology is helpful in the
analysis of curriculum problems as well as for the creation, implementation, evaluation,
and management o f instructional solutions. Technology as a curriculum perspective
focuses on the effectiveness of programs, methods, and materials in the achievem ent of
specified ends or purposes. M cNeil (1996) goes on to say that technology influences
curriculum in two ways: applications and theory. ISLA can be described as an applied
technology because it uses a plan for the systematic use of various devices and media, or
a contrived sequence o f instruction based on principles from the behavioral sciences. A
defining element o f technology, including ISLA, is that its systems and products can be
replicated. That is, the same results can be attained on repeated occasions, and the
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system itself is exportable and useful in many situations. Computer-assisted instruction,
systems approaches using objectives, programmed materials, criterion-referenced tests,
microcomputers linked to storage devices, videodisks, workstations, and other databases
are examples of applied technology. And, technology as theory is also useful in the
development and evaluation of curriculum materials and instructional systems. In the
developmental process, technologists formulate rules which, if followed, will result in
more predictable products.
We learned in the literature review that general system s philosophy is a
technological fram ework for viewing problems of curriculum . It emphasizes the
specification of instructional objectives (usually derived by needs o f assessment, a study
that contrasts the student’s level of achievement with the learning goals), precisely
controlling learning activities or instructional sequences to achieve these objectives, and
criteria for performance and evaluation. As we will see in Research Objective #6, the
hierarchical manner of assessment modifies the learner’s behavior by improving the skills
of human-computer interaction as students go along. The student’s level of proficiency
on hum an-com puter interaction skills become more and more fine-tuned as students
apply what they know. In other words, as the six teachers in this design study showed in
their units of lessons, ISLA is just a tool (albeit a very constructivist and powerful tool) to
adapt and broaden instruction (i.e., measurement o f the achievements of learning the
National Geography Standards).
As M cNeil (1996) talked about in his book, technologists think of themselves as
finding efficient and effective means to achieve specific ends, however, within the
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technologists’ model, when combined with the National Geography Standards and the
strengths of ISLA, instructional sequences can contribute to a range of desired outcomes.
Following the work of B. F. Skinner in the 1960’s, whose answer was to sequence
learning tasks toward specific terminal behaviors, elicit over responses from learners to
these tasks, and reinforce correct responses, technologists developed the following rules
for constructing curriculum-programmed lessons and training programs: (1) gain the
attention of the learner, (2) inform the learner of the expected outcome, (3) activate
relevant capabilities, (4) present stimuli inherent to the task, (5) elicit correct responses
by prompting, (6) provide feedback, (7) appraise performance, (8) provide for transfer of
learning, and (9) ensure retention. These same rules apply to “mastery learning,” which
is a curriculum in which instructional objectives are arranged in an assumed hierarchy of
tasks, are the keystone of the system, and lesson m aterials are built around that
arrangement. Lessons materials are matched with the objectives and allow the pupil to
proceed independently with a minimum of teacher direction. Mastery learning is
sometimes employed by teachers implementing outcome-based programs in that it allows
individuals m ore time and additional clarification for mastering units o f curriculum
related to the desired outcomes before proceeding. Within the six units of lessons in this
design study, it was true that there is a hierarchical sequence of skills or steps that must
be followed on the com puter, the Internet, and within ISLA itself for students to be
successful.
In “Space-defined searching” on ISLA, this means that students define their
search by “clicking and dragging” a box (or multiple boxes) on a map. This map is
actually constructed or digital spatial layers including satellite imagery and current and
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historical orthophotography. Also the student may choose from among several possible
GIS vector layers, such as neighborhoods, streets, zoning, land use, census areas, etc.
In “Time-defined searching” date ranges can be chosen and “hits” of searches will
be displayed on a time-line. As ISLA gradually acquires more historical spatial layers,
users will be able to define their search within an historically-appropriate spatial
environment. These historical data layers are being entered gradually because a great
deal of technical work is required. The goal is that, eventually, students will not need to
guess from the present concerning the past in defining a search, but will be able to
integrate historical specification in their search requests.
Instructional Objectives of Classroom Technological System s (McNeil, 1996)
have either a behavioral or an empirical emphasis which specify learning processes in
forms that can be measured - although there is no reason why technological systems
cannot employ affective as well as psychomotor and cognitive objectives.
Methods and Organization. Technologists prepare programs and materials to try
to make their sequence o f instruction “teacher proof,” with the learner responding
independently. Tapes and audiotapes are a case in point. However, technologists’ rules
for sequencing instruction have been widely prom ulgated as a model for teacher.
M adeline H unter’s designs for lessons closely follow the technologists’ rules including
the influence of anticipatory set, perceived purpose, task analysis, modeling or guided
practice, checks for understanding, and independent practice when it is likely that the
student will m aker errors (Hunter, 1984). In other words, learning is viewed as a process
of reacting to stimuli - attending the relevant cues - rather than as a transactional process
in which the learner influences the stimuli.
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In organization, the objectives of instruction are arranged in a fixed continuum or
hierarchy of skills and final objectives are precisely and operationally stated, and these
objectives are the basis for organizing instruction. Complex subject m atter is sequenced
by the simple components. A particular sequence may vary in length from a single lesson
to a course of instruction for one year. Task analysis, breaking down an objective into its
basic elem ents, steps, or rules, is the chief procedure for designing technological
curriculum as well as for determining enroute tasks and the order of their acquisition.
Evaluation. Unique to the technologist is the assumption that if the intended
learner does not master the specified objectives, the program maker is at fault. Learners
are not responsible for their own success or failure. Programs are developed, tried out on
a sam ple of the intended population o f learners, and revised according to the findings
until the program attains intended results.
The technological approach is more effective generally for conventional, easily
m easurable tasks. Students achieve more with these techniques than they would
otherw ise. The tightly structured, program m ed approach including frequent and
im mediate feedback to the pupil, combined with a tutorial relationship, individual pacing,
and individualized programming is positively associated with accelerated pupil
achievement. Ben Bloom (1984) claims that the typical result of mastery learning studies
in the schools is that about 80 percent of students with mastery learning reach the same
level of achievement (A or B+) as approximately the top 20 percent of the class under
conventional instruction. In the 1970s many investigators compared the live teachers
w ith program m ed learning, closed-circuit television, films, and slide tapes. The
conclusion was that the element within a given medium (structure, pacing, presentation)
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had more influence on the level of learner success than any differences measure between
different media. And today’s innovations of computer and interactive hypermedia do not
provide learning benefits in and of themselves. The creation of good programs for use
with these tools is critical.
These results relate well the to the unit of lessons by the six teachers in this design
study. Their experiences within Project ISLA are similar to those of Seymour Papert
fMindstorms: Children. Computers, and Powerful Ideas. Papert arranged the computer
so that young people learned to control, not be dominated by, their technological
environment. To Papert, and to the six teachers in this design study who developed a
curriculum converging ISLA, the National Geography Standards, and technological
skills, the computer is a vehicle for Piagetian learning in which students integrate new
concepts into their existing repertoires as they manipulate objects defined as figures on an
interactive computer display.
W ithin the conversations among these six teachers at the teacher forum s in
February, after the basic training on ISLA at USC by the six teachers in this design study
in January, some discussions revolved around the fact that elementary school students
interacted with ISLA, used the National Geography Standards, and improved computer
skills and adaptability. They said that their students built new knowledge and new skills
in a hierarchical manner. Discussions on this subject within those forums in February
agrees with Robert Nergney’s (1982) findings that suggested that students “take new
knowledge and make it their own by playing with it and building on it.”
