Chapter 4
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The Internet offers educators a new and novel medium for displaying curriculum, lesson plans, educational activities, and for collaboration. Unique features inherent in this new medium include hypertext links and a combination of visual and text media. These features allow curriculum to be redesigned to creates unique meanings for individuals. Hypertext links allow readers to make connections based on their preferences and background., and the combination of visual and text provide an opportunity to integrate learning styles and intelligences. This medium is a tool, but like all tools it changes the delivery of the message which, in turn, changes how that message is perceived.
Many educational sites are present on the Internet, offering educational activities, lesson plans, and text. Each of these are helpful and each has a place in the vast web of information, however, there are no sites that provide a cohesive curriculum based on one topic that pulls these many disparate sites together. The curriculum developed in this project is unique in that aspect. Also, this curriculum has been aligned with the NCTM standards and these standards have been identified so teachers know where this curriculum fits in their lesson planning.
People often complain that there is too much information available on the Internet which makes it difficult to use. It is also difficult to decide how to use the information, as expressed by the preservice teacher who responded that "I would like some suggestions (for using the Internet)". Educators, understandably, are overwhelmed by the amount of information available and the poor quality of many of the sites that they do access. This may be one reason why teachers are not using the Internet to supplement their lessons. These are valid complaints about the Internet and they have not been adequately addressed by researchers, particularly in the area of curriculum design. This curriculum was developed to provide a model for other sites to address and alleviate many of these problems. Additionally, many of the sites on the Internet are poor in content, offering little more than page after page of menus and links to more menus. This curriculum makes use of links to other sites that have been reviewed for content, thereby assuring teachers and students that they will not be spending time moving from menu to menu.
Creating this kind of curriculum posed some unique problems, primarily because there is so much information available on the Intent. Creation of a database solved some of these problems. The copy and paste feature assured accurate URL's, thereby eliminating problems with inactive links. In addition, the database made it easy to experiment with different organizational schemes until finding one that was satisfactory.
There were problems with variations between browsers and individual machines. That's to be expected in a technology that is continuing to evolve. This curriculum was created on a 17" monitor with a resolution of 1024 x 768, using a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) web editor. These editors can be misleading. After uploading the pages to the server, it was discovered that the layout looked fine on the large monitor, but was abysmal in a smaller monitor. Part of the problem arose from the use of tables to organize material. These provided a format for displaying hypertext links side by side with the descriptive text for each page, thereby eliminating the need for frames in order to accomplish the same end (not all browsers support frames). However, tables do not automatically align with individual monitor resolutions. Consequently, the layout had to be designed to accommodate a variety of resolution and screen sizes, resulting in a compromise between the size of the tables, as well as text and graphics. The need to compromise on design elements is unique to web design. Unlike print text, the the designer must be aware of the variations in machines and browsers. Also the reader has control over many elements of the the final product and this can be frustrating for web site designers. However, it is in solving these problems that the web site designer can participate in the creative process.
There are always things one would like to change when a project is completed. One of the nicest things about this medium is that making these changes is relatively simple. The medium is fluid and one need only go to back to the computer to redesign and reload the pages. Future plans for this site include addition of an oral text to augment the written text thereby increasing access to blind individuals, as well as addressing the needs of auditory learners. Musical fractals will also be included when accessing each page. This will increase the understanding of recursive processes. The curriculum also needs a more fully developed assessment vehicle, as well as a page to display examples of student work. Future plans include submitting the site to the Math Forum at Swarthmore University to add to their list of links on fractal and chaos sites as well as submission to the major search engines.
The proposed curriculum meets the needs expressed by curriculum reform advocates in numerous ways. It integrates disciplines, provides opportunities to model real-life situations, meets NCTM standards in algebra, geometry, discrete math, logic, and patterns. By integrating art and music into the curriculum, it meets the needs of students with musical and spatial intelligences. In this way, it may alleviate some of the problems expressed by opponents, one of which is the cut in fine arts programs to free monies for computer purchases. In addition, this curriculum may encourage teachers to use the Internet thereby justifying the expense of computers.
This curriculum makes use of the fundamentals of curriculum design. It addresses standards and goals, assessment, provides an online text, uses supplemental materials through online demonstration, activities, and supplemental text materials. It meets Gardiner's cautions in that it is comprehensive but not overwhelming in material and utilized experiences common to secondary students and educators unfamiliar with chaos theory and fractals. Chaos theory may also prove to be that branch of mathematics that excites women to pursue careers in math and science, disciplines women have traditionally not entered in numbers comparable to men. This is because it relies more on intuition than on proofs and theorems, as has been the case with traditional mathematics.
Website design follows general principles including layout, active hypertext links, minimal graphics to increase download time, scannable text, ample white space, and quiet backgrounds with readable text color. Locus of control is with the reader and there is freedom of choice for the reader through a variety of hypertext links. An awareness that
readers enter Internet documents are various locales guided the design of the site organization and development of the site map.
The following list offers suggestions on how to use this curriculum:
1. Create interest by beginning the course with an investigation of fractal art and music. Visit websites of fractal artists and online galleries that display. Investigate the various fractal compositions. Allow students to contact artists to discuss how the art was developed. Continue these discussions throughout the unit as students create their own fractals.
2. Investigate the history and theory of chaos and fractals, as well as their application in disciplines such as economics, earth science, and biology.
3. Study iterations by having students play the Chaos game. This will also result in fractal composition. Students may play the game first in the classroom in pairs and groups, then may want to create creating more complicated fractals by using computer simulations based on the Chaos Game.
4. End the unit in a project that combines research and art. Students may choose to create complicated fractals using computers and non-linear equations and display these in local galleries or online with a brief description of the mathematics involved and its application to a field of their choice. Students may choose to present their research in a hyperstudio format with an example of a simple fractal, or students may put together a class website displaying theirs and/or other student's fractals and an explanation of Chaos and fractal geometry, as well as its application.
One of the advantages of an Internet curriculum is that it makes use of information from sources around the world. Educators and students have access to demonstrations and activities that they may not have had if one person had to design every element of the curriculum. However, it is also this advantage which may work to the disadvantage of the students. Educators must be aware that these online activities can not and should not replace real-life experiences. We may become complacent in using the Internet because it is easy. We still must be sure to infuse our curriculum with hands-on activities and real-life experiences and to use a variety of teaching strategies.