A Quick Overview
My educational philosophy for the website is
summarized
in
the homepage
and its links, especially A
Quick Education and
Understanding & Attitude. The
STRUCTURE, with the basic content and scope of each area, is outlined in An
Introduction
to the Areas. And there is a page about The
Process of Developing and Improving the Website. This page
was motivated
by
constructive suggestions from Sandra Holmes.
constructing a mini-website for a particular audience:
A practical approach to constructing a website with useful
content-and-structure is to imagine ourselves as a particular person (in one
segment of our potential audience)
and ask "what am I looking for" and then make
it easy to recognize
that this is
available
and findable.
For example, what might a teacher be looking for? One
answer came Monday morning at ASA, when you described what teachers typically
look for in NSTA talks: they want practical ideas that will (in a reasonable
amount of preparation time) help
them become better teachers. What you said made me think about the website-area
of Thinking Skills, for example, and how it should be supplemented with specific
ACTIVITIES
a
teacher
can use
(quickly and without much extra effort) in the classroom; and what you
said
reminded me of a paper I wrote in 1992 — it's my favorite of all the term
papers
I wrote
while
at
UW — about making it easier for teachers to become better teachers.
In the area of Thinking Skills, I think the homepages — about
Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, and Productive Thinking (that combines
being creative and critical) — are fairly good for what they are, but they
would be more useful if the PRINCIPLES (which are the main focus now) were more
supplemented
by
ACTIVITIES that teachers can use in the classroom, and if the area-structure
made it obvious that both of these (principles plus activities) were available. {
There is more about these pages, and search engine rankings, in the Appendix.
}
WEBSITE CONTENT AND STRUCTURE
CONTENT — by SELECTIVITY
The main strategy for website development is finding
good
educational resources;
wise
decisions about content are the main way to produce a website
that is effective (that
is
useful
and will be used),
but selectivity takes time, and — for practical reasons
— this requires
finding
experts
(or
enthusiasts who are willing to search and learn)
for
each
area and sub-area; this requirement was the motivation for my "plea
for help" in a Newsletter
of the ASA
Science
Education Commission that was mailed October 2004, but so far I haven't
been very successful in recruiting helpers.
note: In most
of the website (but to varying extents) it will be a zero-sum situation where
including new
pages may
require "bumping" other pages, to limit the size and thus avoid
overwhelming users with too many choices in a "dumptruck" approach. But
some growth will be good, especially in the near future, because currently
much of the website is underdeveloped. And
with a good navigation structure, in some areas we can provide lots of content
and choices, yet still avoid most of the "overwhelming" feeling.
STRUCTURE — for NAVIGATION
A website is different than a book; due to
the structure of an internet WEB — with links that make a variety of "structural
appearances" possible, depending on
the varying choices of different users — we
don't
have
to
choose
a narrow
"audience"
in the same way that conventional printed material is forced to make
this choice,
but we must make the options clear to a visitor, so they
can
quickly-and-easily
recognize that useful, good quality content is available and findable, that: •
there
is something for ME, and • I'll be able to find it.
A combination of selectivity (for content) + navigation
(for structure) should lead to a quick recognition of these two things, so
visitors can see that interesting/useful information is AVAILABLE
& FINDABLE. { A website also needs appeal — verbal, visual,
meeting felt needs,... — so visitors will want to use it. }
Both are necessary to avoid overwhelming a visitor — as
in
the "dumptruck"
feeling of some websites where a visitor sees pages filled with links — where
too
many
links
(and not enough selectivity and guidance) cause a user to feel overwhelmed
by "too
much".
Sandy, I think you are pointing out (and I appreciate
your help) that this
"clear and easy/obvious" navigation structure does not yet exist in
some parts of the current website. And
we in ASA (including me and others who want to help) should do something to
change
this, to improve the quantity and quality of what's available, and make it more
easily findable.