A t the second of these forums Robert Karplus’s (1985) model for developing a
com puter curriculum that has three phases was brought up and discussed. The six
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teachers were asked to think about the fact that in the first phase of this model students
play with the phenomenon, building insights through a series of experiences in a subject
area. In the second phase, students acquire concepts in the content area, and in the third
phase, students do something with the mastered content. The six teachers talked about
how students, after several days of lessons interacting with ISLA and the National
Geography Standards, and after some novice students becoming accustomed with the
computers, how (1) some students individually and in groups prepared creative writings
and published reports, (2) some students became very adept at downloading photographs
and creating portfolios, posters, charts, graphs and tim e-lines, (3) some students
improved their geographic and technological vocabulary dramatically, (4) some students
created fascinating culturally-relevant murals of actual scenes or events in Los Angeles
history, (5) some students were able to improve dramatically their ability to explore and
browse the ISLA web site, (6) the vast majority of students seemed to be more
“geographically” aware from a spatial perspective of their surroundings in the Los
Angeles area, (7) some students’ researching online skills and basic typing and other
computer skills improved dramatically, and (8) even some early elementary students in
second grade became more “aware” of modes of transportation, entertainment venues in
the Los Angeles area, and physical geographic areas o f mountains, bodies of water, etc.
in the Los Angeles area. The consensus was also that students became more self-assured
verbally when talking about Los Angeles.
The long term goal of ISLA and the USC Digital Library is to create a system that
will enable all kinds of users, from elementary school children to advanced researchers,
to search and access a rich and diverse range of digital archival research materials in a
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multiple format (textual, qualitative, photographic, spatial, audiovisual). ISLA’s two
main components, the user interface and the large database of materials, in the opinion of
the six teachers in this design study, has proven that integrated multimedia environments
bring together the symbolic and processing capabilities of the various media described
above to help learners connect their knowledge to other domains. This paper has
discussed ISLA’s space/time/fulltext/format indexing to search for and retrieve materials.
There is an illustration of how a student can take a “core sample” o f a geographic area
through layers o f time. Interactive videodisc environments hold the potential for helping
learning build and analyze mental models o f problem situations, particularly social
situations. Hypermedia environments are designed to help the reader build links among
texts and other symbolic expressions and construct meaning based on those relationships.
The forum conversations were concluded by talking about the influence of
technologists on curriculum developers and we all agreed that it was substantial and very
beneficial. The technologists’ contribution was very beneficial to instructional
effectiveness, the ordering of instructional sequences, and the monitoring of learners’
progress. Also, digital archives like ISLA, can help the classroom teacher create better
instructional effectiveness, the ordering of instructional sequences, and the monitoring of
learners’ progress.
Research Objective #6: What are the possible evaluation approaches that can
be used to evaluate the use o f ISLA by students?
W ithin our February forums, the six teachers in this design study discussed
inform ally the pedagogical dimensions and the evaluation of student learning and
outcomes of the digital archive ISLA. We talked about each one o f the frameworks of
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Reeves and H arm on (1993) as listed in section 3.6 of this dissertation. Most of these
frameworks are reinforcements/follow-ups to the “ISLA and Geography/ESL Lesson
Plans and W ritten Follow-up” questionnaire that all teachers filled out regarding their
units of lessons - and which was discussed in depth in the previous research objective.
There was, how ever, broad consensus among all six teachers that ISLA supported a
constructivist epistemology wherein students are able to construct their own knowledge
as opposed to merely being presented with ultimate truths. Two of the teachers felt that it
would take quite a bit of structure and exposure for most students to be able to tailor their
own learning environments, while the other four thought that it was m uch more possible
in their experiences with ISLA. All six teachers agreed that ISLA supported a broad
range of learning strategies that students might employ.
Before we talk about assessment from the six units of lessons themselves, which
will address many of the frameworks of Reeves and Harmon (1993), there was also a
consensus that ISLA supported situated learning, that ISLA definitely encouraged and
supported instructor mentoring and coaching behaviors, and that ISLA is intrinsically
motivating for students. Five out of the six teachers said there is enough structure in
ISLA, if teachers used it properly, to avoid confusing students - yet enough freedom to
promote individual learning. All six agreed also that ISLA does support cooperative
grouping, distance learning off campus (such as at home for elementary school students),
and that after using ISLA students can interpret results.
Teacher “A ” suggested that assessment with regard to his/her unit of lessons
could be accom plished by taking anecdotal records as students worked in cooperative
groups. A nother assessment tool was to use a four point rubric designed with student
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input to score the oral presentations. Included in the requirements for a four point rubric
was clarity o f presentation, use of photographs to support facts, and evidence of
deductive reasoning.
Teacher “B ’s” assessment strategies involved cooperative groups assessing one
another’s brochures with a four point rubric and making one suggestion for each group’s
project. Groups then assessed their own work and made one recom mendation for
improvement for their own project. On a brief written test students identified one aspect
of life in Los Angeles that had changed over time and one aspect that was the same.
Teacher “C” assessed her students’ lessons by having them write their personal
reflections to their findings in their reflection journals. Students were also assessed by
creating a Venn diagram and recording their findings on a chart, and by comparing and
contrasting the past with the present. Students were also assessed on writing a paragraph
that included interactive captions for a mural. Students also developed their own rubric
for their own projects and would vote on a rubric value to the class for cooperative
projects.
Teacher “D” created a three point rubric on technology skills and how well
students tested on geographic vocabulary, etc. Also a verbal rubric was developed to
assess students on how well they described Los Angeles’ cultural pluralistic society and
how has it contributed to the development of Los Angeles.
Teacher “E” developed a more details assessment that included: (1) students were
evaluated on a personal portfolio which included a map to school, Thomas Brothers’
map, photographs taken, topographical map, internet searches, personal timeline and
Venn diagram, (2) students made a book with five sections: the park, the library, school,
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art, and the businesses. Each section had a hand drawn picture, a paragraph describing
why that section is important to the community, and a paragraph describing personal
experience at that location, and (3) students were given five historical photographs o f the
above mentioned sections. Students wrote a paragraph stating why the location was
important. They included 3-4 sentences on what life would have been like in that
photograph, (4) students were asked to label a map with the natural regions o f Los
Angeles. Students had to draw a map o f their route to school and locate their school and
route on a Thomas Brothers’ map, and (5) students wrote a letter to their political
representatives stating how they would like to see their community involved.
Teacher “F” tested students on map-reading skills by asking them to locate
landmarks in the City of Los Angeles on a “photoanalysis” chart. S/he basically took
N ational Geography Standard No. 1 “How to use maps and other geograhical
representation tools or technologies to acquire, process, and report inform ation from a
spatial perspective” and tested students on each part of the standard both in written and
verbal formats. Teacher “F” also walked around as students were selecting and printing
images of places and communities. He walked around a list on which each child writes
the name of the community or place they printed as well as the year the photo was taken.
Each student should be able to print one’s picture. These printed images were used in the
next lesson. After lesson 2 the students were given a test in which they placed the name
of the location in its proper place on an 8-1/2 by 11 map of Los Angeles. After lesson 3
in the lab each student provided a printed photograph to be used as a model. The teacher
then walked around and observed what students are placing buildings and other
landmarks in the appropriate places. After the last lesson the students should have
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completed an exit slip, describing what they learned in the lesson. The writing may have
been open ended but they needed to list at least 3 things they learned from the lesson.
W ithin the forum discussions in February all six teachers talked about other ways
to assess students within ISLA and within the parameters of each unit of lessons:
1. Students will be able to dem onstrate connections among concepts and bodies of
information regarding the changes from our Los Angeles River. One of the following
topics may be selected for their final presentation: (1) river basin floods (effects on
people and control), (2) aqueduct and bridges bring changes to the river basin, and (3)
the river changes courses throughout the centuries.
