These databases are becoming available at a time in which the state and its schools are engaged in a significant effort to increase their connection to the Internet. Consequently, they provide additional reasons for schools to do so, and to make educational use of Internet when they do connect.
The variety of these databases deserves further description.
As faculty increasingly develop their own web pages, it is helpful to collect feedback on their designs from users their pages. This web link is available to collect that feedback, a link which any administrator or faculty member can use. Many of our College web pages already have links to this feedback page. Dr. Houghton designed and supports this database.
MGI (http://www.pageplanetsoftware.com)is
a program that runs with the Mac server software Webstar. Many types of
interactions can be created including surveys, shopping carts, online tests,
and more. These two web sites incorporate MGI in many aspects of the web
site design: http://www.garfieldre2.k12.co.us;
http://www.portical.org.
What institutions (e.g., businesses, companies and organizations) have a Web page presence in our region, that is, provide Internet content? Of these institutions, which also have special services or features of benefit to educators? This database project provides answers. The data is of educational relevance in developing a point of contact for school/business collaboration and other work. The web database development and support is handled by Dr. Houghton. This project is currently supported by ABLE and Joe Harley at the Center for Mountain Living.
There is an ongoing need to find assistance in developing multimedia projects (e.g., CD ROM or web page design) of varying degrees of complexity. This is ongoing problem for us within the College and University as well as across the counties of our University mission area. Developed by Dr. Houghton as a part of his spring multimedia course, the database allows users to indicate what specialties they might provide and contact information. The database can be searched by institution or by geographic area and in other ways.
ABLE created a database of technology trainers for its new mission to coordinate computer literacy development in schools of our region. Working with graduate student Brian Simpson, Dr. Houghton provided Web design and development to make a database of workshops and trainers viewable by educators throughout our region.
For some time secretary Merry Woodard in the Reading Center has maintained a database of the books in its collection for inventory purposes. The database how holds over 6000 records. As the database ran only on secretary Merry Woodard's computer system, it could not be used by students and others without interruption of her own work. Working with Merry, Dr. Houghton created a design for use of the database using Web pages allowing the database to be searched by anyone who has Netscape and Internet access. Already the database is being used by in College summer courses as students build book collections for lesson and unit plan development. By virtue of being on the Internet, the database is Best of Class in several ways, and continues the College tradition of being first in the state and nation in innovative use of technology. As a first on campus, it is the only library on campus to provide access to its catalog without the use of an account on the vax. It is perhaps a state and national first in that this juvenile literature collection is not a part of larger adult collection, greatly reducing the time to hunt for relevant children's books.
Dr. Houghton uses this database to provide "real time" course evaluation. That is, using Web pages, students enter class evaluation data after every class session. This data was used to make ongoing corrections in the current course while it was underway, instead of waiting to use end of semester data to make changes to the course the next time it is taught. The data is totally anonymous, and the power of the database is used to make numerous reports which are quick to produce, easy to read, and could be provided online. A pilot of this database was run this last spring, and a second improved pilot was run in an Asheville course this summer.
Dr. Houghton uses this database to provide a pre-test of prior experience on the course topic. Each entry represents a number on a five point scale, which the database then totals automatically. This data can be used in numerous ways. For example, the set of data for a class can be sorted based on the total for each student to provide a rough index. Students are then sorted into heterogeneous teams from low to high experience levels. It could be given again at the end of the semester as a post-test measure and the comparative scores used to measure perceived growth or progress.
Dr. Houghton uses this database to provide detailed knowledge about the student's perceived ability to meet the state's requirements for teacher educators. When this DB is completed, the database will total items automatically and will report the number of competencies they have met, and the number they need to meet. And of course the itemized form can be printed out to provide a running record for their files of their progress. Over time this form will have a link to this same list of competencies and that list will have links to activities to help them meet those competencies. This competency activities page is under development as well.
This is simultaneously a service, teaching and research project of Dr. Houghton's that uses a database to collect and share problems that need solving. It uses other web pages to provide training and tools for thinking and tools for solving these problems. The general mission is to provide an online environment for sharing and solving problems. It is of immediate value to any course in the College and could also play a significant role in distance education courses. It is also a new form of teaching.
It is both a service to the College and the University in that it can also be used as a survey of educational needs for ongoing changes in current classes and the formation of new classes. It is a service to our county and region allowing communication about real problems across or within institutions such as schools, businesses and organizations. By the nature of its use, it builds community relationships around community concerns. Community can be perceived as a scalable range from local as in a classroom to global as in the world. The CROP environment works at any point in this scale. It is a teaching resource with several features. It collects authentic questions of students. It provides an environment in which students can work collaboratively on real problems raised by classmates. Students can also work on problems raised by community members, providing a form of collaborative mentoring.
It is also a research project in that Dr. Houghton catalogs these
questions and analyzes them using the higher order thinking skills taxonomy
used by the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, providing a means
to establish a group's ability to apply these skills in real situations.
Finally, it is a process that can be paralleled with paper in functional
ways, allowing classroom teachers to begin using the design before they
have full Internet and computer access, yet provides incentive to use the
computer technology as it becomes available.
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