Recommended
Reading
Essays &
Comment: Ex Libris: The World Wide Web can release students and teachers
from the tyranny of the textbook -- but only if they want to be free
The Sciences.
September/October, 1995. Vol. 35, No. 5. pp. 17-19
Roger B. Blumberg.
Roger
Blumberg is the author and creator of MendelWeb, an interactive WWW site
designed to introduce students of various ages to the original works of
Friar Gregor Mendel, an experimental physicist whose paper on the genetics
of pea-plants is "a brilliant example of a primary scientific text that
can be fruitfully studied by students of various ages, with a wide range
of interests, as part of a liberal education." MendelWeb also offers students
the chance to collaborate on a version of Mendel's paper, join a listserv,
or participate in an ongoing discussion of Mendel's work. The page also
offers links to some of Darwin's papers and links to sites focused on
contemporary research.
Blumberg was impressed by Mendel's "extraordinary ability to approach
biology with the experimental design techniques of a physicist, the analytical
tools of an applied mathematician, and the rhetorical skill of a natural
historian." In searching for textbooks and websites to use in teaching
genetics, Blumberg was discouraged by their failure to offer a multidisciplinary
approach to the subject. He also found that primary texts were not made
available to students and teachers relying on traditional textbooks; and
that philosophical, social, and historical information that would provide
a glimpse into the complex process of searching for answers were often
glossed over.
Blumberg hopes his model website might be part of the beginning of "...a
chain of sites tracing the history of genetics from Mendel to the molecular
world of gene amplification; [and] intelligent computer simulations of
experiments and links to schools all over the world, where students are
replicating historical experiments and posting their data for everyone
to analyze."
One way to get to MendelWeb is via SciEd - The Science and Mathematics
Education Resource designed and maintained at the University of
Washington by Alan Cairns. SciEd is a strong link in that chain, offering
the best of the Web's science and mathematics resources at one site. Cairns
has deliberately kept his pages simple and straightforward, free of distracting
graphics. It is and has been the best starting place for science and math
students and teachers searching out the Web's treasures. Go to the BioEd
link to get to MendelWeb when you reach SciEd. (We are deliberately not
including the direct link to BioEd so that you'll start at the top of
the SciEd page in the spirit of Blumberg's observation that many of the
boundaries of science are "no more than expedient partitions of culture.")
One strength of the Web for schools is its potential for interdisciplinary
links that widen the curious student's gaze. "Intelligent people often
tend to be conformists," suggests Edward de Bono in his book deBono's
Thinking Course (p.58). "They learn the rules of the game and make
use of them to have a comfortable life." Intelligent people quickly learn
to please teachers and pass exams, avoiding the risk-taking activity of
trial and error, "dead ends and blind alleys" that Blumberg points out
is a major part of the history of scientific activity. deBono suggests
that "[t]he paradox is that if we treat creativity...as a perfectly sober
part of information processing then we may get the strange effect of the
conformists being more creative than the rebels--because the conformists
are also better at playing the rules of creativity."
The Web's architecture could encourage creative academics to set up playgrounds
for students to engage in what Edward de Bono calls "lateral thinking."
Many creative people look at the world differently, expressing and communicating
their unique perceptions as did Mendel, in ways that are not immediately
appreciated by their peers. The Web is also a place where peers can meet
as they never could before, on a level playing field in an ordinary classroom
using using inexpensive equipment, connecting to a world of resources
designed not by textbook companies but by the kinds of thinkers, teachers,
researchers, and philosophers we have built our schools to nurture.
Also in this issue of The Sciences is a critique of several
current educational software dinosaur programs. At issue is the accuracy
of the information presented to future paleontologists. The reviewer also
discusses the shortcomings and potential of multimedia educational software.
Teachers must be alert to the potential for factual errors and a lack
of focus in these products, and demand that companies hire experts to
do more than provide editorial oversight. The article suggests that the
potential of multimedia is not yet being fully realized in an area of
the sciences almost guaranteed to hook the interest of budding researchers.
Blumberg,
Roger P. Ex Libris: The World Wide Web can release students and teachers
from the tyranny of the textbook -- but only if they want to be free
The Sciences Vol. 35, No. 5, September/October,
1995. (ISSN: 0036-861X) The Sciences is published by The
New York Academy of Sciences, Two East Sixty-third Street, New York, NY
10021. For information on subscriptions telephone: 212.838.0230. The single
copy price for this issue is $3.50.
deBono, Edward. deBono's Thinking Course New York, NY and Oxford,
UK: Facts on File, Inc., 1982, 1985. (ISBN 0-8160-1895-2) The Thinking
Course was published in the United Kingdom by the BBC to accompany
the television series deBono's Thinking Course. Other books
by de Bono include Lateral Thinking and Six Thinking Hats.
©
September 1995 New Horizons for Learning
http://www.newhorizons.org
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