2. Teachers will assess the students in the following manners: (1) teacher will take
anecdotal records while students work in cooperative groups, (2) students’ final
projects will be scored based on a four-point rubric that evaluation objectives, clarity
and organization is presentation o f findings and use of associations, and (3) students
will score each other’s presentations along a four-point rubric.
3. In large groups, the students will discuss, identify and chart how these two historical
landmarks have added to the rich diversity of Los A ngeles both economically and
historically.
4. A rubric for assessment of student participation and accomplishment includes the
following criteria: Score levels: 1 = poor, 2 = satisfactory and 3 = excellent.
Assessment will be made in language arts regarding the writing process regarding (1)
grammatical errors, not clearly written; (2) fewer technical mistakes, and (3) few
technical mistakes, well-written with elaboration. In social studies (research report
and use of resources): (1) did not use resource; (2) answ ered most questions,
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information accurate and did not use all resources; and (3) answered all questions,
information accurate, and expanded on resources. Assessment in technology rates the
students’ abilities to do online research.
5. The portfolio will include map drawings and written observations. In addition,
students will write responses to the following questions which will be included in
their portfolios: (1) based on your observations of changes over time to the Boyle
Heights area, make a prediction as to possible changes to the area over the next 50
years, and (2) what changes to the Boyle Heights area did you notice taking place
over time? Describe two of them.
6. W hat the assignment is completed, students will write an essay on how the area will
change over the next ten years. And then students will be given a fill-in test of how
ISLA and the Internet works.
Finally, during the forums the evaluation of student learning and outcomes was
discussed. W ith regard to the framework of Reeves and Harmon (1993) each of the
thirteen pedagogical dimensions were discussed as they are listed in Section 3.6. All six
teachers agreed that ISLA does support a constructivist epistemology wherein students
are able to construct their own knowledge as opposed to merely being presented with
ultimate truths. All six felt that this occurred by the very nature of ISLA. Again, they
believe that ISLA stimulates students to construct creative geography-based projects
which supports authentic student learning which they felt was more valuable than a
lecturing, spoon-fed, mode of teaching. Students can look at material, make their own
questions, take notes, and compare and contrast information. All six teachers felt that
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ISLA can tailor their own learning environments and that it can support a range of
learning strategies.
All six teachers said that their experiences to date em phasized that ISLA
encourages and supports mentoring and coaching behaviors among the students
themselves but that teachers had to structure the lessons carefully. They felt that the
more students were engaged and successful in working with ISLA the more creative
students become. After using ISLA, the teachers said that students who w eren’t as
proficient as other students became more proficient after working in small groups.
With regard to the nine user-oriented dimensions of ISLA regarding (I) ease of
use, (2) navigation, (3) cognitive load, (4) screen design, (5) know ledge space
complexity; (6) content, (7) media integration, (8) functionality, and (9) agents, all six
teachers agreed that ISLA had great potential in all of these areas. The teachers were all
very impressed and pleased with the nine issues above. However, all six teachers agreed
that one of the most exciting aspects of ISLA was how it brought Los Angeles to the
forefront of students’ thoughts and produced great amounts of excitement and motivation.
All six teachers at this point are developing some performance standards with regard to
students in the second through the fifth grades. They do believe that some concentration
must be spent on developing standards for elementary school students that will be able to
complement more advanced standards as students move on to middle and high schools.
They want to address the specific issues and features that elementary school students
would enhance or inhibit on benchmarked tasks, and determine w hether differences
among participants would influence their performance in using the interface.
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All six teachers admit that there needs to be more study done on the creation of a
grid that would be more applicable to elementary school students and their understanding
of com puters, interactive hypermedia and ISLA. Discussion also centered around the
creation o f a spectrum of learning device services such as a learning environm ent
regarding delivery methods for technology integration and applied learning, creation and
maintenance o f learning communities, and web-based multi-media content development,
design, and delivery.
Lastly, in the second forum we discussed Technology & Learning’s grid (August,
1998) on “How to Know if Your Technology is Integrated.” All six teachers agreed that
students should have a specific, lesson-related goal when they are working, even if it
were searching for something. The teachers were also convinced that technology should
make a lesson easier to teach, more fun to learn, and then students would retain
knowledge better. They all also agreed that technology should be motivating, and its use
should get your kids fired up about learning.
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5. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS
AND FURTHER RESEARCH
Summary and Conclusions
This design study sought to accumulate descriptive performance and satisfaction
data through the expertise of six elementary school teachers and their creation and
implementation o f six units of lesson plans integrating technology with a digital archive
(ISLA) — and with regard to how interactive hypermedia can merge with the process of
education through an attempt to improve the instructional process in geography. This
design study also sought to provide recommendations for the continued development o f
ISLA by providing evidence that elem entary school students can interface with
interactive hyperm edia such as ISLA for the instructional purposes o f learning and
expanding on a geography lesson by demystifying the technology and providing relevant,
interdisciplinary, and easy-to-implement activities for the classroom. The results of this
design study not only supports many positive aspects of human com puter interaction
talked about within this dissertation, but it also supports the continued development of
ISLA.
Consistent with the successful merger of hypermedia and geography instruction in
the classroom is Bush’s (1945) early realization that “the human mind ... operates by
association. W ith one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by
the association o f thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the
cells to the brain.” Again, this observation that students are doers as well as thinkers, and
the continued development of associative network theory, have provided a conceptual
foundation for the continued development o f hypermedia. Bednar et al. (1991) also
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talked about this alternative view o f the learning process labeled constructivism,
experientialism and semiotics, which is the view that “knowledge is an active process of
construction, not the receipt of information from external sources.”
W ithin the six units of lessons for this design study merging ISLA with
geography instruction, was the realization from the six teachers that there had to be a
good understanding between the instructional development of planning a geography unit
with regard, for example, to the type of learning opportunities (cooperative, exploratory,
non-linear, and critical thinking skills), and with regard to what extent can elementary
school students with some Internet experience use ISLA to permit them to complete the
geography unit from the lowest level of conceptual complexity to increasingly more
com plicated permutations. Within the follow-up discussions at the two forums in
February, it was suggested that the ISLA archive (support groups) continue to develop
new m odels for elementary school usage which could delineate further a system of
hierarchical benchmarks or rubrics of standards-based performance assessments of skill
levels of ability regarding (1) computer skills, (2) Internet skills, or (3) some kind of new
on-line visual organizational model of ISLA. All six teachers involved and the two
principals believed that this would be especially useful for early (primary) elementary
school students who aren’t as spatially adept or have more trouble creating mental
models on their own and who would need more support.
W ith regard to the 18 National Geography Standards and how they were
addressed within the six units of geography lessons, it was unanimous that this aspect of
the study was very successful. Only one of the six teachers had been familiar with the
National Geography Standards before their involvement with this study - and because the
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standards were o f national origin all six teachers believed that they contributed more
weight to the study. All six teachers and their students were able to address the five
national skills in geography. Because ISLA goes far beyond other digital library projects
in that it allows search definition in historically appropriate settings, ISLA provides
multi-disciplinary contents in a variety of formats concerning the history, culture, people
and places o f the Los Angeles region. Students enjoyed and learned from the search and
retrieval aspects o f ISLA to the downloading and comparing and contrasting o f maps,
photographs, satellite images and data from the past to the present.
