New Internet curriculum uses derby and games to teach.
Ray Van Eng (01/20/97)
That seems to be the idea when Headbone Interactive and Excite Inc. launched the 'Headbone Derby', an Internet based education and competition service that lends a whole new meaning to online learning. The service is free and the 'curriculum' is presented in a comic strip story format. Class players at schools and individuals at homes are asked to solve puzzles, answer questions and would learn about subjects like arts, science, language, culture, chemistry etc. along the process.
Registration for the Derby program is available at http://derby.excite.com. Once registered, the participants' scores are kept and updated daily at the web site. Teams from different schools or individuals at homes can compete against each other. Prizes will be given to the winners after the Derby is finished on March 15. C|NET has reported that a recent study from the California State University at Northbridge suggested that students who learn in a virtual classroom environment with heavy use of online resources, e-mail, electronic chat, newsgroups etc. actually did 20% better than their counterparts who learned in a traditional manner: in- class lectures and take home assignments etc. Jerald Schuttle, the professor who conducted the study indicated that, "the students formed peer groups online as compensation for not having time in class to talk...A classroom can be inhibiting, intimidating, you think you are the only person who doesn't know the answer, so you don't talk. The very way classrooms are set up, with everyone facing forward, deters interaction." Although the results seem to favor online education, Schutlle advises caution in applying the technology. Virtual learning "may only be useful in the abstract, only for certain kinds of classes," he said. |
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It
is a fun and interactive way of learning. To find answers to some questions,
students are encouraged to use the Excite search engine to look for the
information over the Internet. Officials believe that this will increase
children's ability to use online material and search functions effectively
to tackle problems and carry out researches that would prove to be useful
when they enter into an information based society later in life.