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Developing Skills to Create a Web Page: A Behaviorist Study Proposal on an LDT Student Submitted by Heidi Chang, Ami Mehta, and Jee Park July 27, 2000 Ed 333A Prof. Greeno 1 I. Learning Problem I, Heidi Chang, am a new student in the LDT program, who is interested in learning about how technology can be designed for improving learning. I am on leave from my teaching position at an all girls’ private school so that I can devote my full attention to my studies and to improving my technical skills. Technology is an important part of my life for communicating with friends, family and colleagues over e-mail, preparing lesson plans, letters, reports, presentations using MS Office, researching information, purchasing items on the web, and creating newsletters for organizations. I used technology on a regular basis in my classroom for student assignments, developing grading and assessment tools, and communicating with my students. My ease with using technology stems from my early introduction to video games and use of a home computer, use of computers in school, and taking classes with professors who integrated technology into their courses. I have working knowledge of the computer and the Internet and feel comfortable trouble shooting my own problems. Though I have difficulties in creating mental models for technical terms related to my computer’s hardware and would have trouble networking computers, I know that I could learn those ideas with some guidance. Currently, I am having trouble creating my personal web page using Dreamweaver. Although there are many different web page development software programs available, I chose Dreamweaver because I have seen the possibilities of the software. Some of my classmates are already familiar with the software and I have observed their processes in using the software as well as the pages and sites they have produced. It seems to be the best choice for my purposes. My learning problem is that I have minimal experience in using web design software and no experience in creating one on my own. For two of my classes this summer, I need to present my work in the form of a web report. Over the course of the year, I will be putting together a portfolio for work done this year. I am concerned about learning this skill, because I need it to participate in the virtual community of LDT, as well as the greater group that use the web to communicate. I attended the workshops offered by the educational computing support staff, but those are only one two hour-long sessions, which only offer minimum assistance. I am having difficulties understanding how to: 1. use Dreamweaver’s functions to design what I want, including links to my Email and to other sites, 2. post my web page to my web space, 3. edit my web page, and 4. determine a design structure and organization for my site. One other factor that has exacerbated my learning problem is my in-room connection. While it is possible for me to access Dreamweaver and to learn how to set up my web page using computers in clusters, I like the convenience of working in my room. After registering for my in-room connection, I spent nearly three 2 weeks problem-solving with my Residential Computer Consultant about my lack of connection. This unresolved problem made me feel disadvantaged and this was mentally difficulty to overcome. Now that it has been resolved, I feel prepared and mentally ready to learn how to design and create a working web page. II. Design From a behaviorist perspective, we will examine Heidi's learning problems in light of the software program, Dreamweaver, she is trying to learn. We will to identify ways in which the "skill" of creating a web site can be viewed through learning hierarchies. Gagne suggests that learning hierarchies "identify a set of intellectual skills that are ordered in a manner indicating substantial amounts of positive transfer from those skills of lower positions to connected ones of higher positions". As stated in the learning problem, Heidi is fairly proficient with the computer, knows how to browse the Internet, and is familiar with other forms of technology to build presentations. How can we use her current mental model to create a step by step learning process to teach her Dreamweaver? What are the lowest level rules and the higher-order rules that will ensure her mastery of web site creation? What is her learning style and how does the Dreamweaver tutorial address various learning styles? We will examine three types of learning proposed by Gagne, 1) Concept Learning, 2) Rulesbased Learning, and 3) Problem Solving. Let's take another look at the learning problems and organize them into skills or concepts. 1. Design Creation Concept 2. Posting to the web site Skill 3. Editing Skill 4. Designing Site Structures Concept Based on Heidi's learning problem, she needs to learn an equal number of concepts and skills. We will now examine the Dreamweaver Tutorial. There are sixteen sections in the tutorial that teaches skills and concepts about the software. 3 1. Getting Started 2. Dreamweaver Tutorial 3. Dreamweaver Basics 4. Links and Navigation 5. Site Management 6. Formatting Text 7. Inserting Images 8. Creating Tables 9. Using Layers 10. Using Frames 11. Inserting Media 12. Using Bahaviors 13. Editing HTML 14. Templates & Libraries 15. Creating Forms 16. Customizing Dreamweaver Appendix Keyboard Shortcuts Each section builds on the prior knowledge of the previous. There are many prerequisites to learning this process that are never clearly stated in the tutorial. For example, knowledge of HTML and understanding new terms such as links, frames, layers, and behaviors. The Dreamweaver tutorial does, however, cater to different levels of learners by dividing the learners up into three groups: 1. HTML and web design novices, 2. experienced web designers who are new to Dreamweaver, and 3. experienced web designers who are familiar with Dreamweaver Applying Gagne’s Learning Styles Concept Learning in Dreamweaver Gagne describes concept learning as "learning to classify stimulus situations in terms of abstracted properties like color, shape, position, number, and other." In the case of Dreamweaver, using the software, design, and creating structures are all concepts that require rationalization in terms of one another. These concepts represent new terms and ways of thinking about technology. Rule Learning in Dreamweaver Another way to analyze the learning problem is by rules defined by Gagne as "the acquisition of the ‘idea’ contained in such propositions as 'gases when heated'." A rule is a chain of two or more concepts. The entire program requires the learner to understand the relationship between each concept in the hierarchy. The learning process is linear and requires the mastery of the first topic before moving onto the next. Designing a web page(s) requires an understanding of the organization of skills and concepts in relation to one another. Problem Solving in Dreamweaver Finally, becoming an expert at web design requires a great deal of problem solving. Gagne explains that this form of learning is equivalent to "thinking out” a new rule that combines previously learned rules. Concept and rule learning work very well when the learning process is linear or straightforward. Problem solving or better known as troubleshooting in Dreamweaver when the technology is responding in an unfamiliar way. It is such situations that require the learner to draw on his/her previous knowledge of technology solutions to identify and resolve the problem. Learning