During the two forums in February, there was some discussion revolving around
National Geography Standards “Essential Elementary 1: The W orld in Spatial Terms,”
and Standards No. 1 , 2 and 3, “How to use maps and other geographic representations,
tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial
perspective,” “How to use mental maps to organization information about people, places,
and environments in a spatial context,” and “How to analyze the spatial organization of
people, places, and environments on Earth’s surface.” It was expressed that lessons that
addressed these three standards actually may have helped those students who were
thought to have lower spatial ability. Some of the teachers also said that because of the
simplicity o f the National Geography Standards it was understood that a mental map
exists only in the m ind’s eye and that it represents each student’s knowledge of the
location of geographic features such as the mountains, parks, and other landmarks in the
Los A ngeles com m unities where they live. A m ental map is also made up of
approximate size dimensions and cultural characteristics and that this map grows in
complexity as the student’s experience, amount of time studying, and as ISLA brings new
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geographic information. As Standard No. 3 explains, to understand the spatial patterns
and processes that organize Earth’s surface, it is essential to know concepts such as
distance, discretion, location, connection, and association. Understanding these concepts,
enables one to say what factors influence a locational desire for a hospital, a county seat,
a sanitary landfill, or a regional shopping center, for example.
With regard to the previous two paragraphs, we must remember that research in
cartography and psychology (based on the theories of Jean Piaget) suggested that children
might not have some of the cognitive abilities necessary to understand and use thematic
maps. However, the results of several studies (McClure, 1992) suggested that students
develop some of the cognitive abilities necessary to understand thematic maps at a
younger age than Piagetian theory would predict. Educators should be able to introduce
thematic maps to children as young as seven to eight years old.
Another issue brought up in our discussions among the six teachers in this design
study was that each of them said that as they became more adept at planning units of
lessons revolving around geography and ISLA, and that each time the students used ISLA
they also became more quickly adept at using the system. In Chapter 2 it was stated that
such a system can be made to correspond to the processes learners use when constructing
interrelationships among concepts in real memory. As Salomon (1988) points out, this
may prom pt learners not only to think about ideas but to think about how they are
interrelated and structured. M ore importantly, they provide an explicit model of
information representations that, under certain circumstances, learners may come to use
as mental models of their own thinking. The guided experience of progressing through
ISLA then provides greater opportunity for structured learning. In this approach
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interactive media authors apply theories o f coherence and cognitive overhead as they
relate to user comprehension. By increasing coherence, e.g., “facilitating the construction
o f semantic relations between information units,” and minimizing cognitive overhead,
e.g., “freeing processing capacities that otherwise would have been bound by orientation,
navigation, and user-interface adjustment,” interaction multimedia authors can increase
the effectiveness of their product (Turing et al., 1995).
Increasing coherence and minimizing cognitive overhead became another
important issue that was brought up in the last forum with the six teachers and the other
principal. It was all agreed that with the continued development of ISLA in the future
that more thought should be given to how we can address that continued development
with more emphasis on elementary school students. Some suggestions for this will be
made in the next and last section of this chapter and dissertation - “Implications for
ISLA.”
Another important issue in talking about how ISLA functions and how students
interact with the system is that of consistency and orientation cues. Consistency and
orientation cues will increase coherence and minimize cognitive overhead. Consistency
is achieved when the same actions result in the same effect, regardless of other variables
that may have changed. A consistent interface is achieved by first selecting, and then
following, an applicable metaphor. According to Lynch (1994), a successful metaphor
limits the number of complexity of rules that the user must learn “because the rules
governing the user’s interactions ought to be self-evident in the metaphor.” Kahn (1995)
and others have shown that thoughtful graphic design can create global structure within a
single web site.
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One of the concepts repeatedly mentioned in the literature as a means to reduce
cognitive overhead is the use of cues to aid the user’s navigation through the information
“space” of the hyperdocument. W e have come to accept the term “cyberspace” where
information resides in a network o f linked computers. “Surfing” the web of information
implies traveling through nodes o f information, linking from one to another across the
vast sea of data. To facilitate knowing your position in cyberspace at any given time,
ISLA and other hypermedia systems have created several techniques to promote the
form ation of cognitive maps w hich aid orientation. Shum (1990) applied spatial
(geography) cognition theories to the design of hypermedia. According to Turing et al.
(1995) orientation cues should: (1) “identify their current position with respect to the
overall structure,” (2) “reconstruct the way that led to this position,” and (3) “distinguish
among different options for moving on from this position.”
If students working with ISLA and a geography unit are motivated and excited
about using ISLA and completing their lessons, and these six teachers indicated that they
were, then ISLA facilitates learning. Jonassen (1992) suggested that hypermedia systems
are particularly useful in facilitating learning because hypertext structures reflect a model
o f learning based on schemas. In schema theory, learning is the accumulation and
organization o f knowledge structures. These knowledge structures are a representation of
the organization of ideas in our semantic memory. Each knowledge structure exists an
object, idea or event as well as a set of attributes which link it to other knowledge
structures. As we learn, we gain new structures and links, adding information to existing
structures (also known as accretion), or alter existing structures through a process of
restructuring. Restructuring also involves grouping know ledge structures into
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procedures, or coarser-grained schemas. Our knowledge exists in a semantic memory
which is a network of interrelated concepts.
Still, another important issue that was talked about a great deal during the two
forums in February, was that ISLA with all o f its vast photography and holdings will
need to accommodate a faster and greater flow of information in the future. This was
talked about in light of the fact that whole classrooms and schools of students would be
logging on to ISLA at the same time and that would require adequate power to support
that kind o f learning. However, it was also mentioned that the future of hypermedia was
incredible increases in the capacity o f computers and hypermedia systems to store, hold
and disseminate information. In light of this, it was stated that there would need to be a
vigil o f support for the continued development of ISLA through keeping it up to date.
Spiro and Jehng (1990) contend that hypertexts facilitate the application and
transfer o f complex knowledge to new situations. Such cognitive flexibility requires the
representation of knowledge along multiple rather than single conceptual dim ensions.
Hypertext facilitates this cognitive flexibility because it allows a topic to be explored in
m ultiple ways using a number of different concepts or themes. This results in the
development of integrated, flexible knowledge structures interconnected by criss-crossing
conceptual themes that facilitate the use o f this knowledge to solve a wide range of
problems. Each concept can be subsequently used in many different ways and the same
concept can apply to a variety of kinds o f situations. Within the forums there was
discussion that this occurred even to a greater degree in our study because o f the
instructional objectives that meshed together com puters, ISLA and the N ational
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Geography Standards - along with being in the forefront of the technological approach to
curriculum development.
W ithin the technological approach to curriculum development, the six teachers
and two principals talked about mastery learning. The teachers were briefed on how
within mastery learning the instructional objectives, arranged in an assumed hierarchy of
tasks, are the keystone of the system, and lesson materials are built around that
arrangement. The objectives are the intended outcomes of instruction. Simply put, each
pupil m ust master them before going on to the next step in the learning hierarchy. As
mastery learning is explained there is discussion on the similarities with ISLA and how
students build a knowledge base regarding com puter and search and retrieval skills.
From a spatial perspective, one teacher suggested that maybe each principal feature of
ISLA could be added to a skill grid on how competent each student becomes on that skill.
He went on to say that ISLA’s principal features of space-defined search, time defined
searches, and subject and keyword searching could be assessed by giving students their
own evaluative measurements to determine his or her own progress. Such measurements
could help the teacher decide whether to move the pupil ahead to a new task or to provide
additional materials or tutoring.
M ost importantly, all teachers agreed that to fail to take advantage o f ISLA and
other hyperm edia, in conjunction with the National Geography Standards, to gather
critical data and to help students prepare and meet the demands of the information age
would not only be unsound but downright shortsighted with regard to preparing
elementary school students for demands of the 21s' century.
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Implications for ISLA
ISLA is important because it has improved geography curriculum. It is seen as a
great contribution to instructional effectiveness, the ordering o f instructional sequences,
and the monitoring of learners’ progress. ISLA is important also because o f its focus on
the humanities. The following are recommendations for improving the ISLA interface
for elementary school students:
• Create a keyword index for ISLA to help students develop their own direction for
exploration.
