Internet in Education, Practical Experience and Future Plans
Aleš
Čepek and Josef Hnojil
Key words: Internet, Internet in education, XML.
Abstract
Introduction
The most of teachers in all types of education
levels face with innovations in teaching and learning which are often
denoted as computer-assisted teaching (CAT) and computer-based
learning (CAL).
Computer and information technologies surround us
in our whole life. The same situation is in the branch of geodesy and
cartography which is also fully computerized. We would like to show
examples and evolution of computers and Internet usage in teaching and
learning in this branch. First of the authors has been already
teaching computer oriented subjects for seven years, so we can follow
all the computer-based enhancements in education with him.
Evolution - how it was, how it is
The first regular seminar about Internet services
started in the end of year 1993. There was not World Wide Web service
- the Internet consisted of textual documents and few pictures. Both
teachers and students were experiencing a new technology. At this
place it must be said that from the first moment Internet was seen as
another but powerful working tool. The power of the Internet is in
communication, collaboration and cooperation. Emphasis in Internet and
informatics lessons must be on process and strategy not on
destinations and techniques.
As the consciousness of the Internet was coming
wider we included the Internet lessons as part of informatics lessons
in the first year of graduate studies. Computers are used in almost
all lessons as a working tool. We established electronic mailing lists
for some lessons (programming, informatics and databases) so the
students have another forum for discussing professional topics and
problems. The main problem is that students still miss the need for
sharing their knowledge as it is common at other (mostly West European
and American) universities. They do small steps and the frequency of
messages in the electronic mailing lists is increasing every year.
As the World Wide Web service widespread we started
to put some course materials (abstracts, literature, homeworks, etc.)
on-line. The potential of the WWW is at 24-hour access to documents.
In some seminars students are encouraged to write a
paper about selected topics. They must use information sources -
instead of drilling down the facts they practice finding useful
information in libraries, thematical databanks and on the Internet.
For most of them it is the first attempt to write their own technical
paper in which they can express their own ideas.
There were more changes last year. First, we
started to put annotations of diplomas on-line to our web site.
Second, we started to develop Open Source project called GaMa (Geodesy
and Mapping). The main objective is the development of public on-line
service for adjustment of geodetic 2D networks; our students are
involved in the project.
Future plans and expectations
We would like to see more intensive usage of modern
information technologies in our branch in the near future. For this
purpose the branch information strategy needs to be developed because
a non-coordinated application of computers and information
technologies would depreciate high status of the branch. We are
optimistic that it will be realized.
Aleš Čepek and Josef Hnojil
Department of Mapping and Cartography
Faculty of Civil Engineering
Czech Technical University in Prague
Thákurova 7
CZ-166 29
CZECH REPUBLIC
Tel. + 420 2 2435 4647
Tel. + 420 2- 435 4650
E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://gama.fsv.cvut.cz
Internet in Education, Practical
Experience and Future plans
We believe that educators in all educational levels
face the innovations in teaching and learning which are often denoted
as computer-assisted teaching (CAT) and computer-based learning (CAL).
Computer and information technologies are getting more or less
standard and integral part of our life. The same situation is in the
branch of geodesy and cartography which is also becoming computerized.
We would like to present our practical experience with our efforts of
introducing the Internet as an educational tool in education of
surveyors at TU Prague.
As Stig Enemark noted, "the environment in
which the surveyors practice is changing rapidly, according to
technological and managerial development" (Enemark, 1996).
Although there is no formal coordination in developing educational
methods, almost every team comes to the same conclusion; usage of
electronic tools is necessary if the branch of surveyors and
cartographers wants to survive and hold high level and keep in contact
with other branches. The most important idea which must be considered
when developing new methods for learning is the ease of usage.
We started our first seminar introducing Internet
services to our students towards the end of 1993. It was the end of
the pre-Web era; the information sources of the Internet consisted
mainly of textual documents at that time. Both teachers and students
were experiencing a new technology. We considered the Internet from
the first moment to be a powerful working tool of future. And the
more, it was one of the first glimpses of coming freedom, after four
decades of communist totalitarian regime, bringing us the
possibilities of communication, collaboration and cooperation which we
had never met before. There is no doubt that emphasis in Internet and
informatics lessons must be on process and strategy not on
destinations and techniques.
One of our problems at that time was, that if we
wanted to promote active usage of the Internet among our students (for
example creating web pages), we had no other choice but to start
running our own internet server. It cost us a lot of time and energy
on the one hand, but we gained a lot of practical experience on the
other hand, which we would never get otherwise. Linux was our choice
of operating system and it has proven to be the good choice. It has
given us the starting ground for our present activities like running
our own Apache web server with dynamically generated web pages based
on PHP or the background necessary for introduction of XML technology
of structured data documents into our projects. Here we would like to
mention our collaboration with the Czech research institute for
geodesy (VUGTK) on the project of
online public access to the library catalogue.
We appreciate on the Internet its immense
possibilities of direct communication among people. In our seminars we
run electronic mailing lists as the active forum of the communication
as opposed to the more or less passive presentation of learning
materials on the web. In these mailing lists we are trying to persuade
our students to answer questions of their student-colleagues as much
as possible (active role in the list is taken into account at the
examination). The main problem is that our students still miss the
need for sharing their knowledge as it is common at other (mostly West
European and American) universities.
As we have mentioned before, our main platform is
Linux - a new phenomenon which would never come to the existence
without the Internet. Our practical experience with the Open Source
Software as represented by FSF,
GNU or Linux
inspired us to the considerations whether we could add our own
contribution to this movement. As the result, we started project of
free geodetic GNU software: C++ template libraries GaMaLib
(and gMatVec) for adjustment of geodetic 2D networks. Even in this
very special subject the idea of open software proved to be attractive
to our selected students.
Our future plans are concerning long-term project
focused on usage of XML language in the field of geodesy and
cartography. At the present we have managed to introduce the idea of
XML as the platform independent tool for data description in the
project of metainformation system of the Czech Association for
Geoinformation (CAGI). The main
reason of our short memo was to inform briefly about our activities
and at the same time we would like to use the possibility of meeting
our colleagues during FIG 2000 Working Week to find partners for
future collaboration.
References
Enemark, S., 1996, The Work of FIG Commission 2, In: Proceedings of
FIG Commission 2 Joint Workshop on Computer Assisted Learning and
Achieving Quality in the Education of Surveyors, Sept. 4-6
Čepek, A. - Hnojil, J.: First Contacts with Internet at the
Czech Technical University. In Trevor Owen, Ron Owston, Cheryl Dickie
(Eds.): The Learning Highway: A Student's Guide to Using the Internet
in High School and College, Key Porter Books, Toronto, 1995, ISBN
1-550130615-1, pp.186-189
Čepek, A. - Zimová, R., Cartography, GIS and the Internet in
Education. In: Proceedings II. - GIS Frontiers in Business and
Science, konference GIS'96, 20.-24.4.1996
Aleš Čepek
and Josef Hnojil
Czech Technical University in Prague
Department of Mapping and Cartography, Faculty of Civil Engineering
E-mail:[email protected] and [email protected]
Web site: http://gama.fsv.cvut.cz/
27 March 2000
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