e-book

Accessible elements : teaching science online and at a distance

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Given this dearth of information, the arrival of a whole volume
on the subject of science education at a distance is an extremely
important event. The book is not a final answer to the challenge
of science teaching, and of course none of its contributors would
imagine it to be so. (Personally, I would have liked the editors to
have found more evidence about the use, or potential use, of virtual
reality as a powerful alternative to the real-world laboratory;
it is presumably a topic that will follow as this book inspires others
to experiment and report on their progress in this approach.)
The book is, however, an excellent overview of the state of the art,
revealing where we are today, and pointing to the problems and
opportunities now opening up to us, especially the opportunities
for using, as I have just indicated, Web 2.0 technologies. As such
it provides an excellent foundation for teachers, researchers, and
students who are preparing themselves to come to grips with the
exciting opportunities in this field.

The book provides the global perspective, the editors having
searched globally for their contributors — as indeed in such a neglected
area they would have to. Thus, while the majority of contributions
come from their own Athabasca University and Australia’s
Monash University, these are complemented by experiences from
other North American universities, from Israel, Bangladesh, the
University of South Pacific, and the United Kingdom. Represented
here are physicists, biologists, and chemists, an astronomer, a microbiologist,
and a geographer, among others. All of course, are engaged
in teaching their subjects, but — and this is the core strength
of the book in my opinion — they have been well complemented
with a team of educational scientists, people who I am fairly sure
are like me in knowing little or nothing about biology, chemistry,
or physics, but who know quite a lot about how people learn and
how best to teach them. In this regard, I was very impressed by the
editors’ forthright explanation of the reasons that teaching science
at a distance has been such a neglected part of the field of distance
education, particularly the fourth of their five points. But all five
bear repeating; they are: first, that it is particularly challenging to
construct an effective learning environment for the study of the sciences;
second, that science teachers suffer as do others from lack of
resources, combined with the expectation of their employing organizations
that they teach at a distance in the same “lone-ranger
style” they use in the classroom; third, that the literature that might
inform innovators in this area is hard to find, being scattered in a
variety of both scientific as well as educational journals; and fourth,
and perhaps most difficult to cope with, the educators of science
students at post-school levels invariably bring very strong disciplinary
and research backgrounds to their teaching but have no training
in teaching or in-depth study of the philosophies and methods
of teaching and learning; finally, there is the problem of providing
laboratory experiences that I have already referred to.

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Ketersediaan

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Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

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Penerbit

Sydney : AU Press, Athabasca University., 2011

Deskripsi Fisik

Q181.K46 - 507.1’1 C2009-906647-5

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

978-1-897425-47-3

Klasifikasi

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Tipe Isi

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Tipe Media

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Tipe Pembawa

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Edisi

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Subjek

PENDIDIKAN JARAK JAUH

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

agus

Versi lain/terkait

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