• Based on McClure’s (1992) study, develop and appraise a conceptual model for
map skills acquisition in grades kindergarten through eight based upon cognitive
field theory and the ISLA archive. W ithin M cClure’s (1992) study eight
geographic map skills, derived from review of several other studies, were
arranged in a hierarchical manner with grade levels.
• Develop a step-by-step, individual grade level rubric in (1) photograph retrieving
procedures, (2) creating a digital portfolio, and (3) and how a HyperStudio
portfolio uses the photographs.
• Provide an easier opportunity for elementary school users to be able to have an
on-line visual model of the organization o f the system. An on-line visual model
could help those students who are not as spatially adept or who do not easily
create mental models on their own.
• For elem entary school students keep the options and menus in ISLA to a
minimum so that those who are less spatially adept can see where they are at any
given time within the system. Also provide easier to understand instructions.
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• For elementary school students and the teachers who plan their lessons, create a
video orientation guide or tutorial so that students can take better advantage of
ISLA as soon as possible.
• Continue to upgrade ISLA so that speed and capacity keep up with the enormous
potential for customer usage.
• Develop a system to continually gather data on how ISLA improves instruction in
geography and other subjects and on software to address cognitive load.
• Continued creation of lessons to be placed on the ISLA archive and the creation
of grade level curriculum and benchmark models converging ISLA, the National
Geography Standards, and technological skills.
• Create a standards-based performance assessment of students using ISLA in
conjunction with the National Geography Standards and technological skills. Pay
attention to Reeves & Harmon (1993) framework in the development of these
standards.
Future Research
John M cNeil (1996) proved that integrated multim edia environments bring
together the symbolic and processing capabilities of the various media to help their
learners connect their knowledge to other domains. Interactive videodisc environments
hold the potential for helping learners build and analyze mental models of problem
situations. Hypermedia environments are designed to help the reader build links among
texts and other symbolic expressions and construct meaning based on these relationships.
Plausible rationales have been given for the expected effectiveness of such environments,
but these must be tested. As we have learned digital archives like ISLA can help the
170
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classroom teacher create better instructional effectiveness, the ordering of instructional
sequences, and the monitoring of learners’ progress.
W ith regard to the summary and conclusions and the implications for ISLA talked
about in this chapter, it is understood that future additional research based on this
dissertation could further aide the instructional development of planning lesson units to
the type o f learning opportunities (cooperative, exploratory, non-linear, and critical
thinking skills) that elementary school students could use within the ISLA archive to
perm it them to complete the unit from the lowest level o f conceptual com plexity to
increasingly more complicated permutations. It has been suggested that the ISLA archive
continue to develop new models for elementary school usage which would delineate
further a system of hierarchical benchmarks of standards-based performance assessments
of skills levels of ability regarding (1) com puter skills, (2) Internet skills, or (3) some
kind o f new on-line visual model of ISLA. In addition, future studies could concentrate
on how to design an instructional segment that is a potential model for exercising further
technological capabilities, consistent with our understanding of how learning occurs in
teaching higher level thinking skills associated with contemporary instructional standards
in geography.
171
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APPENDIX A:
Consent Form
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Page 1
CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE IN STUDY
Interfacing With a Digital Archive (ISLA)
in Enhancing Elementary School Geography
Instruction and Learning
You are asked to participate in a design study conducted by Rex O. Patton and Edward
Kazlauskas, from the School of Education at the University of Southern California. The
results will contribute toward the completion of Mr. Patton’s doctoral dissertation. You
were selected as a possible participant in this study because you work as a public
elementary school teacher and have expertise in curricula design and the Internet.
Purpose of the Study
This design study is designed to obtain your opinions and recommendations regarding
how a digital archive, Information Systems for Los Angeles (“ISLA”), can be integrated
into a geography unit (5 lessons) through analysis of usability, standard w eb-site
evaluation criteria, relationship to geography curriculum standards, and the type of
learning opportunities (cooperative, exploratory, non-linear, and higher-order thinking
skills).
Procedures
If you volunteer to participate in this study, there will be a three-hour training on ISLA in
the computer lab at USC on January 6, 2000. In addition, you agree to participate in
three discussion forums with the other 5 teachers involved regarding the preparation a
five-lesson unit combining geography and ISLA and the answering of the questionnaire
entitled “ISLA and Geography/ESL Lesson Plans and Written Follow-up.
Risks and Confidentiality
Subjects will be placed in no potentially dangerous, harmful, or embarrassing situations,
nor will they be asked to answer any harmful or embarrassing questions. W hatever
responses subjects make will be anonymous — their identities will not be associated or
retrievable from any published report or file maintained by the researcher. No deception
of any kind will be used.
Benefits
The results of this design study will provide insight into how best to develop instructional
curricula approaches in geography in conjunction with ISLA, along with assessm ent
approaches, that can be used to improve instructional objectives in geography in the
classroom and beyond.
USC UPIRB #00-02-06
Expiration Date: _______
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Page 2
Payment
There will be a small stipend of approximately $200 for participation in this study
payable by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part o f a grant. Also, please
check and initial below to indicate if you would like to receive the final results of the
study.
Yes, please send me general information and/or study conclusions.
No, I do not request study results.
Identification of Investigators
If you have questions or concerns about this design study, please contact Rex O. Patton at
(626) 583-8991.
Rights of Research Subjects. You can discontinue participation without penalty.
You are not waiving any legal claims, rights or remedies because of your participation in
this study. If you have questions regarding your rights as a participant, contact the Office
of the Vice Provost for Research, Bovard Administration Building, Room 300, Los
Angeles, CA 90089-4019, (213) 740-6709.
Participant’s Signature
I understand the procedures described above. My questions have been answered to my
satisfaction, and I agree to participate in this study. I have been given a copy of this
form.
Name of Participant
Signature o f Participant Date
Investigator’s Signature
I have explained the study to the participant and answered all questions. I believe that
he/she understands the information described in this docum ent and freely consents to
participate.
______ Rex O. Patton_______
Name of Investigator
Signature of Investigator
USC UPIRB #00-02-068
Expiration Date: _____
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Date (must be the same
as subject’s)
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APPENDIX B:
Pre-Screening Questionnaire
(Assessing Teachers’ Use of Technology
and Technology Use Survey)
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Assessing Teachers’ Use of Technology
Congratulations! O ver the past several years you have increased the am ount of
technology available in your schools for use by teachers and students. You have
recognized the need to integrate informational technologies throughout instruction,
focusing on applications that promote problem-solving, communication, and higher order
thinking skills. Students appear to be using technology when it is available, and if it is
encouraged. You have provided opportunities for teachers to become familiar with the
basic concepts of the technology, and learn how to use a variety of programs to promote
learning. And yet you also see some discrepancies among the staffs level of integration.
Some teachers are trailblazers - leading the way, while others are still reluctant to
incorporate even basic technologies within the curriculum. How are you going to assess
their use of technology in an effective manner? And, where should you start?
Which came first?
Computers in the Classroom?
Or
_____________Computer Training Sessions for Teachers?_____________
Which should come first?
Computers in the Classroom?
Computer Training Sessions for Teachers?
District Technology Plan?
School Technology Plan?
_____________ Assessment of Teacher Technology Skills?_____________
Think back to early in your education, to a time when you had to deal with the five W ’s.
Who?, What?, When?, Where?, Why? And How? Giving some thought to the answers to
these very basic questions will lead YOU to establishing some fundamental approaches to
assessing the technology proficiencies of your staff. You may feel somewhat uncom
fortable in having to do this additional technology assessm ent. There are many
guidelines and rubrics that will help you in this process. You do not have to be an expert
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on using technology yourself to recognize that a teacher is integrating the technology
well. Keep in mind that you are concerned about the overall effectiveness of the teacher
in the classroom, not just how well the technology is used.
