Online Direct Democracy

Online Direct Democracy

   

Never knew they existed.
They look like a very interesting idea with existing infrastructure.
Perhaps such "every issue" engagement and the complexity of bills and supporting information would exhaust informed participation.
But even if it degenerated a bit into "Not enough time, so i will just follow X's advice", it could still make politicians far more responsive to the direct and immediate will of the people.
I believe that it is impossible legally to bind any politician's vote on any issue, so a rogue politician who refused to follow a democratic decision would survive until the next election - just as they do now.

Google Books

Opposing Google Books is like oppositing traditional local Libraries. Libraries provide access to books without the authors consent and payment for this access is acheived by distributing money to authors from a fund. Unlike local libraries, there will be little need to throw away the past when shelves fill; most books on the planet will be on one database; users can search inside books for the information they want; there can be a direct link to purchase.  What more do publishers want ???

Stephen Digby

The future of quality journalism

The future of journalism is assured but it is an online Babel with a nearly indistinguishable continua from paid to unpaid; from objective to propagandistic; from balanced to fanatical; from truth to lies. We will not be losing quality journalism. Already, publically funded organizations like Wikipedia are attempting to provide facts on which to judge many “stories”, and a blogosphere provides us with unlimited editorial. What we have substantially lost already is quality editors. Editors should be the gatekeepers that shape and select the news that will be given the credibility of being printed below a masthead. Over past decades in Australian newspapers, we have seen these editors replaced again and again in a search for the most malleable, or the most likely to ensure a consistent “line” is followed. A captive culture had only 1,2 or 3 papers to choose from, and so they survived, not because they were great, but, like political parties, because they were the best of a bad lot, and whether you liked them or not, they defined discussion within the culture. Now the internet has opened the gates, and readers are voting with their clicks. The demise of newspapers is merely one aspect of the larger international trend towards cultural fragmentation. The internet is only one of many enabling forces that are amplifying this trend. Wikipedia is the most famous attempt to broker a new editorial internationalism – strictly limited to factual reporting. Perhaps, the ‘bad press”, it receives contains some jealousy that it may just be a model for the future of the press in Babel.

Stephen Digby

Porn Filters Ineffective at School or Home

The Australian Government seems to be hell-bent on wasting money on an ineffective home and ISP filter systems which are very likely to be bypassed easily by simple strategies including the huge and growing number of "anonymous proxy" sites.
These sites provide a window within a window. The school, home or government computer registers that the user has gone to the proxy site..... and stayed there. The inner window then allows the user to go anywhere, look at anything without any trace.....
As in so many areas of law enforcement (in or outside school), the only real deterrent is a "climate of fear" regarding severe and public punishment for offenders caught by traditional methods - surveillance, informers, mistakes by the perp (e.g. storing images on local machines for later viewing).

Stephen Digby

National curriculum materials needed - not vague objectives

When teachers choose a curriculum to place on the school booklist, they look for a coherent sequence of activity descriptions that match a set of curriculum objectives and include a variety of student materials as well as teaching ideas and assessment tools. This curriculum often includes a printed text, a digital version of the text on a CD-ROM along with a wide variety of other support and stimulus material, a website updated with continuing support materials and ideas sometimes shared amongst a group of teachers using the same resources. When governments argue about curriculum, they mean a sequenced set of vague teaching objectives. For example, the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) at its most detailed provides “progression points” to guide teachers: ICT Level 4.5: “identification and analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of decisions made and actions taken when solving problems and developing understandings using ICT tools”. The statements in such curricula are so vague even in context that they of virtually no use to teachers. In Victoria, teachers and schools have been distracted from high quality curricula for decades by repeated government exhortation to rebuild around a fresh new “curriculum framework”. Publishers, who need to deliver materials useful in classrooms if they want to sell anything, end up rehashing rather than rewriting. They know that the next big change is probably only months away. If you really want to develop consistent high quality educational practice across Australia, just ask State Governments to provide lists of the published classroom curriculum materials that they recommended for their schools. If they can’t provide such a list, I would ask them why ! Then, continuously publish information on the number of schools using each such resource. If and when consensus grows across the nation through the choice of individual schools, it would be seen in these patterns of use. Such a consensus would have far faster and far more powerful effect on parents and teachers than the outcome of any meeting of national boffins and politicians. But please, please - don’t spend years, dollars and precious effort arguing over vague curriculum statements that may never significantly influence classrooms – as we continue to do in Victoria.

Stephen Digby

IT, ICT, LT - Where do they fit in education ?

"Information Technology (IT)" and "Information and Communications Technology (ICT)" refer to a "discipline". i.e. a coherent section of the taxonomy of human knowledge mirrored by separate university departments and dedicated sections of many businesses as well as being the focus of a rather large industry.
"Learning Technology (LT)" refers to a service provided to disciplines (like the library or does anyone remember the AVRB ?) where skills and knowledge are provided to students and teachers so that they can achieve higher standards. The skills and knowledge themselves are usually NOT the core business.
The problem/ confusion/ angst etc. arise from the fact that being both continuously novel and ubiquitous, technology BECOMES part of core business in all subjects. We are talking about "information" technologies (which automatically include the unnecessary fashionable "C" tag) for the past 50 years. We may well be talking about biotech in the next 100 (Would we still call them computers if they lived inside us ?)
In maths, computer solution of algebra is not only an accepted part of modern academic proofs, but also required for students to be competitive. Just as effective use of the Kay & Laby Log Tables, or a slide rule, or a compass and rule were in olden times.
The problem/ confusion/ angst etc. arise from the fact that the technology is so new that it is only partly differentiated. Currently, a very large number of applications is served by a single type of physical machine. This encouraged centralization of resources as the most efficient way of serving multiple needs (central shared computer rooms are cheaper than duplication and specialization around the school).
As equipment differentiates to meet special needs AND becomes more and more frequently required in each study, we have had a management move to "pods" as a more efficient way of getting technology close to the learner as well as attempting to force teachers to allow more student autonomy (movement and self-directed study).
This trend will increase until computers are in high numbers in all classrooms and/or in personal possession of all students.

