Following the Trend

Maddux, Johnson, and Willis in the book Educational Computing talk about Kneller's idea that changes in schools, typically occur after changes in the culture at large. The business and corporate use of Intranets have increased dramatically over the pass five years. It is currently estimated that over 25% of businesses utilize the use of an Intranet (Gammel, 1996). It is inevitable that schools will follow this trend. Some schools are already utilizing Intranets. One school in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Prince of Wales Collegiate, is already using an Intranet to deliver multimedia content for some courses.

What is an Intranet?

Intranets are private networks. Cortese, 1996 tells us that Intranets use the infrastructure and standards of the Internet and the World Wide Web but are cordoned off from the public Internet through software programs known as 'fire walls'. Thus teachers and students can venture out onto the Net, but unauthorized users can't come in.

Intranets offer convenient and organized storage of information and most important they also offer easy and secure access to this information. (Downing & Rath, 1997). An Intranet uses the familiar 'browser' interface such as Netscape or Internet Explorer, which is used to access the World Wide Web. By incorporating password protection and firewalls, schools can be assured that only authorized individuals have access to sensitive and confidential data such as grades, medical records and financial statements (Apple, 1997).

 Internet vs. Intranet
 

Internet	Intranet
Packets are public  IP protocol suite  Cost spread out  Problematic management  Weak policies  No enforcement  No controlling organization	Packets are private  IP protocol suite  School bears costs  School management Strong policies  Central enforcement  School controls

 

Intranets offer all the benefits of the Internet but offer them better (Horgan, 1997). By presenting information in the same way to every computer, Intranets can do what computer and software makers have frequently promised but never actually delivered: pull all the computers, software, and databases around the school that enables students and teachers to find information wherever it resides. Universal reach is what made the Internet grow so rapidly in the first place (Cortese, 1997). An Intranet can be used to access any school wide resource but only the Intranet offers strong management, with school controls and policies.

Classroom Uses of an Intranet

WebCT is one means of using an Intranet in a classroom setting. Use of this package is offered through STEM~Net, the Newfoundland provincial educators network. Many education courses at Memorial University such as Education 6615, 6620, 6649, offer instruction using this tool. As well several high school courses such as Science, Mathematics, Global Issues, and World History are among some of the classes already utilizing this resource.

Users access WebCT through either Netscape or Internet Explorer’s browser. They are asked for a login and password to gain access. Users are provided with access to personal email for communication, a bulletin board for class postings and discussion, and a web page creation utility for posting assignments. The program also allows students to check grades, and track individual usage.

I have had the opportunity to use this tool during a graduate course at the university. From this experience I found the most widely used component to be the bulletin board. The amount of classroom communication was staggering. Ideas were constantly exchanged, topics debated and interesting web sites brought to attention. The benefits of using this type of medium are obvious. Increased class communications involving lively discussions and debates of issues often leads to heightened awareness and on an issue.

Literature Review

There is not a wide array of literature available on classroom uses of Intranets. This is possibly due to classrooms using the concept of the Intranet but calling it the Internet. One report that did come to light was Downing & Rath's 1997 study "The Internet as Intranet." It studied the use of Intranets in a college classroom. Although they did not use a specific software package such as WebCT, it appears that their design implemented most of the common elements of this program. For example students had access to personal email, a bulletin board and a means of checking their grades. Their most pertinent question was "Does using an Intranet increase classroom communications?" They also investigated what types of activity students used the Intranet for.

Downing & Rath reported that most students used the Intranet for checking grades. Almost half of the activity on the Intranet was used for this purpose. It was also noted that this was a useful means to get students to start using this system. The second most used activity was reading the class bulletin board, followed by personal email and lastly communicating with the teacher. This study also suggested that students with higher averages were far more likely to use the Intranet and appreciate its benefits. Students with more convenient access to a computer also rated using the Intranet higher. This raises the important issue of access when implementing a school Intranet. If a school does not currently have easily accessible computers, attempting to utilize an Intranet might best be postponed.

This study involved college students but we can assume high school students would behave similarly. Students on the average reported using the Intranet three to four times per week. Communication processes of classes were reported to have improved greatly. Further, possibly due to the large amount of attention given to the Internet in the popular press, and the uniqueness of the method, students also received the process well.

Intranets & Constructivism
Intranets improve communications, students can use intranets to check their grades.  But can Intranets be used to support a constructivist educational approach?  First of all what is constructivism?  We have been hearing about the teacher as a facilitator for some time now. Defined, "constructivism" is a philosophical educational approach in which it is argued that since knowledge is socially and culturally constructed, it is the learner who constructs knowledge for themselves. It argues that no two people have exactly the same personal constructs of knowledge (Uys, 1998).