The current focus across our country is on performance accountability in all areas. It is
odd that we would isolate one area - instructional technology. When have we focused on
the effective use of chalkboards or worksheets in isolation? Policy makers, particularly
school board members, have invested millions of dollars in instructional technology and
are now asking for data to support the cost of their investments. One approach is to
identify how effectively our teachers are using the technology. According to Jamie
McKenzie in “Gauging Return on Investment: Assessing Professional Growth in Skill
and Use,” w hich appeared in e-School News, July/August 1998, we need to know what is
working, what is not working, and what needs changing. Just placing technology into the
classrooms o f any school will not guarantee successful results. Linda Roberts, director of
the Office o f Educational Technology for the Departm ent of Education, stresses the
important o f assessment in an article which appeared in the New York Times.
http://www.nvtimes.com/library/tech/98/04/cvber/articles/27education.htm
The key concept we m ust focus on is effective use, not just use, of technology.
According to Christopher Moersch, “the great myth is that faster, cheaper, and more
abundant com puters will somehow produce systematic change in the classroom or
significantly increase student achievement.” In fact, if we want to utilize technology to
make a difference, the change needs to start with teachers and NOT with technology. We
must integrate technology authentically as a tool rather than as the subject o f learning.
Students m ust be actively involved in gathering information, analyzing data, and using
their information to become responsible and socially-conscious citizens.
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Assessing Teachers’ Use of Technology
Who and What will you assess?
Most likely, all staff members must receive some form of evaluation every year. If not,
there is no way to provide feedback to them that will encourage growth and development.
You are trying to promote new learning environments in your schools that include:
Student centers activity Multisensory learning
Multimedia Collaboration
Information exchange Active/exploratory/inquiry based activity
Critical thinking Informed decision making
If technology use can encourage the attainment of these technologies, what skills must
the teachers possess, and how can we assess these skills? In doing some research you
will discover that you need not start from scratch. Many recognized leaders and
organizations have prepared guidelines which you can use as is, or modify as you
develop your own standards.
The International Society of Technology in Education has developed a foundation set of
standards for assessing instructional personnel. Their model, presented here, can be
found at: http://www.iste.oro/
Foundations. The ISTE Foundation Standard reflect professional studies in education
that provide fundamental concepts and skills for applying inform ation technology in
educational settings. All candidates seeking initial certification or endorsements in
teacher preparation program s should have opportunities to m eet the educational
technology foundation’s standards.
A. Basic Computer/Technology Operations and Concepts. Candidates will use
com puter system s-run software; to access, generate and m anipulate data; and to
publish reports. They will also evaluate performance o f hardware and software
com ponents o f com puter systems and apply basic troubleshooting strategies as
needed.
1. operate a multimedia computer system with related peripheral devices to
successfully install and use a variety of software packages.
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2. use terminology related to computers and technology appropriately in written and
oral communications.
3. describe and im plem ent basic troubleshooting techniques for m ultim edia
computer systems with related peripheral devices.
4. use imaging devices such as scanner, digital cameras, and/or video cameras with
computer systems and software.
5. dem onstrate know ledge of uses of com puters and technology in business,
industry, and society.
B. Personal and Professional Use of Technology. Candidates will apply tools for
enhancing their own professional growth and productivity. They will use technology
in com municating, collaborating, conducting research, and solving problems. In
addition, they will play and participate in activities that encourage lifelong learning
and will promote equitable, ethical, and legal use of computer/technology resources.
1 . use productivity tools for word processing, database m anagem ent, and
spreadsheet applications.
2. apply productivity tools for creating multimedia presentations.
3 . use com puter-based technologies including telecom m unications to assess
information and enhance personal and professional productivity.
4. use com puters to support problem solving, data collection, inform ation
management, communications, presentations, and decision making.
5. demonstrate awareness of resources for adaptive assistive devices for student with
special needs.
6. demonstrate knowledge of equity, ethics, legal, and human issues concerning use
of computers and technology.
7. identify com puter and related technology resources for facilitating lifelong
learning and emerging roles of the learner and the educator.
8 . observe dem onstrations or uses o f broadcast instruction, audio/video
conferencing, and other distance learning applications.
C. Application of Technology in Instruction. Candidates will apply computers and
related technologies to support instruction in their grade level and subject areas. They
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must plan and deliver instructional units that integrate a variety o f software,
applications, and learning tools. Lessons developed must reflect effective grouping
and assessment strategies for diverse populations.
1. explore, evaluate, and use computer/technology resources including applications,
tools, educational software, and associated documentation.
2. describe current instructional principles, research, and appropriate assessm ent
practices as related to the use of computers and technology resources in the
curriculum.
3 . D esign, deliver, and assess student learning activities th at integrate
computers/technology for a variety of student group strategies and for diverse
student populations.
4. Design student learning activities that foster equitable, ethical, and legal use o f
technology for students.
5 . Practice responsible, ethical and legal use of technology, inform ation, and
software resources.
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Assessing Teachers’ Use of Technology
Take a few minutes now and assess your own technology skills.
Technology Use Survey
Name___________________________________________________________
Subject Teaching ______________________________________
Grade Level ______________________________________
Email___________________________________________________________
I. Do you have a computer at home? If yes, what kind?
Y es PC/Clone
No ____ Mac
II. Help us plan for Technology Staff Development for you — please check all that
apply.
Never
Used
Use
Occasionally
Use
Regularly
Use W ith
Students
Can
Teach
Macintosh Computer
PC or IBM Clone
Word Processing
Spreadsheets
Databases
Graphics/Art
Email
Internet
Presentation Program
Instructional TV
Video Presentation
Multimedia Programs
Web Authoring
Other:
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Assessing Teachers’ Use of Technology
III. List technology you use:
IV. List technology you would like training on:
V. List any dreams/hopes/wishes you have for technology use in your classroom:
VI. List any concerns or obstacles that you may keep your dreams from happening:
If you need to, you can write additional comments here:
Computer Strategies, LLC 1999, all rights reserved
With a fundamental set of guidelines you are ready to begin sharing the vision with your
staff members. You will quickly discover that there will be a variety of reactions once
teachers know they will be assessed on their use of technology. Y ou’ll have those who
welcome the opportunity to demonstrate their proficiencies, and you will have the other
extreme, those who will almost take the option to retire, rather than invest the time and
energy required to learn what they consider to be just a fad.
As you walk through your school you peer into some classroom s and see students
working on a com puter to solve a problem; ... or you see the com puter rolled “back
behind the teacher’s desk” where it can be used for teacher productivity, but rarely is
exposed to student fingers; or you see it placed up against the wall, with books and bags
piled high upon it, cold to the touch, and a two inch layer of dust accumulating rapidly.
Are these teachers ineffective, or are they just lacking in training and confidence?
As Moersch began to develop his theories on the im pact o f technology on learning, he
created an instrument designed to identify the levels of technology integration within the
classroom. It is called LoTi, Levels of Technology Implementation: A Framework
for Measuring Technology Use, and was published by Learning and Leading with
Technology in November, 1995. His concepts are applicable today. The stages are
shown in the following table:
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Assessing Teachers9 Use of Technology
Levels of Technology Implementation
Level Category Description
0 Non-Use A perceived lack o f access to technology-based tools or a lack of time
to pursue electronic technology implementation. Existing technology
is predominately text-based (e.g., ditto sheets, chalkboard, overhead
projector).
1 Awareness The use of com puters is generally one step removed from the
classroom teacher (e.g., integrated learning system labs, special
computer-based pull-out programs, computer literacy classes, central
word processing labs). Computer-based applications have little or no
relevance to the teacher’s instructional program.