Where does this leave "IT teachers" ? As IT resources grow, there will be an increasing need for teachers to be encouraged and assisted to use them effectively. There is "technical coaching" (efficient use regardless of purpose) and "educational coaching" (effective use for education). These coaching approaches should always be combined. Otherwise techs can end up as teachers aides actually slowing skill development ("why learn how to use the projector, when I can get a tech anytime I need one ?").
Thus IT teachers should fulfill roles like many other curriculum specialists in trailblazing, providing on site formal PD, but MOST importantly, providing on site assistance at the point of readiness to any teacher needing help and guidance in effective educational use of the technology. Without this approach, we will continue down the path of abuse that has virtually killed the reputation of the "video" as an educational aide. Remember, technological power has no relationship to application - I remember the TV being introduced to Australia as a wonderful medium for the education of all Australians ! The internet has already duplicated this level of intellectual corruption. i.e. "IT specialist" should become an extra "tag" in schools that recognizes (and rewards ?) teachers who can provide on site advice and PD in particular educational techniques and technologies.

VELs has placed "ICT" very firmly as "Interdisciplinary" i.e. NOT a discipline. VEL's has merged the 1980's tags of "Learning With" (open ended learning tool); "Learning About" (study of IT as a formal discipline) and "Learning From" (computer based learning packages - mainly sold privately to parents these days). Thus, the subject looks intellectually vague and subservient to "real" disciplines. Even at VCE, the subject continues to be a mix of historical demands to provide training for the workforce cf. education for the citizen (these are VERY different concepts still hard fought even after the demise of Tech schools, the rise of TAFE and VET and now CAL).

I believe that IT teachers should continue to promote the study of IT as a discipline. But, here the current courses are far more problematic. Many of them have been justifiably criticized as vehicles for the promotion of teacher skill sets. Courses are often constructed on the basis of "what am I expert in" rather than "what should student be taught". More innovative teachers have followed the course design maxim of "what do the students want to do ?" which is a basic course design question - among many.
IT course changes have been at the mercy of a number of factors: a sense of vulnerability; a growth in the desire to improve student engagement by sliding into the pit of "give them what they say they want"; the increase in middle school curriculum structures that decide on courses based on student enrolments (votes); increasing admin budgets for "tech toys" allowing courses with extreme costs per student to proceed in IT when they would not be considered in any other area; hype promoted from high levels of government that "if it is ICT, it is highly educational" (try this statement for logical comparison "if it is on TV, it is highly educational").

IT discipline courses have a CENTRAL focus on the science and technology of IT itself (see the contents list of any encyclopedia (e.g. Wikipedia). There are 100 ways to skin a cat, but an understanding of these concepts, fundamental science & technologies must be central. Otherwise, it is just learning Visual Basic for fun; or learning databases for ??; or learning PowerPoint for pretty presentations; or (more recently) learning how to make better home movies etc etc.
VCE IT is likely to survive as a useful subject for middle of the road students to get some IT skills and confidence prior to the workforce, or more able students to do a year ahead as a dry run for their year 12. Most informed teachers and careers counselors will encourage able students interested in tertiary IT qualifications to study higher maths and sciences at year 12.

The other alternative for IT teachers is in creating essential "interdisciplinary" skill sets and making the case that they are most efficiently and effectively delivered by IT teachers as a separate subject at some year level(s). I think that this may work for a short time (especially where it ties in with the needs of the timetable to maximally utilize all available staff). Sooner rather than later, the "disciplines" will want to integrate the special skills within the actual context of their use.

Virtex - A Success Story

How did this future unfold ? What could have lead to outcomes unthinkable before the 2004 election ?
The first indication that things in John Howard’s self-professed last term were not going to be just business as usual was his personal involvement in key decisions within the education portfolio. Close consultation with the minister of education was often followed by joint press conferences to emphasis the personal importance Mr. Howard placed on progress in this area.

The second surprise was in the federal control and concentration on key transformational projects rather than using state funding. These projects did not attempt to achieve change through the army or “Sir Humphrey’s” in state and even federal education bureaucracies as so many Commonwealth programs had before them. They created momentum centrally in a way that so challenged state governments, schools and teachers that nearly all realised that they needed to “get on board” to have some input. Within 18 months international bodies were either copying or joining some of the developments.

What were these projects ? How could so much rapid change come from projects remote from the classroom funding ?
For decades, commonwealth and state education authorities spent million upon million on curriculum development. Where did it go ? If you asked Australian teachers around the country in the fist years of this century, they would tell you about the mountains of guidelines, blue prints, exemplars, models, sample units that gathered dust even before they were distributed. If you asked them what they used in the classroom and they would have shown you a smorgasbord of commercial classroom materials.
The materials tried to pitch themselves somewhere near one states guidelines or another’s framework. Very few were recommended by any government. Many needed to be purchased by every school to meet the diverse needs. All came with strict legal guidelines preventing their improvement, alteration, and sharing among schools. Most publishers understandably structured their materials to prevent teachers extracting or even finding parts from within these courses. Most online materials were only accessible to those who bought access, even then, they were only designed to enhance not deliver.
If you stayed in those classrooms for more than a day, you would see that most programs were patched together “on the fly” with passionate but often chaotic creativity. In the hands of an expert in curriculum design as well classroom teaching, this worked until the teacher promoted or burnt out. These teachers were continually trumpeted as models for all. Most teachers were best at curriculum delivery and did not have the expertise, let alone the time, to develop or even select materials from the library or from the unlimited chaff left in the contracting free areas of the internet.

