Technology & Learning
Community
From the Field
May 1997
New Technology
Gives Teachers A New Choice
by James Ray Musgrave
Imagine being able
to control your entire semester's curriculum from your own computer.
Imagine busy commuter students who no longer have to fight parking
or administrative problems; all they have to do is “register” for
your class online and follow the procedure for working with your
interactive, multimedia “books,” which have been meticulously prepared
by you to utilize all of Piaget's education principles. In addition,
you can provide secure chat sessions or individualized instruction
whereby you can work one-on-one with each student—in real time—providing
the constant feedback and instruction that is now impossible in
the overcrowded conventional classroom situation. Or, you can moderate
a large “class” discussion or even a web research group, complete
with white board, sound, and even video supplements.
Does this sound too
futuristic and problematic? Actually, the tools to produce such
educational services already exist, especially since the release
of Asymetrix Corporation's ToolBook II Instructor™, a multimedia
development and delivery program that gives teachers the ability
to create Internet-based distributed lessons that can open their
college to the world! Indeed, with the new century of rapid communications
fast approaching, and a new educational paradigm fully in place
at many of the progressive schools, Asymetrix provides software
to empower educators to take advantage of exciting new technological
possibilities.
Here are few of Toolbook
Instructor™'s new capabilities that enable development of web-based
learning. The Internet With the release of ToolBook II Instructor,
Asymetrix provides an authoring tool that delivers courseware in
the native languages of the Internet: HTML and Java. This means
that any Java-enabled web browser can view these courses.
ToolBook II Instructor
allows you to distribute training and educational applications in
a variety of ways over the Internet:
-
As HTML files
with embedded Java applets for multi-platform deployment on
the Internet. When “Export as HTML” is selected from the File
menu, ToolBook II Instructor creates a series of Web pages that
mirror the pages found in the .TBK application. Text is converted
to HTML, bitmaps are converted to GIF files, and Internet-enabled
widgets are replaced by Java applets. Internet-enabled widgets
are simply dragged onto the HTML pages from the new Internet
widget catalog. The WebBooks produced can be uploaded to a Web
server using the included FTP utility.
-
As native .TBK
books to be viewed using Neuron, a Netscape Plug-in. With Neuron,
native ToolBook II books can run over the Internet in a Web
browser window (Windows 95 or NT only). TooBook II files can
also be viewed in Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
-
As Hybrid CD-ROM
and Internet applications, where large media files residing
on CD-ROM combine with rapidly changing information delivered
over the Internet.
Naturally, the same applications
can also be distributed as traditional .TBK books to be run on local
Windows computers or on a LAN. New Features ToolBook II Instructor
offers many new features that support the expansion of this teacher
tool into the Internet. Among those are:
-
Export books
as HTML for access via the Internet As mentioned above, Toolbook
II books can be exported as a series of HTML pages for distribution
on the Internet.
-
Any ToolBook
II object can hyperlink to a URL Any object on a ToolBook II
page can now be set to launch a web browser and jump to an Internet
site on command anytime the program is being accessed online.
Also, the Hyperlink dialog box supports links to Web pages.
-
Copy HTML files
to a server using the new FTP utility A new FTP utility included
with the software package uploading Toolbook pages to a server
on the Internet. More advanced applications developers can use
the utility as a system book to create custom ToolBook II applications.
An example might be a student information kiosk that updates
course assignment listings automatically by downloading new
information from a remote server at regular intervals.
Internet-enabled widget catalog ToolBook II Instructor now has
an entire catalog of widgets designed for the Internet. There
are widgets for navigation, playing media, placing text, creating
image maps, and more. Internet-enabled widgets to support
interactive questions These widgets allow instructors to deploy
multiple choice, true/false, rating by multiple choice, and
fill-in-the-blank questions to students world wide.
-
Java-based response
checking widgets also allow appropriate feedback in response
to all student answers -- all via the World Wide Web. In addition,
combined with the companion product, ToolBook II Librarian,
all of your students responses can be captured and evaluated
use tiled backdrops for great backgrounds on Web pages ToolBook
II offers several tiling backdrop options for Web pages and
local ToolBook II books.
-
GIF and JPG graphic
support for Web pages The ToolBook II Export as HTML feature
automatically exports bitmapped graphics in the appropriate
format (GIF is the default; JPG for 256 colors or more).
If you would like to find out more about this technology, please
go the Asymetrix home page at: http://www.asymetrix.com.
This company has become the premier educational software development
company in the
world, in my opinion, and all educators should be aware of what
this software can do. For assistance in preparing content for
education via computer or the Internet, please visit my home
page and review the outline of my book, The
Digital Scribe: A Writer's Guide to Electronic Media. and other
resources I have prepared for educators. My home page can be
accessed at: http://www.gcccd.cc.ca.us/~jmusgrav/welcome.html.
I also have a link for educators that teaches how to use HTML
for educational purposes. Click on "Go to Teachers" hypertext
at the top of my home page.
James Ray Musgrave is the author of The Digital Scribe: A
Writer's Guide to Electronic Media (AP Professional Press, 1996)
and part-time Instructor of English at Grossmont Community College
and Mesa Community College (CA). He has over fifteen years of
experience as a college teacher, a writing consultant, and a
multimedia developer.
Originally published in the May 1997 issue of Signals.
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