The ideas in your website-map highlight the many "dimensions"
that are possible: types of school (public,
charter, private, home) and age levels (preschool,
elementary, middle/junior, high school, undergraduate, graduate); types
of activities,
including ACTIVE
RECEPTION LEARNING (from a book, journal, lecture, website,...) of scientific
concepts or stories of science (from history or current events),
or DISCUSSIONS (about reception learning or activities) and STUDENT ACTIONS
(discussions, case studies, debates, labs, field trips, inquiry, experiments,
projects,...)
as individual students and/or in groups. Another dimension is subject
area, including
the main ones for high school (biology, chemistry, physics) when (after the
earlier part of K-12, through junior high, when "general science" is what teachers
do) there is more specialization (in high school), plus studies of the earth,
space, and weather, and "everyday
science" and
technologies, science policies,...; thinking
skills can
be "worked into" these areas and actions, and can also
be treated as an area worthy of study on its own, with design method and scientific
method viewed as useful ways to combine creative and critical thinking skills
(for
the generation
and
evaluation
of ideas) that facilitate effective exploration, problem
solving, and decision making. Another dimension of "whole-person education"
is character
education,
along with worldview education that is
related to (but is not identical with) religious perspectives.
Wow. There are many dimensions to
consider,
and
the
trick
is
to
combine
these
in
a
coherent
way — as described above in "content and structure" — that
makes sense to visitors, that informs them (about what is available and findable)
without
overwhelming
them.
And yet another dimension in your map is student-teacher (learning-teaching) symbolized by your regions for K-12 Teachers (plus Curriculum Resources) and also K-12 Students. This has been a question for me since the beginning, how much to target students directly or (through teachers) indirectly. In addition to K-12, much of the website will be useful for informal lifelong self-education by adult "students" who want to learn. I'm still thinking about this , and probably it will depend to some extent on the area of the website.
As an example of the current website structure, let's
consider just two possible goals of a visitor — to CHOOSE a school, or
TEACH in a school.
When it's developed, the area of School Options will
be oriented toward PARENTS who are deciding, for example, WHETHER to
enroll their students
in a private Christian school.
The area of Effective Teaching will
be oriented toward TEACHERS who are deciding, for example, HOW to teach
effectively in a private Christian school; it will have two main areas,
for PRINCIPLES of teaching (the homepage is ../teach/methods.htm) and ACTIVITIES
for teaching
(in ../teach/lessons.htm). Of course, many principles and activities
(but not all) will be similar for teachers in different types of schools —
public, charter, private, and home — that are the focus of WHETHER-questions. {
There will also be similarities and differences, re: different age levels and
subject
areas.
}
Are the current website-structures useful
for helping users explore their questions about WHETHER and HOW ?
WHETHER: I think the current structure of School
Options will be useful during its further development. {
So far, the sub-area for Public
Schools is
the only page that's been significantly developed; and your suggestion
about supplementary schooling, as in "summer enrichment programs," will
be a useful
addition to this area, and also to the HOW-areas. In fact, Esther Wong
(from the Chicago suburbs south of Wheaton) is developing an enrichment
program — for summers and also during the school year — that looks interesting; she
is trying to organize for a high-quality program, and seems to have the abilities,
energy, and contacts required to make it work. } Since
parents are teachers in a home school, questions about "whether" and "how" blend,
and the sub-area for Home Schools will contain lots of ideas for content, activities,...,
including links to the HOW-areas described below. Maybe the special "Christian"
aspect of Christian schools will also be addressed in this area; it will
be here and also in Worldview Education and Christians
in Science & Education.
HOW: And I think the basic structure
of Effective Teaching — with a splitting into principles & activities
— might be useful during further development, but the two homepages
for these (methods.htm for
principles, and activities.htm for
activities) are NOT a good indication of what they will be later, since there
isn't much "structure" now, there is just
a listing of miscellaneous resources. (By
contrast, I think the "Public Schools" page will continue to be
useful for exploring whether-questions, although it should be supplemented
by pages about the QUALITY of public education.) Since many of your suggestions
are about "effective
teaching"
and I know its content needs more development and it also needs changes in
structure (to make the content more easily recognizable and findable) I'm looking
forward
to developing and improving this part of the website.