What did the many national projects do ? They nearly always focused on development of new resources (supposedly an easy daily task for the average teacher) with no attempt at comprehensive coverage of even one subject. Most projects aimed to create products to sell to schools as exemplars or units with consequent fame and return for the individuals and organisations that sold them. Just one more option to wade through before preparing tomorrow's lesson.

Sucked into the Virtex ! Boffins, State governments and unions agreed that a single national curriculum is too restrictive ! Perhaps fascist ! The national government was frustrated at the lack of any guarantee of classroom improvement even after with bucket loads of cash. Mr. Howard’s fourth term proved the circuit breaker when he announce the fast track development of Virtex as the mechanism of making his election promise of honest educational reporting a reality.
Virtex was going to make a national curriculum available to all students – not just guidelines, but sequenced courses of classroom activities with associated assessment and reporting standards.
The idea would incorporate any materials and their associated standards that State Governments wanted to put their name to. There was no restriction on diversity. Online storage allowed the “text” to be as large as the nation’s diversity. Yes - Sequences had to be recommended through the materials so that students and teachers knew how to cover skills, knowledge and attitude development required for the national standards - but alternatives can be easily stored for every unit of work or lesson. This would not be confusing if choice was limited to materials approved by at least one government.

State governments could produce guidelines in spades. Their problem was not wanting to be blamed for the hard choice every teacher makes every day – what lesson will I teach ! There was no problem with materials. Teachers were up to their eyeballs in curriculum resources. The problem was in choosing the materials to match the changing, vague and contradictory “guidelines”, “frameworks” and “standards”.

The Federal government took the lead. It quickly integrated all the materials under the control of a variety of QANGO’s into Virtex using EDNA as a basis. It then sought donated resources from all groups interested in quality national curricula such as subject associations and universities. Initial reluctance over loss of control (copyright on everything in Virtex is owned by the national Government) was overcome by the desire to be recognised as someone involved in setting the national standards. State governments were challenged – “Where are your materials ? Contribute them to the national database and actually help teachers. Are you sure that your imaginary state courses are better than the realities that that the federal government has openly shared ?”

Teachers and Parents voted with their mice ! As soon as the first courses of study and their associated national assessment & reporting standards were published, teachers rushed to try them out. Virtex provided real assessment instruments (e.g. tasks and tests and how to grade them) so that teachers around the nation could assess the curriculum. They couldn’t resist the desire to compare their student’s performance with the national data that was flowing in voluntarily at an increasing rate. Parents began to pressure their teachers and schools to use materials at the “national standard”. State governments found that they had to contribute to the standard or their schools would just end up following it.
Huge volumes of materials were submitted and incorporated. Courses were added more slowly as governments made the difficult decisions about what would fit and what had to be left out. Even within a single course, there were always a growing number of lesson contexts and approaches available to deliver the course objectives.

So what’s the difference ? All materials in courses must be recommended for inclusion by a government. The overwhelming bulk of materials in Virtex have yet to be integrated into any course. Many may never be. They stay there as examples of someone’s creativity - perhaps to be discovered as relevant to some future not yet visible. A much smaller price to pay than a library shelf !
Teachers are thus assured of the quality and appropriateness of any materials in courses and the acceptability of the assessment and reporting standards associated. They can concentrate on teaching to the best of their ability !!
International interest grew as commercial publishers realised that they needed to sell at least part of their materials to Virtex or lose credibility as standard bearers and money in lost sales. Indeed the government bought large collections of high quality content from publishers in part to compensate for the huge impact the initiative would have on the market for classroom materials.
Foreign governments began the process of negotiating such issues as access to the resources, the right to duplicate the database, information on the process of creation and management. Translation of materials began in some countries, local independent systems grew in most. The underlying assumption of access to accredited educational programs was recognised as a part of the international rights of the child. The United Nations became involved in the promotion of the approach and ….. the rest is history.

No one invented Virtex. It was an existing idea whose time had come. It was a demonstration of technological readiness as well as the continuing role for government in managing a liberal democracy rather than just being a passive victim of whatever product or service the market evolves.
It did take a person of power and vision to ensure that it was realised so quickly and implemented in a way that ensured more effectively than many aspects of direct school funding, that Australian children had equal access to the best educational materials in the world.

Exchange gives IT real-life context

For 36 years, Cheltenham Secondary College students have shared some friendly rivalry with their peers from Windsor Gardens Vocational College in South Australia. An annual exchange program involving students in a challenging array of academic, sporting, drama and music competitions has been hotly contested in a bid to claim the perpetual trophy. But the program is also serving up new challenges to VCE IT students whose Unit 4 Information Processing and Management (IPM) studies are bringing home the level of organisation involved in staging such an event. Cheltenham learning technologies coordinator Stephen Digby uses the program as a basis for the assessment task for Outcome 1 in the School Assessed Coursework component. Mr Digby said it was good to choose a context from students’ experience for the assessment task so that all students could quickly comprehend it. In his case, students will create a database that will be used to coordinate next year’s exchange program. Mr Digby said the task helped students meet Outcome 1 requirements of:

• Analysing a situation;
• Identifying goals;
• Developing a project management plan;
• Designing, testing and annotating a working software solution;
• Documenting how the solution should be used; and
• Evaluating how well the solution meets the goals.

The college’s IPM students will start this term with a sequence of learning activities that Mr Digby said would “mimic the assessment task in style and technical requirements, but with different contexts”.
Students will start building their skills by studying completed databases, such as MS Access ‘Wizard’ databases and others, before moving on to create their own versions of commonly used relational databases such as those used in doctors’ surgeries or for ticket sales, book and video loans. “This gives them the experience of different contexts so they have a past repertoire to draw on when faced with the assessment task,” Mr Digby said. “Students also need exposure to a repertoire of complex aspects of software so that they realise that they should search for them when learning new software in the future.” Mr Digby said the biggest challenge in Outcome 1 was providing students with enough hands-on experience so that they were motivated to learn the more theoretical aspects of the task. Mr Digby contributes IT classroom materials to the IPM teachers mailing list coordinated by Forest Hill College which teachers can join free at: www.fhc.vic.edu.au/lists
The IT study design is being reviewed by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) in recognition of rapidly changing technology, students’ increasing skill levels, new training programs and more specialised career options.
CONTACT: Stephen Digby 9555 5955 digby.stephen.p@edumail.vic.gov.au www.fhc.vic.edu.au/lists

What price the Internet ?

www.curriculum.edu.au/curriculum/eqaust/eq_00/digby.htm

EQ Australia Schools Online Winter '00

A few clicks of the mouse is all it takes to connect to the Internet. But what does it cost when, in our search for information, we're side-tracked by interesting but irrelevant websites? The Internet, warns Stephen Digby, can blow the budget

What price the Internet?
The Internet has the potential to be a very expensive item in any school's budget. The current Internet bandwidth — bandwidth is the capacity to move information down a given channel — available to most schools in Victoriais 128K baud. As 8 bits are needed to code for a character, this means that, theoretically, 16 K characters can be downloaded from the Internet per second. If the Internet were in use constantly during the school day, this could mean 6912 million bytes (Mb) could be down loaded over four weeks.

At my school, Cheltenham Secondary College, we have seen this figure rise to over 8275 Mb as staff often begin their research after students have left. Many Internet service providers (ISPs) charge download rates of around 15 cents per Mb, leading to very high bills where Internet use is high. Fortunately, schools can often negotiate special rates. This was the case at Cheltenham last year, where we were seeing a growth in Internet costs of approximately $50 per month which could have reached $500 if we had not changed our ISP.

A lot of Internet use is misdirected and wasteful. This is not the result of negligence on the part of teachers and students, but because they are coming to grips with a new technology and source of information and this necessarily involves experimentation.

Teachers are still exploring the possibilities of the Internet for themselves and their students. They have not yet become fully discriminating users. The Internet is often used for educationally trivial purposes such as finding graphics to decorate assignments. Teachers have not yet realised that merely viewing pictures and information on the Internet comes at a cost not dissimilar to that of photocopying, regardless of whether any material is saved for later use.

Internet dependence
Students increasingly consider the Internet the first (and often only) choice for information research, resulting in a focus on self-selected assignment topics that are sensational, current and marginal rather than more general and educationally important topics. This can lead to under-use of the library's book stock as well as online reference CD ROMs.

The educational content on the Internet is not equivalent to that of the texts and other resources carefully selected for inclusion in the school library. Searching the Internet for educational material is closer to searching commercial television — the medium is now as heavily commercialised as television, if not more so. Most teachers would be aghast at the suggestion that students should be allowed to watch commercial television in search of information. Yet, many students are clearly 'watching' the Internet and exercising very little discrimination in favour of educational content.

The cost of the Internet as a source of educational information is not equivalent to that of library resources such as books, journals, magazines, CD ROMs and videos. These resources are selected for their educational value, are purchased once and can then be accessed at no further cost by an unlimited number of students and teachers.

The cost structure of using the Internet is more analogous to that of using a photocopier. We need to be careful that we don't dispense with traditional library resources in favour of Internet access as this amounts to replacing a one-off capital investment with an ongoing service cost.

The added pressure on photocopying and printing that the Internet encourages also has to be considered. Students realise that if they require information from a library resource they have to make notes which is arduous but educationally beneficial; or they can photocopy material, which is not arduous but involves a cost to them; or they can scan the printed material on the library scanner and print it free of charge through the computer system; or they can find their information on the Internet or the networked CD ROMs and print this free of charge through the computer system.

The obvious cost advantages to students of using any of the Internet, the CD ROMs or the scanner combined with a free printout (rather than taking notes or paying for photocopies) can quickly lead to students over-using both the Internet and printers.

Furthermore, students can be wasteful in their use of printers attached to computers. Often, they print the full gamut of material and then search for information, rather than identifying usable information and printing only this. Some print large amounts of material unrelated to their studies. And, increasingly, teachers are setting computer-based research that is heavily dependent on printed output as a record of student work. Printer toner and paper are major costs in the learning technology budget.

Monitoring Internet use
Given the attractions of the Internet, it is not surprising that students don't confine their use of it to school studies — it is hard to resist visiting websites that might tap into strong personal interests.

We need to encourage students and teachers to keep costs in mind as they use the Internet and print. Cheltenham Secondary College, like many other schools, uses software to keep a record of all use of printers and the Internet. Use in excess of our budget prediction is charged directly to the student in the same way as we do for photocopying (and at about the same rate).

We have set a 20 Mb per student limit for each semester which represents about 300–600 pages of viewing (depending on visuals). This is more generous than it might first appear because any pages downloaded by a whole class are stored ('cached') inside the school computer and often pages can be displayed without requesting material from the Internet at all.

When a student reaches the limit, their access is closed until they pay an additional $3. This process is very time consuming and it can inconvenience teachers whose students are temporarily or semi-permanently blocked from sites which form part of a class activity. Nevertheless, it re-alerts students to the fact that the Internet access provided by the school is expensive and is to be shared equally among all students.

More effective use
In addition to 'excess download' and 'excess printing' charges, what else could be done to make the use of the Internet less costly and wasteful, more efficient and more educationally effective?

Teachers need to know about the costs of Internet access. They would also be supported in their use of the Internet by formal and informal professional development on effective ways to use it in class. Simple recommendations would help.

Research assignments should begin with an overview of sources of information — teacher lecture, quality library books and periodicals, CD ROMs — and the key words and ideas that students are looking for and what they mean in the context of the topic. This should make students' search for information more meaningful and less haphazard. If they do not know the terminology or the structure of the topic, they will miss or misinterpret search results. Unsatisfying Internet searches are common even to practised users.

When students begin their research, note taking and not just the collection of materials should be required. Note taking requires comprehension, interpretation and evaluation of material and has more educational benefit than simply copying a resource. Note taking also reduces the need to make a copy of everything that might be used in an assignment before evaluating it properly. It is most appropriately done 'by hand' for its speed and flexibility of format, it can be done while using the computer and it helps maintain writing skills that are appropriate for students still doing written exams.

Networked reference material such as resources on CD ROM should be promoted as an alternative to the Internet. It is possible to purchase perpetual licences to magazine and newspaper collections with full text (and preferably images) on CD ROM. This means students can have digital access to quality resources at the lowest cost.

In terms of guided or judicious access to the Internet, there are a number of things that can be done. Where teachers discover an Internet resource that they think is of enduring relevance to their subject and to a wide number of students, it can be downloaded to the school site and become part of a permanent collection.

Software for downloading websites can copy whole sites (particularly when they are heavily loaded with graphics) and make these available to many students for an indefinite period. It is important to remember that Internet resources, regardless of their quality, are not left online indefinitely. Good sites need to be downloaded as they are likely to 'go out of print' faster than traditional texts. (This does not mean that the information is no longer useful or valid, rather it means that the Web master at the particular site wants the space for something else.)

Where teachers want all students to have particular material from the Internet, they can save a collection of specific pages from a variety of Web locations within a single folder so that students can use these (just like the old photocopied notes we would collect). Such collections have added advantages. They can be stored on the school Intranet, instead of hidden in a personal filing cabinet. They automatically store information on when and where they were obtained so students and teachers can use them as starting points. They cost next to nothing to provide to all students — students can read them, take them home on disk or email, and all without any additional Internet or printing costs. (Where pages have quality educational content but are weighed down with advertising or material that is of low educational value, it requires some effort to 'edit' this out, though it can be done.)

Students can be provided with direct links to relevant search engines, for example links that are particular to a topic or that are within designated websites, so that distracting and low quality sites are more likely to be bypassed. Many of the best information resources on the Internet are never mentioned on any search engines. This information is stored within large databases that use database structures, CGI scripts, or some sort of user identification system. For instance, one of my favourite starting points for almost any topic is the TIME magazine archives. These articles are not mentioned on search engines.

The Internet opens up a world of information and communication to students, but it comes at a price — not only direct funding, but also training, planning and preparation. It's a price that we must be prepared to pay.

Stephen Digby is Manager, Learning Technology at Cheltenham Secondary College.

LINKS
Cheltenham Secondary College website at: http://www.cheltsec.vic.edu.au/
At this website there's a digital copy of this article, links to specific software used and recommended, as well as guide sheets for the use of the software

Why should a published spin a web ?

Reasons for an educational Publisher to invest in a Web site

General Context:

A wide range of companies in all fields have developed Web sites for a variety of reasons:

• Corporate image.
• Product advertising:
• Customer Support.

Many print publishers have Web sites which provide information mainly related to their products. For example:

• McGraw-Hill has an extensive US Web site with advertising, information, and sales offers as well as limited support for customer enquiries regarding most of its print products and its subsidiary companies (including MacMillan).
• Reed Books UK (also Secker & Warburg, Minerva paperbacks) has a large advertising site. Reed Education Australia also provides an site with information about Rigby, Heineman and other subsidiaries. It's Heineman section has subject based "pages" Heineman Maths mainly offering links to a selection of free services provided by other groups around the world.

Many companies have recognised that they need to provide attractive information at their site to ensure that people using the Web will:

• store the company's site location as a "bookmark" (5) inside their own computer software
• publish the site address on another site as a form of free recommendation
• return to the site when the possibility of more extensive "pay per view" services become possible.

Educational sites will become increasingly important:

• Education is one of the fast growing areas of Web use. It is currently a very widespread "buzzword" among students, teachers, parents, schools, and even educational systems (in particular the Victorian Government). The use of the Web (1) by schools all over the world is escalating rapidly. During the last six months that I have been searching the Web for "sites" (2), I have noticed that the number, amount of information and quality of information in this specific interest area alone has improved markedly.
  
• School communities and the government are very eager to encourage all teachers to use the Web. Use of "high" technology tools by teachers was a significant part of recent Victorian and national industrial award discussions for teachers. Teachers recognise that familiarity with the Web will enhance their career advancement within the educational system. They also recognise that they have access to materials on the Web that may not be available in other forms, and once obtained, these materials can be easily changed on computer for use with a specific student group.
  
• The potential users in schools are not limited to teachers. Students will learn to get information, services and products through exposure to use of the web at school. They will take home this knowledge and apply purchasing pressure to parents if the experience was seen to be educationally valuable and/ or enjoyable.

Reasons for an educational publisher to maintain a web site.

• Corporate image. It is an advantage to be seen by your market as a participator in new innovations such as the Web. It gives the market the sense that a company is planning for the future and therefore has a bright future. It may also give the market a sense of the companies technological competency.
  It is possible to do this at very little cost (see below) as most publishers seem to have done.
  
• Product advertising: Many businesses advertise their products extensively on the Web. The information usually includes pictures in a format similar to brochures, as well as technical specifications, product reviews and other sites. Software publishers increasingly send users, via email, a demonstration version of their software in the hope that they will begin using it, become familiar and purchase the retail version.
  Educational publishers would increasingly gain an edge in advertising if they ensured that details of their products were always available on the Web. Schools and teachers are constantly flooded with brochures about products from a large number of publishers. In many cases, these are misdirected, lost or thrown in the trash. Once a teacher has placed a bookmark for your product list in their computer, they may check it before purchasing an alternative product even when there is no brochure from you. They may request a replacement brochure or even place an order.
  
• Customer Support. Many companies use the Web initially to provide a list of services and contact numbers, business addresses and "email" (6) inquiries.
  A teacher is attracted to a product that is "supported on the Web" because it implies that they themselves are knowledgeable about how to use the Web. This subtly improves their self esteem and promotion prospects. They also get the sense that they are buying a product with an "unlimited" capacity to have value added to it through the Web.
  The levels of customer support the publisher actually chooses to provide are very flexible (see below) .
  

Levels of development in an educational publishing Web site

• Store Front. Most Web sites are merely "fronts" for corporate image. All that is needed is some interesting graphics and information lifted from current "hard copy" brochures.
  Maintenance required: Add pages for new products using similar material as hardcopy.
  
• Product Information: Customers appreciate, and may be encouraged to purchase, if provided with more detailed and technical information about products e.g. Chapter headings, sample page(s), reviews, physical size, pages, cost, distributor contacts.
  Maintenance required: Add pages for new products using similar material as hardcopy.
  
• Support related to products sold
  
  • Links to Related Information: Collect and logically group large number of links to other lists of links and information sites provided by everyone BUT your direct opposition. Novice users may think that your company actually provides these services and give the company the credit and customer loyalty. Others may just find your list useful and return there for this service rather than your products themselves, but nevertheless be exposed to advertising and have your product links available when needed.
    Most publisher web sites, I have visited are at this level of development even though some have expanded their links and product information more than others.
    Additional maintenance required: Survey Web and sift and organise some of Web sites the you feel would be useful to specific groups of your customers (i.e. a few hours a week for each category)
    
  • Materials and advice on how to best use purchased products.
    • Course outlines using your materials within a particular course, year level or government curriculum structure. Teachers can see how the product can be built into a practical course within time constraints. Many US Texts provide this and much more through their Teacher's Edition.
    • Specific links to material that complements a specific product or chapter of a product. E.g. List the main headings for a product and provide links that complement parts of particular sections.
      For instance, the Victorian Curriculum and Standards Framework is highly likely to be available on the net soon. A text with specific links to activities within that publication would have a very significant marketing edge.
      
      Both these types of support are provided in US texts through the Teacher's Eddition. Development of such a resource on the Web would put any text at a very significant advantage over the competition. A printed edition would not be profitable in Australia given the low sales volume. A Web version could attract much of the attention and praise even as it was developed. Many contributions could be elicited at low cost from teachers actually using the texts in schools. Costs to MacMillan would mainly be in terms of payment to contributors, editorial supervision and Web site maintenance.
      
    • Links or information about schools and teachers using your products. This encourages links between schools using your products which should reinforce their choice. It also gives Web users the impression that a large number of schools are using your products.
      
• General Support. Making the site an attractive resource.
  
  • Provide full text resources which are copyright free. This is being done worldwide in relation to literary works from past authors. It is possible that it could be done with material that was easily converted (or currently available) in electronic format e.g. old texts etc.
  • Provide full text resources where copyright is fully owned and cheap. This would give a great impression of generosity. Teachers would value greatly the provision of older materials that they could use as the basis for new work. Not only exercises but books on mathematics history and applicatiojns would be appreciated greatly and would contribute very greatly to the international reognition of the site.
  • Provide full text resources of limited excerpts of quality materials, so that customers may be encouraged to purchase the full product. Similar concept to the software demonstration programs currently used so commonly. it would be a great way to get materials in use, so that teachers would hear the boast "guess where I got this !".

The Future

There are only two ways that I can envisage of providing on the Web material for which the publishers wished to retain effective copyright and thus revenue.

• Subscription Services. There are many information services now provided on the Web which require a subscription payment in advance. For instance, Britannica Encyclopedia provides access to its full text as well as yearbooks and related Web links for an annual subscription of about A$200.
  This may be a very lucrative mechanism for the publication of large and frequently updated information. In fact, as printing costs compare with electronic publication, it may become uncompetitive to publish most school textbooks in hard copy (see below). Experience in Web site management can be seen as a first step in exploring a new publishing media and in positioning a company to be able to respond to a changing market.
  This system need to have built in controls over a person who attempts to use software that systematically copies the whole of the web site. In the case of Britannica, this would take some time. Other sites may limit the amount of information available in a single visit, or each month etc.
  
• "Pay per View" Publishing. There are currently no facilities that I am aware of that allow use of Web services on a pay per view basis. There have been many articles recently on the imminent introduction of this service by Microsoft and others. This system would entail secure use of credit facilities so that a user could ring, for instance Britannica Online, and ask to make a single query. A fee would be electronically charged against an Web account of some sort.
  There has been great discussion in computer magazines about the huge range of sophisticated information services that are already developed, but which will not be released to the Web until this system is in place. This has the capacity to transform publishing (as well as international banking !) overnight.
  Text books (particularly maths) could easily be early targets for this form of publishing. The material is relatively stable world wide. The size and cost of the texts themselves is increasing. The demand for individual programs and courses could be met in part by selected use of pathways through a virtual textbook. etc.
  Publishing companies need to be in a position to enter this market or they may lose it. Publishing companies have a huge asset in terms of their imprint denoting a level of quality. The Web is well known as a place with no quality control whatsoever. Nevertheless, if publishers are not in a position to enter the market then they cannot succeed in it.

The best method of protecting the viability of both these business ideas is to choose to provide data that is:

• large i.e. the value lies in the quantity and not in any specific part. A person trying to copy it all would be detected
• fragmented i.e. the material does not flow in a single fixed pattern that someone can systematically copy.
• changing i.e. the material is being added to constantly. The user is dissuaded from copying large chunks because they might be changed for the better on the next visit. The user is encouraged to return to see what has been added. The structure may also be changed sometime to defeat attempts to copy sections regularly for republication.

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Footnotes:

• (1) Web: Term generally interchangeable with the "Internet" , the "Net" or the "World Wide Web" (WWW). Thousands of computers around the world are left operating 24 hrs a day to receive calls over the telephone lines and to respond to other computers by providing information on specific topics.
• (2) These computers are called "sites". Many of these computer systems are operated by non-profit organisations such as universities, semi-government and government authorities.
• (3) Many sites charge small fees for individuals to use their connection to reach other sites. Such sites are caller "service providers". Most service providers are now commercial organisations. A growing number of free information services are provided by commercial organisations. A small but growing number of information services are accessible only by a membership number requiring a periodic fee.
• (4) Individual Web "users" can connect to the web at any time by turning on their computer system (fitted with a piece of equipment called a "modem" and software called a "browser") and using a phone line to ring up the computer of a local service provider. From this site, they can reach any other site in the world without incurring any overseas telephone charges. They pay the local provider for the duration of their connection.
• (5) Browser software can be told to remember sites worth visiting again as "bookmarks". These sites can then be reached much more quickly, easily and frequently.
• (6) Web Users can also individually send and receive information (overwhelmingly text; usually pictures; very often software; less commonly sound and video due the large time taken for transmission). This is called electronic mail or "email". Users can send requests and receive information from any other individuals or sites.

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The Author: Stephen Digby, Bachelor of Science Degree (Monash University); Diploma in Education, (Victoria College), Graduate Diploma in Computer Education (Victoria College). Stephen has worked in primary, technical and high Schools in Victoria as a teacher, computer education, maths and science consultant for 16 years. His other career experiences include managing a Computer Education Teacher Training Centre, working as a writer for the Information Technology Study of the Victorian Certificate of Education, and teaching mathematics in the USA. He is currently Maths Co-ordinator of the Castlemaine Secondary College, Victoria.

What if ???? - Virtex - an idea !

Virtex The Virtual Textbook A World First for Victoria	CSF implementation slow and patchy
The Department announced today the launching of a world first in technological curriculum support - a virtual mathematics textbook for years 7-10.	The Department announced a new series of booklets that will provide guidelines for schools to develop their own curriculum within the CSF structure.
The structure of the text "book" will build on the extensive world class curriculum publications developed by the Victorian Education Department over the last decade.	After much initial interest, the volumes of outcomes, course advice and assessment guidelines are proving to be hard to use on a day by day basis.
This idea has been made possible by the growing use of the internet for both research and publishing by schools in Victoria due to the support and encouragement of the government.
The Department recognises that the CSF curriculum structure does not provide schools with a classroom course. The CSF provides student outcomes and sequences of activity suggestions (sourced from a variety of commercial publications that schools may or may not own). Teachers still have the enormous task of selecting, collecting and transforming these ideas into actual lesson sequences.	School classroom courses have weathered the storm of many curriculum fads and fancies encouraged by successive governments. They have always been resistant to change unless it is shown to be practical and supported by the community.
The success of the CSF will be measured by the extent that is actually influences classroom teaching practice, and this is reflected in course materials actually used by schools.	Schools are finding the CSF hard to translate into classroom reality.
The Department believes that a single course cannot meet the needs of all the schools in the state. The costs of publishing a variety of courses conventionally on paper would be enormous.	Commercial publishers continue to boast CSF on their covers while only paying lip service to the real differences needed in curriculum approach and assessment practices.
Commercial publishers recognise this when they publish only general texts (easily rejigged for other state markets) with minimal course support, rather than full courses specifically tailored to the Victorian CSF.
A commercial publisher with major text sales in Victoria has been selected to provide much of the specific activity documentation in a format ready for immediate classroom use.
The Department has negotiated access to Curriculum Corporation Materials (that often had very considerable Victorian input)
Teachers can access the textbook from any school location through the internet and the school password.
International interest in the system is already high, and the Ministry will sell passwords to schools around the world so that they can also access the materials electronically.
The virtual textbook is fast developing into a more general mathematics resource - a virtual mathematics dictionary and encyclopedia. This is occurring as many teachers across the state and the world contribute materials to the system. The department and its commercial partner continue to contribute the editorial oversight and system structure.

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April 1997

Mock News Release: A World First for MacMillan

MacMillan announced today the launching of a world first in technological curriculum provision - a virtual mathematics textbook for years 7-10.

The structure of the text "book" will build on the extensive world class curriculum publications developed within the Macmillan's stable over the last decade. This idea has been made possible by the growing use of the internet for both research and publishing by schools throughout the world.

MacMillan recognises that the costs of publishing an ever growing variety of courses conventionally on paper is getting out of hand. The more fragmented the market, the less incentive for authors and publishers to provide materials.

Regardless of what resources teachers buy, they still have the enormous task of selecting, collecting and transforming these ideas into actual lesson sequences.

Government education departments in Australia and a state in the USA have agreed to subscribe to VirTex in a trial which could change the face of textbook publishing worldwide.
Teachers in participating schools can access the textbook from any school location through the internet and the school password.

International interest in the system is already high, and MacMillan will sell passwords to schools around the world so that they can also access the materials electronically. Schools will then pay a small fee per month or according to how much material they read from Virtex.

The virtual textbook is fast developing into a more general mathematics resource - a virtual mathematics lesson bank, dictionary and encyclopedia. This is occurring as many teachers across the world contribute materials to the system. Authors get paid according to the amount of material that is accepted into VirTex, and according to the number of visits to that material.

MacMillan has plans for Virtex to expand into many other curriculum areas over the near future, and is interested in hearing from contributors at any time, particularly authors of materials already published on paper.
MacMillan stated that they do not expect that the amount of paper based publication will reduce, but that the type of publication will rapidly alter, as paper resources seek to complement and extend what is available from VirTex in much the same way as, in the past, computer software used to complement and extend what was available on paper.

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Reasons for teachers to visit a Web site

• Education is one of the fast growing areas of Web use. It is currently a very widespread "buzzword" among students, teachers, parents, schools, and even educational systems (in particular the Victorian Government).
  
• School communities and the government are very eager to encourage all teachers to use the Web. Use of "high" technology tools by teachers was a significant part of recent Victorian and national industrial award discussions for teachers. Teachers recognise that familiarity with the Web will enhance their career advancement within the educational system. They also recognise that they have access to materials on the Web that may not be available in other forms, and once obtained, these materials can be easily changed on computer for use with a specific student group.
  All schools in Victoria are currently able to access the Web, and teachers are encouraged to do so by regular government publications such as "Education News".

Reasons for teachers to RETURN to a web site.

• Reference materials, lesson plans or work sheets are available. Teachers are constantly searching for reference materials that they can build into their lessons. Most reference materials have to be photocopied and accepted unchanged, or physically "cut and pasted" onto worksheets. The Web provides the possibility of collecting reference materials that can be integrated into computer based class materials in any way the teacher desires. Teachers find "freebies" virtually irresistible (almost regardless of their quality).
  
• New materials are being published regularly. A Web Site should make users well aware that it is continually "under development". There can be changes to suggested activities, contests, problems of the day/week etc. which give the feeling that a return would not be a mere repeat of a previous visit.
  
• Students can use the site. If a site has materials that can be directly used by students (e.g. worksheets, reference material in suitable format and language etc.) then it will be continually revisited as new students are introduced to it.

An effective structure for a maths web site.

• The Web site contents can be summarised easily from the minimum number of pages. I believe that most Web users get frustrated by the large number of separate pages that they must load before reaching the page they desire. It is an advantage to keep the site structure as "flat" as possible.
  
• The Web site is as similar as possible to "paper based" curriculum planning documents. Teachers will utilise the Web site more "naturally" and enthusiastically if it follows the structure of similar paper based documents.
  
• The Web site offers enhancements to curriculum linkages that are not possible on paper. There is currently a law of diminishing returns that operates with curriculum publications. The more comprehensive that they area the less accessible they become. For instance, the Mathematics Curriculum and Teaching Program (MCTP) publications are an excellent collection, but as they relate to a variety of class levels and mathematics topics, they are difficult to integrate into programs without whole scale photocopying and distribution into the relevant curriculum files. Many other publications are wasted on library reference shelves because they are too bulky or too limited in scope to carry around and refer to throughout a course.
  A Web site can develop materials that are linked to each other by the "click of a mouse" rather than the need to wade through paper to find the relevant reference (and then realise that it is not really relevant!).
  This is the most time consuming task: to categorise and cross link the resources so that the materials are intelligently cross referenced.
  A less time consuming (but less effective) method used by many Web sites is to provide a general purpose search "engine" which just lists all files which contain a keyword.
  
• The Web site provides links to outside resources. This is difficult and time consuming (especially as many resources change their directory structure or even site address from time to time). Nevertheless, links to additional resources throughout the globe is appreciated if it is specific accurate and relevant. The best example that I know of the power of this external linkage (and internal cross linkage) is, rather predictably, Britannica Online.

An Embryonic Maths Web Site - Castlemaine Secondary College

• This Web site has been developed over the last 6 months to contain as much of the administrative guidelines of the Maths Learning Area as possible. These guidelines are thus available to teachers from any location with a Web Link in the school or their homes. They can be easily edited and are more likely to become an actual guide to practice than a large body of paper kept in a folder somewhere in the staff room.
  
• The site is now being expanded with the incorporation of:
  • A maths dictionary
  • Lesson sequences (currently only some of the core activities at year 7 and 8)
  • Victorian Ministry Curriculum and Standards Framework (CSF). Some lesson activities have been translated and inked. I have plans for the addition of the full CSF documentation (including all the lesson plans contained in the Course Development Advice).
    
• A series of pages that illustrate the power of this site when fully developed are:
  
  • Explore the Year 7 course and look at its textbook
  • Contents: Comprehensive link lists that gives an overall picture of the site contents.
  • Year 7 Subject Outline: I want to see what I am supposed to teach (or learn)
  • Maths For Australian Schools: I want to see what textbook I will be using.
  • An Introduction to Natural Numbers: I want to see what activities the text provides as not all will necessarily be included in the recommended lesson sequence. I then see a full list of text activity titles for that chapter.
    
• Another pathway:
  • Look at a list of suggested activities for Year 8 algebra
  • Contents: Comprehensive link lists that gives an overall picture of the site contents.
  • Year 8 Subject Outline:
  • Geometry: The suggested lesson sequence refers to the Textbook (and a full contents listing available), but also provides links to full text of lessons available from the CSF online: Basic Construction with Ruler & Compass: 60 deg, bisection, polygons and others.

I believe that the potential for this Virtual Textbook (VirTex) is virtually unlimited. I would welcome any suggestions or offers of advice or assistance in further developing these ideas.

The Author: Stephen Digby, Bachelor of Science Degree (Monash University); Diploma in Education, (Victoria College), Graduate Diploma in Computer Education (Victoria College). Stephen has worked in primary, technical and high Schools in Victoria as a teacher, computer education, maths and science consultant for 16 years. His other career experiences include managing a Computer Education Teacher Training Centre, working as a writer for the Information Technology Study of the Victorian Certificate of Education, and teaching mathematics in the USA. He is currently Maths Co-ordinator of the Castlemaine Secondary College, Victoria.