Scaffolding Web Exploration
Problem based learning and information problem solving using the Internet as the source for information involve some significant management issues. The core issue is how to use such a powerful resource without overwhelming inexperienced learners. The teacher’s role is critical in helping students learn to effectively address meaningful problems. To begin, the teacher should help students propose questions that are interesting and appropriate to their backgrounds and abilities. As the project unfolds, the teacher should challenge students to think deeply about what they are doing and guide them to learn the skills of thoughtful inquiry.
When the task is challenging and requires the development of multiple skills, it is often helpful if the learner does not have to take on all new challenges simultaneously. Apprenticeship and scaffolding, concepts we explored in our initial discussion of "Meaningful Learning in an Information Age", are useful when taking on authentic and complex challenges. The basic idea is to share responsibility for a complex task with an expert and ease students gradually into what are likely to be challenging tasks by creating a supportive structure to guide their work. In other words, as the teacher, you would initially do some of the work for students.
To see how apprenticeship and scaffolding might work, let’s consider a sample project. Assume that you would like your students to write a position paper on a controversial topic, using web resources. If they were working independently, each student would have to find resources related to the topic, examine a number of these resources to determine both the opposing positions and the basic arguments for and against each position, select a position to defend, find particularly good sources related to that position, carefully review the sources to obtain key data and develop sound arguments, and then write the paper. Consider just a couple of areas that might cause difficulty. Students might lack the experience to use a web browser in a sophisticated way, such as to conduct an advanced search or bookmark potentially relevant resources. Students might be unable or unmotivated to find truly good sources among the many that are available, or they might lack the reading or inquiry skills necessary to identify different positions or the arguments for and against these positions.
How would you assist the students? As the instructor you are likely to be more familiar with some of the issues involved in the controversy than would be your students. You might conduct an initial search with these issues in mind, generate a list of potential sites, and then designate several helpful sites for students to review. For each of these sites, you might offer guiding comments, such as, “This resource presents a good description of the general problem and outlines positions A and B,” or “This site provides some very persuasive arguments for position B.” You could also deal with some computer skill issues by authoring a simple webpage that presents this background material to the students and links them to the more productive sites. If the students have even the most basic competence in using a browser, this webpage would allow them to connect directly to the suggested resources. The cognitive apprenticeship model assumes that students will gradually take on more and more of these skills. To encourage this development, you might have students search for their own resources to augment those that you have provided, or you might ask students to review key resources without suggesting specific things they should try to learn from each resource.