In addition, other areas (for worldviews, origins questions,
thinking skills, learning skills, stories of science) will be interesting for
some visitors.
Other aspects of the website are just beginning to be
developed. In your sitemap, under Higher Education you have branches
leading to Graduate Students & Research, Higher Education Tenure & Promotion,
Faith in the Workplace & The Professional Discipline, Publishing..., and
more. For
years I've had a "Christians in Science and Education" area planned,
and in July I began with some first
steps toward
actually doing it (but without any further development since then), beginning
with the "early
career scientists" papers
published in PSCF that are in the careers
page. In addition, we could
look for useful resources
(about "the life of a teacher") from CCCU, CHE,... and organizations
for Christian K-12
teachers,
plus NSTA,
NABT,... Recently, in the last 18 months, InterVarsity has begun an
Emerging Scholars Network with this focus, and we can cooperate with them in
this area.
Inspired by the theme of the past two years of meetings,
I've talked
with some local people — Peter Bakken (formerly in a key position with Au Sable,
currently
working
with a church network in Wisconsin)
and
Peter
Bosscher
(a plenary
speaker
at the ASA meeting, and very active in Engineers without Borders at UW)
and Cal DeWitt (famous prof of ecology-etc at UW) about
developing
the "environmental" part of an area about Christian Stewardship.
which
currently
is mainly a page-with-IOUs. They're all in Madison, which
should make it easier to work together with them and with Bosscher's students,
if he is interested in doing something with this.
Your sitemap has "Ask a Christian Scientist" plus "Scientists
willing to be Guest Presenters" and this has been an interest in ASA,
including the Affiliation of Christian Geologists who have offered an "asking" service,
and the ASA-Templeton Lectures (which is not what you probably were thinking
about for "presenters" since it was very centralized with decisions
made by ASA) that recently ended. I
don't know how the "asking service" has been for the geologists,
but Ken Van Dellen would know more about this, and I'll ask him about it.
I think Randy Isaac might be interested
in this, although doing it well depends on "time decisions" by volunteers,
and if this type of service gets popular it produces a time-demand on volunteers,
who might then decide to stop volunteering. Or maybe not. It will
be worth investigating, but I'm probably not the person to set it up and
follow through, although making it available through the ASA Science Ed website
(and the ASA HomePage and Jack's pages) would be one way to let people know
it's available.
PRIORITIES
Most of what's in your concept map is either in the website
already (but it should be "more obviously available" and "more easily
findable"), or it's been planned for the website (but hasn't yet been developed),
or is
a
new
idea that's a good idea and should be done.
But doing all of this takes effort (I'm willing and eager)
which requires time (and this is an important limitation). I think all
parts of the website have potential to be valuable, but I can't do everything
at
once. As
I've said before (like in the newsletter a year ago), of all the areas
"the 'multiple positions' approach in Origins
Questions is most likely to be noticed, and to make a positive impact
in the educational community." Because of this, and because
it's an area of major interest (and concern within ASA, re: responsibility
and accountability for whatever has the name of "ASA" on it) the
area of Origins
Questions is where I plan to
invest a significant
amount of time and effort in the near future,
although
I also want
to
continue
work
in other
areas.
VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF IDEAS
This is an area of mutual enthusiasm.
Monday
morning
at
ASA,
when
you were getting ideas you also began writing-and-drawing, and you've continued
"visual thinking" with
your
concept
map. I'm
also an enthusiastic user of "visual organization" as you can see
in these examples:
The
first half of my PhD dissertation included a diagram showing the relational complexity
of Integrated
Scientific Method. There are also simpler diagrams such as those
for Integrated
Design Method or an introduction
to scientific method. And I wrote a page about Visual
Thinking, although the information (from more than a decade ago) is dated.
In dealing with the possibilities and challenges of coping
with multiple "dimensions", I tend to
favor
TABLES
over
MAPS — and you can see examples in An Introduction
to the Areas & Science and
Design in Education & the links-pages and sitemap for Origins Questions —
are but one advantage of the web is that duplicate
navigation
structures are possible,
so we could
have
one type (table based) for visitors who prefer this organization, and another
(map based)
for visitors who prefer this. { Later, I'll develop a protoype using some
of the ideas you've suggested, as described below.
}
A couple of times I've tried using "image maps" for navigation,
and currently a few (especially the ones in Integrated Scientific Method, in
the intro-page above and a details-page)
are still being used, so you can click on various parts of it and get sent
to the corresponding part of the text-description
inside
the
page. Two
others — an
outdated map for my education-pages and an
outdated (but less so) map for Origins Evidence — have been phased
out, and both have been replaced by another "visual organizing" method,
using an HTML-table that's very compact and still shows a visual organization
of relationships, for my pages about Origins
Questions (table is at top of page) and Thinking
Skills in Education.
We're both enthusiastic about "visual representations" and creative brainstorming, and this is one reason that working together in the same room — where we could draw and see,... – would be useful, but (until maybe April in Anaheim) we'll have to work with electronic communication: emails, files, and telephone.
Well, that's enough for now. Please let me know what you think.
Craig
APPENDIX
RANKINGS BY SEARCH ENGINES (some comments)
Some pages in the area of "thinking skills" are
highly ranked in search
engines. For example, in a search for [creative thinking education] it's
#1
in
Google and MSN, #2 in Yahoo; and [critical thinking education] has been
varying between
5 & 11 in
Google
but is slightly lower in the others, and has been rising [now, in July 2006,
it's #1]; without "education" in
a search — as in [critical thinking] — they're ranked lower, but
when a search
includes "in"
[critical
thinking in education] they're higher, #3 and #2 in Google and Yahoo.
These pages are
also visited relatively frequently, compared with other pages in the ASA
website,
although
the "absolute use" isn't yet very high, only about 1000 per month. Compared
with other ASA pages, in July 2005 they were #2, 3, and 8, much higher than in
early-2005 or 2004, even though there are no links to them from the main ASA
website, and I haven't yet sought links
from
any external websites, and haven't "advertised" them in any way among
teachers.
Many other pages also rank high in other searches. {more
about
this
later}
I'm not sure, but I think most
of the high ranking is due to the many links coming in to "www.asa3.org" (ASA
has
prestige
among peers) and
because search engines seem to appreciate ASA; the structure of "internal
linkings" I've built into
the
ASA
Science
Ed website also helps; and page titles (plus heading-paragraphs) with
keywords; and
now
that
some
pages
are
highly
ranked,
other
websites are finding them and beginning to link more to them, so it's a "pleasant
cycle"
after
pages begin
showing up high in searches by Google and other search engines. Sometime
in
the near future, contacting websites to "get links" will be productive,
but
so far I haven't done any of this.
Currently, very
few visitors
go
from "www.asa3.org" to the ASA Science
Ed website, because links
from the ASA-homepage (to ASA Science Ed) are either non-existent or are
not very visible, and they are rarely found and rarely used by visitors.
POSSIBLE TABLES (tentative prototypes) for
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
I'll
do this later. Basically, the short-term goal is to
explore possibilities for showing "dimensions" to users (unfortunately,
a
2-dimensional
table is a limitation in web-pages, and more generally humans are limited to
seeing
in 3 dimensions) and trying to clarify the AVAILABILITY & FINDABILITY for
users. Tables
are 2-D, but there are ways to add one or more dimensions, and perhaps databases
will provide ways to make a "sortable" structure. I think the
problem of "coping with too many dimensions"
will be a difficult challenge mainly for the sub-area of "STUDENT ACTIVITIES
for
teachers
to
use" (or for students to use directly?) but it will also be relevant in
other
areas and in other ways.