Dreamweaver requires a clear understanding of skills, concepts, ideas, and relationships between the same. Positive transfer can only occur when the learner has mastered each step and then moved onto the next. The learner is also required to use prior knowledge with technology to better understand how to troubleshoot. III. Evidence of Learning In order to solve Heidi’s problem of using the Internet as a means of communicating her ideas, she must acquire a number of skills. She must learn how to: 1. use Dreamweaver’s functions in order to create her pages, 4 2. post my web page to my web space 3. edit her web pages, and 4. design the structure and organization for her the site. The evidence to show that she has learned these skills can be broken down into sets of smaller skills. For example, Heidi can demonstrate that she has learned Dreamweaver’s functions by first being able to set up a site. Although Dreamweaver allows for individual pages to be created, the underlying theory behind the software is to encourage a mental model of the entire site as a series of pages linked together. If Heidi begins the process of building her site by first defining her site instead of simply creating one page after another, she will have shown that she has acquired the mental model of a web site’s structure and organization. Although there are several elements that can be included on a web page, such as graphics and animation, we will focus on two common ones: links to another web page and an e-mail link. On any page of the site, Heidi can include links to other pages either within her own site, an internal page, or to another page on the Web, an external page. Linking to internal and external pages can be accomplished by the same function of the software. However, the internal page link is named differently than the external one. Whereas the external page requires a more descriptive and particular address which begins with “http:///www…html”, the internal page only needs the name she has given to the page as located in her site. Simply put, it does not need the “http://www” that the external page requires. If Heidi can effectively choose the correct naming protocol, she will have demonstrated that she understands the difference between external and internal pages, when to use the appropriate naming convention, and how to link to them. The other feature that she may want to include on her page is a link that allows the person viewing the page to send her email. Although she may achieve this by writing HTML code, we will assume that she is unfamiliar with programming with HTML. Dreamweaver is primarily menu-driven, icon-based software. In one of the menus, it is possible to insert an e-mail link. A new window appears, prompting her to insert a text message to prompt the user to send an email and to input her email address. If she does this correctly, the text message she inserted will appear underlined on the screen. If she is able to locate this option in the correct menu and fill out the window correctly in order to create the underlined text message, she will have demonstrated that she has learned how to create an e-mail link. Heidi wants and is required to communicate her ideas on the Web and must learn how to post her site in her web space. Assuming that she knows the address of her web space, http://www.stanford.edu/~heidic, she must learn how to “FTP” her web pages to this site. “FTP” is an acronym for “File Transfer Protocol”. If Heidi knows the acronym, this in and of itself may indicate that she understands the process of posting her pages. Although Dreamweaver has it’s own FTP function, we will assume that Heidi wants to learn how to FTP any HTML files, not only the ones that she has created in Dreamweaver. Hence, we will examine the process of learning how to FTP using a general FTP program. 5 In order to FTP, a number of steps must be done. First, she must login to the Stanford network. We will assume that she knows how to do this, since she was required to do so during orientation. Once she has logged in, she must then call up the FTP software program. The program creates a window with several prompts including a space to input a command to access her space as well as a space to insert her username. The command to access her space is “transfer.stanford.edu”. The command is logical and easy to remember. Once she has done input the necessary information, she needs to locate the files that she wants to transfer as well as choose the folder in her web space that she wants to put them in. We will assume that she knows how to locate the files she created using Dreamweaver, since she has prior knowledge and experience with computers and technology. The folder to which she will transfer her pages is named appropriately, “WWW”. Hence, if Heidi can correctly identify the true name for the acronym FTP and send the web page files to the WWW folder in her web space, she will have shown that she has learned how to post her pages on the web. Heidi recognizes the possibility that her web site may have to be updated at some point. Thus, she wants to learn how to edit her pages. We will assume that Heidi knows that she can recall her web page files in Dreamweaver, as she would be able to do with a document in a word processing program. Therefore, the true problem may be her understanding or lack thereof of the dynamic nature of the web space and that she has the ability to reload and rearrange her files in her web space. Heidi may make the analogy of the hard drive of her computer to her space on the web. The files on her hard drive can be arranged and updated to her liking. Similarly, she can do the same with her web space. If she can articulate her understanding of the analogy and explain it to someone else, it may show that she understands the editing possibilities of her space. Furthermore, the editing and updating of her web site will test her understanding of FTP, since she will need to perform this skill in order to revise her site. If she is able to edit her site successfully, it will reinforce the belief that she understands how to post her pages on the Web. As Heidi becomes more proficient and comfortable with building web sites, she may focus on the look and feel of the sites. Designing the structure of her pages as well as her entire site can be learned by creating a checklist of desirable features. There is a plentitude of information about how humans interact with computers, appealing colors and features, and other aspects of the design. Heidi could research and synthesize the information in order to create a checklist. Once her checklist is created, she can simply employ as many of the elements on the list as she can or wants to her pages. The process of designing and structuring her pages has been minimized to simply including the items of a list. This process can also be applied to designing the structure of her entire site. Heidi browses the Web daily and has navigated through a multitude of sites. From her experience of viewing other sites, she has a sense of the structures employed in sites that facilitate browsing and allow her to find the information she needs. She can create a checklist of common features of such sites as well as physically map the organization of sites that she could use to model her site. She can use both the list and the structural map in order to organize and structure her own site. 6 The Web is a powerful forum for communication, but as outlined in this proposal, there are many concepts and skills that must be learned in order to create a web site, let alone an effective one. 7