The School Knowledge NET

Schools use technologies and technological systems to efficiently provide students with the tools to construct their own knowledge and understanding as well as enabling teachers and administrators to collate data and information which will keep them abreast of student progress.

 

Over the past 10 years schools have created their own internet web site and possibly begun their own intranet environment, while some may even have linked themselves to other schools in an extranet environment.  These environments all had one thing in common: all were based around the presentation and sharing of information using web based tools and web pages.  The school web site was usually a collection of interlinked pages, and in general the web site was not too large, with most of the information being accessed by using a collection of "buttons" usually placed on the left-hand side of the homepage. Intranets incorporated new functionality and included calendars, discussion groups for each class, subject or student groups, student web pages, "e-learning" opportunities, staff web pages, subject web pages, online assessment, access to libraries of reviewed web sites, e-mail, online storage of files, databases of students, classes, school resources . . .  The list is potentially endless.  The resulting increase in the amount of information on the intranet called for the addition of metatags (a description of each piece of information), so that a search engine, with the help of key words, could identify specific items (within the intranet or extranet).  It was then also necessary to add a metatag form to each piece of information that was subsequently added.

 

The administrator sees all five zones and has the ability to edit all documents, assign permissions and delete all documents

 

Over a period of time organisations reviewing the use of intranets became aware that little material was being posted onto intranets other than that which was provided with the set up of the site.  Further investigation revealed that this could be attributed to the fact that most staff members simply did not have the capacity, nor were they allocated the time required to create their own web pages using web editing software, and then place them in the correct file folder within the intranet web site.  In order to carry out this task each staff member needed considerable technical skill in both the operation of the software and the understanding of the "architecture" of the site itself.  This led to the next major change in the design of intranets; the inclusion of an embedded web editor within the intranet, which automatically uploaded the new information to the correct location, as well as changes to existing and subsequent new pages.

 

But rather than just adding material in the format of web pages, staff now felt that they needed also to be able to add stand-alone files such as their spreadsheets, units of work, images, multimedia files produced in a variety of program formats, video clips, sound and much more.  To meet this need schools have historically collated these files onto the hard drive of the server located within the school.  Staff now saw the advantage of accessing these files from home or anywhere else they might be located, which required the school to set up a static IP number and provided teachers with another piece of software.

Files that are added to a page in the student or teacher web pages are tagged with a file “stem” so the user can track their origins

The next challenge for schools was to set up clusters that could share and co-develop resources, set up discussion groups drawn from different schools (and possibly different departments, levels and job descriptions), facilitate inter-school discussion amongst students located in different districts, areas, or countries, introduce videoconferencing or audioconferencing technologies to enable students to share a resource or teacher,. . . . . the list goes on . . . .  culminating naturally in the evolution of the extranet.

 

Teachers, administrators and students now found themselves faced with a plethora of systems, passwords, log-ons and access codes, with most systems still unable to communicate with each other or facilitate the sharing of the information that had been collected or manipulated.

 

The problem presented by this series of “ad hoc” developments does however have a solution.  Teachers can save their files, create web pages, access their e-mail, create discussion groups, share teaching and learning resources, , build virtual online libraries of web sites and other "virtual" resources, gain access from home or any Internet enabled computer anywhere to their files and school-based resources . . . . . but the solution requires a paradigm shift in how we think about our education resources.

 

For some years now we have been investigating a completely new approach to this growing technological dilemma.  The underlying concept of the radical new approach involves using a single web based environment to facilitate all of the different tools mentioned above.  This integrated school internet web site, intranet and extranet environment, coupled with web based e-mail access and structured file system, allows students, teachers and administrators to access all of the materials available to them at school, from any internet enabled computer located anywhere.  Access is via a single log-on and password, and the environment that they see in front of them is built from a database of possible tools and resources. 

Students signing in see only their class pages, their personal web page, the school zone and the research tools

For example: Primary school students logging on would see only their class, their own web page, the school calendar, the student newsletter, the discussion groups to which they belong, the research centre tools and only the files and information that their authors permitted them to see.  Students can add information to their own web site using the built in web editor, add new pages to their web site, contribute to discussions and add any file to their web site, and this would all be available to them from any Internet enabled computer anywhere, including home and require no technical skill at all.

 

The built in web editor has the same look and feel as MS Word. This allows students and teachers to create new pages and edit pages simply and easily

 

As a primary school teacher I would see my class pages, the administrative environment, the school and staff calendar, the schools that might be involved in my cluster, the student and teacher newsletter, discussion groups that I was a part of and any files that other teachers allowed me to see via the allocation of permissions. Teachers can add information to their own web sites using the integrated WYSIWYG  (What You See Is What You Get), web editor as well as being able to add new pages to their web sites, contribute to discussions and add any files to their web sites, these all being available to them from any Internet enabled computer anywhere, including home. They can also see other student’s web pages, edit them, add annotations, and even award them “virtual stickers” if called on to do so.