2 Exploration Technology-based tools serve as a supplem ent to the existing
instructional program (e.g., tutorials, educational games, simulations).
The electronic technology is employed either as extension activities
or as enrichment exercises to the instructional program.
3 Infusion Technology-based tools including databases, spreadsheets, graphing
packages, probes, calculators, multim edia applications, desktop
publishing, and telecommunications augment selected instructional
events (e.g., science kit experiments using spreadsheets/graphs to
analyze results, telecommunications activity involving data sharing
among schools).
4 Integration
(Mechanical)
Technology-based tools are integrated in a mechanical manner that
provides rich context for students understanding of the pertinent
concepts, themes, and processes. Heavy reliance is placed on
prepackaged materials and sequential charts that aid the teacher in the
daily operation of their instructional curriculum. Technology (e.g.,
multimedia, telecom m unications, databases, spreadsheets, word
processing) is perceived as a tool to identify and solve authentic
problems relating to an overall theme or concept.
4B Integration
(Routine)
Teachers can readily create Level 4 (Integrated Units) with little
intervention from outside resources.
5 Expansion Technology access is extended beyond the classroom. Classroom
teachers actively elicit technology applications and networking from
business enterprises, governmental agencies (e.g., connecting NASA
to establish a link to an orbiting space shuttle via INTERNET,
research institutions, and universities expand student experience
directed at problem-solving, issues resolution, and student activism
surrounding a major theme/concept.
6 Refinement Technology is perceived as a process, produce (e.g, invention, patent,
new software design), and tool toward students solving authentic
problems related to an identified “real-world” problem or issue.
Technology, in this context, provides a seamless m edium for
information queries, problem-solving, and/or product development.
Students have ready access to and a complete understanding of a vast
array of technology-based tools to accomplish any particular task.
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Assessing Teachers’ Use of Technology
The major goal of assessment is to improve performance. Many of today’s educators
have not had pre-service training in the use of instructional technology. In fact, it has
only been within the last six years that educators have begun to use technology
effectively in classroom instruction. Recognize that every teacher has a different set of
specific technology skills, attitudes, and confidences. These factors will dictate certain
parameters in your assessment model, while fostering growth at the individual level.
Steps to Improving Technology Integration
• Do not assess teachers before you have a plan in place!
• Start with your entire faculty working together to establish a plan for integrating
technology into the instructional program.
• Identify the specific skills appropriate for each grade or cluster level.
• Set a growth goal for the entire school. (Consider participating in the activities
and using the materials available through the Computer Learning Foundation).
• Provide staff members with self-assessment instruments.
• Encourage staff members to set personal goals for themselves.
• Request Professional Growth Plans in Technology from each staff member.
• Provide a variety of professional development opportunities for staff members.
• Investigate the use of students and programs such as STLP, SWAT or Generation
Why to help teachers become more comfortable with technology.**
• Be cautious how you “overuse” your technology leaders, and allow your entry-
level staff to remain passive to the adoption of technology.
• Recognize teachers who make significant growth at any and all levels.
• Place emphasis on integration within the curriculum, rather than isolating the
technology component to a separate time and place.
• Agree to review the status of the faculty two or three times throughout the year.
• If possible, provide technical support on site. There is nothing which will
discourage the use o f technology more quickly than having it break down when a
teacher has worked hard to incorporate it into a lesson. And this W ILL happen!
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Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow has designed an excellent rubric for teachers and their
use of technology. The ACOT program established 5 levels o f Technology Integration
Proficiency: Entry, Adoption, Adaptation, Appropriation, and Invention. This rubric
delineates the categories in which teachers can display technology proficiency.
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Name__________________________________ Position_______________________ ___ School______________________
Technology Integration Proficiency
In each column mark the number of the phrase that best describes your integration of technology with your teaching.
Levels Teacher Usage with
Students
Teacher Planning Teacher
Understanding
Scope and
Sequence
Teacher
Participation
Never uses technology with
students
Does not plan before using
technology
Teacher has no desire
to learn or understand
technology
Does not use the MB
scope and sequence
No teacher participation
0 0 0 0 0
Entry Rarely schedules time for
students to work on
computers
Free choice or student
directed activities only
Teacher struggles to
cope with technology
Teacher teaches a few
scope and sequence
activities
Minimal teacher
involvement
1 1 1 1 1
Adoption Assigns students to work on
computers on a regular basis
Teacher plans and
practices lessons in
advance
Teacher successfully
uses technology at a
basic level
Teacher uses scope and
sequence skills in
isolation
Teacher takes active role
in instruction of
technology related lessons
2 2 2 2 2
Adaptation Encourages ALL students to
utilize technology in the
classroom
Technology gets integrated
into the traditional
classroom practices
Teacher begins to
experiment with new
technology
Teacher implements all
appropriate scope and
sequence skills
Teacher does minimum of
one curriculum related
technology project with
students per year
3 3 3 3 3
Appropriation Teacher routinely integrates
technology in classroom
and/or lab
Teacher plans appropriate
use for technology
Teacher understands
technology
Teacher integrates the
scope and sequence
skills into the curriculum
Teacher does numerous
curriculum related
projects with students
4 4 4 4 4
Invention Teachers design and
implement new environ
ments utilizing technology
New instructional patterns
emerge from the use of
technology
Teacher constantly
experiments with
new technology
Teacher creates an
environment where
technology is used
effortlessly as a tool
Teachers go beyond
existing models for tech
nology usage and assumes
risks to take advantage of
the technology
5 5 5 5 5
VO
Assessing Teachers’ Use of Technology
California Technology Assistance Project
Technology-Based Performance Standards For Educators
I. LEVEL ONE: PERSONAL PROFICIENCY
II. LEVEL TWO: INSTRUCTIONAL PROFICIENCY
III. MENTOR PROFICIENCY
IV. LEADERSHIP PROFICIENCY
I. LEVEL ONE: PERSONAL PROFICIENCY
OBJECTIVE: Ensure educators are able to (1) use a computer to enhance personal
productivity, (2) locate information and conduct research via the Intemet/World W ide
Web, and (3) operate a variety o f common media display devices.
A. PERFOROMANCE STANDARDS: The educator is able to:
1. Activate a personal computer and load software from a disk and/or CD-
ROM;
2. Access and use a word processing application to create and edit a
document, save it for future retrieval, and print it;
3. Use a desktop publishing, graphics, or “banner-maker” application to
create a banner or hand-out which contains a “clip art” or original graphic
element;
4. Access and use a spreadsheet and/or file management application to
create, edit, save, and update class records such as attendance, student test
and assignment scores, and associated notations and memoranda;
5. Access the Internet/W orld Wide Web on a dial-up basis or via a school
Local Area Network and use a search tool to locate information relevant to
his/her personal interests;
6. Send and reply to Email messages; and
7. Use an overhead projector, VCR, laser/video disk player, LCD panel, and
other common display tools.
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Assessing Teachers’ Use of Technology
B. INITIAL ASSESSMENT: Educators may demonstrate their mastery o f Level
One skills via:
1. Possession of a college/university degree from an institution which the
Commission on Teacher Credentialing has certified as having had in
effect, at the time of award, graduation requirements which equal or
exceed the above skills; or
2 . Passing a skills test approved by the appropriate credentialing
commission.
C. ONGOING ASSESSMENT: Once an educator has been initially certified as
mastering Level One (Personal Proficiency) skills, the appropriate and effective
use of these skills will be incorporated into the framework of his/her periodic
performance assessments.
