OBJECTIVES
· Critique overall plan and role of probes in evaluating educational use of wide area networks
· Critique specific strategies planned for the two development projects
· Discuss suggestions for extending and applying the project concept to other areas
Teacher and/or Student Workstation Tools
Stage 1: "Envelope" technique
Applications of interest such as internet applications and tools used to analyze or compose material are placed within a "folder" which acts as onsite task observer/recorder as well as a shipping and receiving agent for the evaluators.
Stage 2: Customized applications
The project utilizes hooks or features that are built into future products used with wide area networking or gains enough acceptance/utility to have producers/developers adapt versions of popular applications to work within the evaluation framework.
Teacher and/or Student Workstation
Information to be collected by the envelope model:
Initialization:
Local Reference Information National Reference Information
___________________________________________________
Location (name) Location code
Workstation (name) Workstation code
Date initialized
Number of users
Setting Description
Project Description
User:
Local Reference Information National Reference Information
____________________________________________________________
User Name User Id
Age
Sex
Grade
Role description
Goal description
Session:
Local Session Information National Reference Information
____________________________________________________________
User Name User ID
Date
Time start
Session Objective:
Time stop
Applications
Start
Stop
Project-specific forms
TCP/IP packets in
TCP/IP packets out
Network Host Server
For National Projects:
Local Reference Information National Reference Information
___________________________________________________
Server Location code
Server name
Date initialized
Number of users
Setting Description
Project Description
User:
Local Reference Information National Reference Information
____________________________________________________________
User Id
User name
User e-mail address
School
Age
Sex
Grade
Role description
Goal description
Session:
Local Session Information National Reference Information
____________________________________________________________
User ID
Date
Time start
Session Objective:
Time stop
Applications
Start
Stop
Project-specific forms
Modular Aspects of the Local Probe
Initialization:
sets up the workstation as a single user or multiple user environment
collects setting details
collects project details
registers unique id for workstation with data central
user id assignment and registration
Tracker:
User log in
time start and elapsed time of separate application use
(for applications stored in the folder)
TCP/IP or Comms port volume, direction, time
Specific Application Trackers:
Mosaic/Netscape URL history log
Gopher location log
FTP log
Project-Specific Forms Receiver/Displayer
Accepts forms "mailed" to the workstation and auto-installed
Forms can be surveys, logs, checklists
Forms can be set to display:
at the start of a session
at the end of a session
at specific timed intervals throughout a session
at preset trigger
Forms are either set to display once per user or are repeatedly displayed
Information mailer
Initialization data, session logs, completed forms are mailed as separate messages back to data central.
Central Analysis Tools
Information Receipt and Storage
Individual data reports (from Network Server and Individual Workstations) come in as individual mail messages.
Message check to see if it is able to be processed, if not mailed to appropriate person. If okay, it is scanned for type of record and loaded into the appropriate posting file as a record to be added. Log of action created.
Posting files reviewed and then added to database files.
Related Databases:
Network Host Registry
Server Code
Date Initialized
Number of users
Project Registry
Project Code
Server Codes
User Codes
Form Type Codes
Server Description
Server Code
Server Description text
Description Date
Project Description
Project Code
Project Description
Description Date
User Registry
User code
School
Age
Grade
Sex
Name
E-mail address
User Description
User code
User Role text
User Goal
User code
User Goal text
Forms
Session code (unique)
Form type code
Date
User code
Project Code
Form data
Miscellaneous Tools
Forms Creation Tool:
Allows project personnel, research to create forms based on various templates that work with the workstation probes.
Analysis Tools:
General and project-specific reporting tools that retrieve data into:
Excel worksheets
Text summaries
Index of additional documents::
For more information, send e-mail to Robert Spielvogel.