 

The WYSIWYG editor has powerful functionality in a familiar format.

Secondary school students logging on would see each of the subjects in which they were taking part (each of these subject areas at each level hosts its own overview of the year's course, a discussion group, a resource area, the school calendar, a list of e-mail and web page contact points of other students in the same class), as well as the student newsletter, discussion forums of which they were a part, and the research centre tools. They would see only the files and information that the author of those files and information permitted them to see.  Students could add information to their own web sites using the integrated WYSIWYG web editor, add new pages to their web sites, contribute to discussions and add any files to their web site, with all of this being available to them from any internet enabled computer anywhere, including Peru!

 

Secondary school teachers would see all of the above as well as the administration section which would include school policies, school and staff calendar, school management information, professional development opportunities, the capacity to edit any of their student’s subject specific web sites, and add new information to their subject section using the integrated WYSIWYG web editor. Teachers could add information to their own web sites or subject based sites using the integrated WYSIWYG web editor, add new pages to their web sites, contribute to their students’ discussions or take part in staff, subject or any other discussion group that they had permission to join.  They could add any of their present files to their own personal web site or their subject based areas and this would all be available to them from any Internet enabled computer anywhere, including home.

 
Teachers and students can add files, polls and additional web pages to the pages they have permissions to edit.  For students this will be their personal web site and for teachers it will be their personal and teaching sites

 

Parents can also be given logons and passwords to enable them to access the public area of this environment which features the school newsletter, the school calendar and relevant documents that are in the public arena. They can use the research tools, visit the parent-teacher area, view the various fundraising activities that have been organized, or are being organized, and even see their own child’s web site area.

 

The entire environment is known as a Knowledge NET and is hosted on a highly secure server, independent of the school.  In order to complete this picture the school must have high-speed internet access.  With high-speed Internet access there is no longer any need to host all the information, systems and data on the local computer/server.  Within a high-speed environment the information, systems and data can be located anywhere and be looked after by specialist technicians; removing that responsibility from school, removing one more concern from the school.

 

The Research Centre forms the left hand side of the home page and contains a virtual online library of the best 5000 education sites. Younger students can carry out a thematic search searching just the reviews and ratings while older students can carry out a detailed search searching every page of the 5000 web sites! This takes less that 0.25 of a second and provides an excellent selection of results. From the Research Centre students can also use Google to carry out searches if the results received are not appropriate or they can search the Knowledge NET environment. Teachers can add additional sites to the database simply and easily via the administration area. 

 

The pedagogy that underpins the Knowledge NET is radically different from that of traditional Web based environments.  The Knowledge NET is designed to facilitate the construction of new knowledge by students.  The students have available to them a wide range of tools, information access points and most importantly the assistance of their teachers.  Students are now able to access rich tasks, work within rich information and communication environments using a variety of contexts and a range of information management and manipulation tools.  Environments such as the Knowledge NET require new skill-sets for students and a change in teaching pedagogy for teachers, thus securing a new balance between curriculum content and the processes and skills that students require to carry out these tasks.

 
Notices in the student, staff and public newsletters are easy to add and are controlled by the original authors

 

This Knowledge NET environment no longer constrains students to five hour days and it opens up a whole new world of communication and experience.  They can now have discussions with each other about relevant issues, assist each other in understanding new concepts and draw on resources that have been traditionally physically "locked down" within the school.  This new paradigm will fundamentally change the way in which teachers teach, learners learn and administrators administer without the need for any new technology skills.  If the teachers and students concerned can manage a simple word processor then they can use and manage all the tools in the Knowledge NET.

 

There are many systems around the world that offer some of these tools and some of these concepts, and in general they cost in excess of $US50 000/school, or require annual per student management fees. They may be limited to just communication tools or just information management or research tools.  The system described above costs between $US2500-$US3500 with monthly management/administration costs of $40-$100/school dependent on the roll of the school.  For more information you can visit the web site http://www.knowledgenetworks.co.nz

 

You can be supplied with a visitor logon and password, allowing you to visit a demonstration web site where you can view the areas mentioned above, and enjoy a trial run by adding your own content using the integrated WYSIWYG web editor.  If you wish to have a logon and password provided for this purpose please send an e-mail to inquiries@work.co.nz with the title Knowledge NET in the subject line of your e-mail.