Given this defnition can Intranets be used to support constructivist learning?  Intranets are similar in design to the Internet.  Many papers written on this topic support the notion that constructivist theory is strongly supported by Internet usage. (Live Text, 1998). Using the Internet students can follow up-to-the minute resources.  This brings a reality to projects that cannot be matched by traditional informational resources. Students follow their interests. Teachers provide the necessary concepts, but students go out onto the Internet and find their own information.  The addition of a school-based Intranet can add to this process by providing a place where students can showcase their work.

Teachers should be conscious of the following five factors when using Intranets in the classroom:
     1. Construction of knowledge rather than instruction
     2. Developing authentic rather than artificial learning tasks;
     3. Giving students voice and ownership within the learning process;
     4. Enabling students to construct knowledge from their own life experiences;
     5. Awakening students to their part in the knowledge construction process.
 
Other Benefits

Over the past three years we have seen a staggering amount of media attention given to the Internet and all the possibilities that it offers. What schools are missing though, is that the same tools used to create great Web sites can be used to deliver information and curricula inside the school more efficiently (Welch, 1996). There are many benefits to using an Intranet in a school both inside and outside the classroom. Among these are reduced paper usage, increased efficiency, wider access information and higher in speeds for delivering more diversified media.

The most obvious benefit of a school Intranet is the saving on paper and photocopying costs. This fee is in the thousands of dollars for schools. One city principal reported spending in the range of 20,000 dollars for a school with 700 students. Some types of documents such as books, manuals, training materials, forms, agendas, memos, and announcements, can be converted to electronic form on the Web and constantly updated (Cortese, 1997). Not only would placing these documents on a Intranet be cheaper but it would decrease the workload for secretaries and teachers by reducing the amount of time it takes to print, photocopy and distribute paper copies staff members and students.

The Intranet can also be used for interactive forms such a leave requests, requisitions, or surveys. Fully formatted newsletters, memos, and reports can be presented with a quality that rivals their printed counterparts. It is usually less time consuming to develop these publications and there are no printing costs.

Not only can the Intranet improve classroom communications and lower paper costs but it can also raise the quality of instruction. One of the most common complaints about the Internet is the bottleneck found in speed. Limited bandwidth reduces the usability of media such as video, sound and animation. Schools in Newfoundland and Labrador often find speeds acceptable during the mornings but access to sites slow down significantly as the day progresses. Intranets work at higher speeds thus enabling the use of video, animation and sound in a multimedia environment. Classes who could not utilize these media forms through the computer because of reduced speed can place these materials on the Intranet for study.

 Challenges

To successfully incorporate the use of an Intranet into schools we have to face several challenges. Teachers must come to rely on the Intranets performance, availability, serviceability and security. Some common misconceptions involving Intranets are that they are new, expensive and hard to maintain. Intranets are not new. Businesses have been utilizing their benefits for over five years. Intranets do not raise costs but help lower them. Often new software does not need to be purchased. The biggest challenge for incorporating an Intranet in schools is the hidden costs. An ideal Intranet plan that launches users away from paper and into a world dependent upon techno-literacy will require extensive training. The hidden costs of Intranet implementation and use are:

1. Training

2. Time to create and update content

Staff and faculty members will need extensive inservicing and training to use this resource. Their endeavors must be supported. Likewise teachers and staff must take time to create and update content on a regular basis.

Conclusion

The benefits of using an Intranet in a school are diversified. In a classroom the Intranet increases communications, information is more easily accessible, speeds are increased for locally accessed sites, cost of paper is reduced and efficiency of communicating is increased. Intranets can also be used to facilitate a constructivist educational approach. Effectively deploying an Intranet requires planning, collaboration and technical work to make the Web easily used by non-technical staff, and to effectively manage the large amounts of information that exist in an enterprise. Overall, if managed correctly a school based Intranet can be a powerful tool for both students and teachers.

 References

Cortese, Amy. 1997. Here Comes the Intranet. Cover Story for Business Week Magazine. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. 1997.

Gammel, C. David. 1996. Corporate Intranets. Mobility Magazine, October, 1996. Online version http://www.erc.org/research/corpint.htm

Horgan, Tim. 1997. Developing Your Intranet Strategy. CIO Magazine Online. http://www.cio.com/WebMaster/strategy

Live Text, 1998. Institute for Learning Technologies. WWW Constructivist Project Design Guide 

Ulys, Philip, 1998. The hydi Educational New Media Centre: Findings In Distributed On-line Education. Paper presented as a seminar at the Knowledge Media Institute of the Open University in London, UK.

Welch, Douglas E. 1996. What's an Intranet? Computer Credible Magazine