II. LEVEL TWO: INSTRUCTIONAL PROFICIENCY
OBJECTIVE: Ensure educators are able to apply education technology skills (of at least
Level One proficiency) to (1) “customize course work so as to enhance its perceived
relevance and value to a wider range o f learning styles and abilities; (2) increase student
involvement in their personal learning experience; and (3) gain greater freedom to spend
increased personal time with those students who most require it.
A . PERFORM ANCE STANDARDS: In addition to demonstrating Level One
Personal Proficiency, the educator is able to:
1. Locate or develop Internet-based learning exercises and/or research
projects relevant to lesson plans, and incorporate them into course
curricula;
2. Be familiar with and able to use a variety of pre-structured courseware,
pre-recorded video/laser disk, instructional television, special skill-
developm ent aids, and similar education technology/teaching tools
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specific to their personal grade level and/or subject area focus as well as
student readiness;
3. Use basic troubleshooting resources and/or diagnostics to isolate system
performance problems to the terminal device (including internally-resident
software) or display equipment vs. the transmission media/network; and
4 . Coach students on the im portance of life-long learning from the
perspective of obviating knowledge/skill obsolescence and m aintaining
em ploym ent viability, and the vital role in that regard o f inform ation
systems literacy in addition to language literacy.
5. Identify issues involved in the access to, use, and control of com puter-
based technologies, including:
(a) the potential for positive and negative impacts of com puter-based
technology upon children, parents and teachers in the school, the
home, and the larger society;
(b) moral, legal and ethical issues which arise as a result o f using
computer-based technology; and
(c) economic and social implications, including the need to provide
equitable access to the benefits of technology.
B. INITIAL ASSESSMENT: Teachers’ mastery of standards “ 1” , “2” and “ 3”,
above, may be dem onstrated by subm ission of a w ork portfolio to the
Commission on Teacher Credentialing, or an alternate assessment body named
the Com m ission. Mastery of standard “4” can only be dem onstrated in a
classroom setting, hence there will be no initial assessment for this proficiency.
C. ONGOING ASSESSMENT: Teachers’ application of instructional proficiency
will be incorporated into the mechanism used by administrators to evaluate and
coach ongoing teacher performance effectiveness. A dm inistrators w ithout
instructional responsibilities may not need to be assessed directly for their
mastery o f these skills, but without at least a strong appreciation of instructional
proficiency an administrator’s ability to be an effective change agent and reform
leader will be greatly impeded.
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Assessing Teachers’ Use of Technology
III. MENTOR PROFICIENCY
OBJECTIVE: Facilitate the attainm ent o f Personal Proficiency (Level One) and
Instructional Proficiency (Level Two) among all current educators, via the tutelage of
peer teaching professionals which exhibit role model proficiency in the use of education
technology, and which use those skills pursuant to site level staff development workshops
and local peer-to-peer mentoring.
A. PERFORMANCE STANDARDS: The educator:
1. Consistently dem onstrates Instructional Proficiency (Level Two) in
his/her personal teaching/coaching responsibilities;
2. Produces and/or adapts lesson plans and presentations which use a variety
of technology tools and media to advance the learning, understanding,
and general acceptance of the value of education technology;
3. Is acknowledged by peers as a role model educator who consistently
m eets the highest standards o f teaching/coaching effectiveness,
technology notwithstanding;
4. Is sufficiently proficient in the use of education technology tools and
associated teaching techniques that he/she is able to instruct others in their
application, and coach them to the attainment of Instructional Proficiency;
and
5. Actively utilizes these skills in a mentoring capacity with other teachers.
B. ASSESSMENT: Mentoring proficiency and associated effectiveness can only be
assessed through practical observation by those with similar proficiency, and/or
the communication of fellow educators who are benefiting/have benefited from
the mentor’s efforts.
IV. LEADERSHIP PROFICIENCY
A. OBJECTIVE: Expand the proportion o f educators that possess superior knowledge,
skill, and inclination, vis-a-vis the application of education technology to enhanced
teaching and learning on an institution-wide basis, that they are able to:
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Assessing Teachers’ Use of Technology
1. Assist in the development and implementation of institutional technology
plans;
2. Assist site, district, and/or county office of education adm inistrative
support personnel in the on-going management of network platform s,
including local troubleshooting, user assistance services, and W eb site
programming and management; and
3. Serve as a credible public advocate, within the education community as
well as externally which can help advance the overall acceptance o f and
willingness to financially support the integration of appropriate levels of
technological teaching/learning aids into all curricula, in all classrooms,
for all students.
B. PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS: The educator or stakeholder:
1 . Possesses superior knowledge and application skills in the use of a wide variety of
education technology alternatives - hardware as well as software - and is able to
apply this ability to add significant value to the process of determining which
systems, platforms, and/or media present the best cost-benefit coefficient in terms
of the overall academic, administrative and stakeholder needs of the institution as
a whole;
2. Consistently demonstrates the propensity and ability to effectively communicate
to a wide range of audiences the importance and value of education technology
vis-a-vis the continuous improvement o f education and life-long learning for all
segments of the community at large.
Note: Leadership Proficiency is a recognition category, not a job classification.
Accordingly, standards has been replaced by expectations. Similarly, as with other forms
of leadership, there is no means of assessing proficiency except via the observation of
actual results.
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APPENDIX C
ISLA and Geography/ESL
Lesson Plans
And Written Follow-up
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ISLA and Geography/ESL
Lesson Plans
and Written Follow-up
After preparing a unit of five lesson plans and trying them out in your
classrooms regarding geography and/or ESL with regard to ISLA, please include your
thoughts/views/opinions on the following:
1. The five national skills in geography are (1) asking geographic questions, (2)
acquiring geographic information, (3) organizing geographic information, (4) analyzing
geographic information, and (5) answering geographic questions. How does ISLA help
students do this?
2. After looking at the 18 national geography standards attached, how does ISLA
help students attain these standards?
3. Your analysis of general usability of ISLA in the classroom?
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4. Your ability to integrate ISLA into the curriculum?
5. Your relationship of ISLA to curriculum standards?
6. Does ISLA provide learning opportunities such as cooperative, exploratory, non
linear, etc.?
7. Does ISLA promote higher order thinking skills (problem-solving skills)?
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8. Regarding an evaluation of ISLA, how do you (teachers) view ISLA with regard
to student learning and student outcomes?
9. How does ISLA support a constructivist epistemology wherein students are able
to construct their own knowledge as opposed to merely being presented with material?
10. Can students tailor their own learning environments?
11. Does ISLA support a range of strategies that different students might employ?
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12. W hat viable role does the instructor play when ISLA is employed? Does ISLA
encourage and support instructor mentoring and coaching behaviors?
13. How intrinsically motivating for students is ISLA?
14. Is there enough structure in ISLA to avoid confusing students yet enough freedom
to promote individual learning?
15. Are students engaged in creating and representing knowledge in ISLA?
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16. Is there enough structure in ISLA to avoid confusing students yet enough freedom
to promote individual learning?
17. What is the effect of ISLA on group and individual effectiveness outcomes,
including such outcomes as performance, attitude, and behavior in such areas as time-to-
complete-task, cohesion, and self-perception o f performance?
18. To what extent do you feel that ISLA improves learning?
19. Please make any further comments that you feel are important to be included in a
study o f this nature?
208
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Asset Metadata

Creator Patton, Rex Owen (author)

Core Title Interfacing with a digital archive (ISLA) in enhancing elementary school geography instruction and learning

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Education

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Education, Social Sciences,education, technology of,information science,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Advisor Kazlauskas, Edward (committee chair), Baker, Robert (committee member), Gothold, Stuart (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-178419

Unique identifier UC11339056

Identifier 3054894.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-178419 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 3054894.pdf

Dmrecord 178419

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Patton, Rex Owen

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA