ED-MEDIA 1999 Proceedings Book - Association for the ...

Designing and Implementing Web-Based Instructional Systems
Michael D. Chen
Eastern Illinois University
Media Service
Charleston, IL, U.S.A.
cfdxc@eiu.edu
http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfdxc/
Many have predicted that the Internet, particularly the World Wide Web, will transform education. But the claimed
potential will not come automatically. Without careful and deliberate design that takes into consideration the
specific conditions and constraints of various educational settings, the much hailed Web will only prove to be an
empty promise. As more schools are connected to the Internet and more teachers and students become increasingly
interested in using it in their teaching and learning, the need for easy-to-use and meaningful Web tools has grown
dramatically. So far, the tools available are either not really easy-to-use or meaningful for many teachers, whose
primary concern is teaching instead of technology. For example, while applications like Adobe PageMill, Microsoft
Internet Assistant, and Netscape Communicator have made it easier to produce HTML documents, the technical
skills required to use HTML documents for teaching and learning (linking, serving and managing them on the Web)
are beyond most users. Moreover, many existing tools bear little explicit pedagogical connection to the classrooms.
Designing of eWeb and HomePage Maker
There has been a growing interest in using computers to enhance instruction and learning through collaboration,
which resulted in a number of network-based learning environments. These environments often focus on a specific
domain or discipline and are often embedded with a set of particular pedagogical beliefs. Furthermore, these
environments often require a set of unique hardware and software or a combination of several packages. Most of
these environments run on local networks. There have been relatively few environments that support the entire
process of instruction, from the preparation of instruction to performance assessment for the instructor and from
accessing learning materials to collaborating with peers for the students, over a global network.
eWeb and HomePage Maker, two integrated education environments, exemplify a framework that strives to balance
technological innovations, educational changes, and classroom realities.
The conceptual framework for eWeb and HomePage Maker consists of three basic arguments:
• Adoption precedes change. For any intended change to occur, the innovation has to be adopted by the
teachers and students first.
• Realization is re-creation. The process of implementing an innovation is in essence a process of re-creation
in which teachers and students re-interpret the innovation in their own terms. Thus the realization of an
innovation often reflects a set of compromises between old and new ways of doing things.
• Learning is the evolution of knowledge. Human beings are active and fallible creators of knowledge that is
refined through criticism.
Therefore, the goals of designing eWeb and HomePage maker are (1) to promote adoption of the Web as an
education environment, (2) to foster, not impose, pedagogical changes by supporting re-creation, and (3) to
encourage the evolution of knowledge (for both teachers and students).