Two Advanced Teaching and LearningEnvironments Based on Network
Wang Zhiguang Chen Ming
Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Petroleum, Beijing,102200
Tel:010-89733594/3424 010-89741987 13683018135
E-mail:cwangzg@
This paper illustrates two advanced teaching and learning environments----the multimedia big-screen network classroom and the open computer network lab, which are the two major environments in many colleges at present. Focusing on the structures, features, functions and scientific administrations of the environments, the paper demonstrates that the two environments have many advantages which the traditional classrooms have been lack of. One is that they allow the students to employ all of their learning senses to gain knowledge through seeing, hearing and doing, which greatly involves the students to participate in the classroom activities actively. The other advantage is that they can provide the students with a large quantity of knowledge and information both quickly and conveniently.
For such environments, the administration of them is vital, since any negligence will make them unable to work properly or likely to be infected by virus. So the administrative measures like building LAN, software maintenance, installing hard disk protection card etc., are not only necessary but also determined in terms of preventing virus attack.The actual application of the two environments indicates that they can almost meet all the requirements of the modern times’ teaching and learning. So they are really worth propagating.
Key words: the multimedia network classroom the multimedia big-screen network classroom the open computer network lab
1 Introduction
As is known to all, if seeing, hearing and doing can be simultaneously employed in learning, they can greatly improve learning effect. Psychological research also indicates that the knowledge gained through seeing, hearing and doing usually accounts for 95% of the total knowledge one has.
However, the traditional setting, in which the teachers give their illustrations about the screen information on the blackboard, can never enable the students to experience things or to participate in classroom activities actively. In order to permit the students to obtain knowledge through their own operational work, it is necessary to provide the students with advanced learning environments. After so many years practice and investigations, we have found the following two instructional environments are very popular and essential----the multimedia big-screen network classroom, the open computer network lab.
2 Multimedia big-screen network classroom
The multimedia big-screen network classroom can be classified into two types according to its structure, one is the multimedia network classroom, the other is the multimedia big-screen network classroom.
2.1 Structure of the multimedia network classroom
The multimedia network classroom mainly consists of a teacher’s computer and students’ computers, which form a Local Area Network(LAN) and are connected to the campus network through Switch, and to Internet as well, as it is shown in Figure 1. For the teacher’s computer, there is a powerful and an easy-to-operate-control panel, an earphone and a microphone which are linked to every student’s computer through the multimedia transmission cable, an instructional application system, which includes an object projector, a big-screen projector, a video CD, a recorder system, a digital video camera and a set of video conference system. For each student’s computer, there is a Call Teacher Box, an earphone, and a microphone.
The teacher’s computer and all the students’ computers can share the information of the file server, and can access to the campus network and Internet, since the classroom is connected to Internet through campus net by Switch or Router.
The computer LAN supporting the multimedia network classroom can be Ethernet with bandwidth of 10MB or 100MB. The basic topological structure of the network classroom can be star or bus LAN. The network operating system can be Windows NT/2000 or other operating system.
2.2 Main functions and features of the multimedia network classroom
Since the multimedia network classroom is a LAN classroom, and connected to campus net and to Internet, it has all the functions of the networking environment and can transmit the Internet information to the classroom, and thus enabling the students to broaden their knowledge and widen their vision. Under the teacher control panel, its functions can be concluded as follows:
(1) broadcasting teacher’s screen and sound to one or to all of the students.
(2) broadcasting one student’s screen and sound to one or to all of the others, realizing modeling function.
(3) checking the screen and voice of any student at any time.
(4) controlling the student’s computer by the mouse or keyboard.
(5) student’s question asking at any time by using the Call Teacher Box.
(6) grouping students to allow them to make conversations or discussions.
(7) remote teaching through a set of video conference system.
(8) realizing multi electronic teaching through connecting an object projector and a big-screen projector to a teacher’s computer.
It can be said that the multimedia network classroom is also a lab. While the teacher is illustrating and instructing, students can operate and practice simultaneously. Besides, the nature of some computer courses (such as Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual FoxPro and C programming langue etc.) highly requires practice and operational work and such a classroom can just serve the function of unifying the instruction, practice, operation and allows the teacher’s and students’ mutual operation at the same time. This along can improve the teaching and learning effect to a great extent.
Such environments also allow the CAI courses to be installed on the file server of the multimedia network classroom. So the students can share the information from it and aid their own learning, which is time saving and knowledge broadening. On the other hand, it can prolong the students’ self learning too. After classes, students can extend their learning in the network classroom with much freedom and with an easy access to various resources provided by the net. In this way the students can focus on their main concern and obtain a lot of information according to their own interests and each individual’s problems.
2.3 Multimedia big-screen network classroom
A multimedia big-screen network classroom mainly consists of a teacher’s computer, which is connected to the campus network through Switch, and to Internet as well. For the teacher’s computer there is an instructional application system, which includes an object projector, a big-screen projector, a video CD, a microphone, a recorder system and a power amplifier system. Since there are no student’s computers and a teacher’s control panel in this classroom, the students can not operate or practice but they can observe the teacher’s operation and learn knowledge from the teacher’s electronic teaching plan and multimedia courseware. And the teacher, with the aid of these facilities can easily transfer Internet information into the classroom, which can provide the students with a large quantity of knowledge compared with the traditional classroom equipment.
As the multimedia big-screen network classroom is similar to the classroom in 2.1, except that it has no students’ computers and the teacher’s control panel, the figure is omitted here.
3 Open computer network lab
3.1 Structure and features of the open computer network lab
An open computer network lab is both a lab and a public computer room, which is mainly composed of dozens or hundreds of students’ computers with net cards, sound cards and hard disk protection cards, a file sever, switches, net printers, and a IC card machine as shown in Figure 2. All the computers form a LAN and are connected to the campus network through Switch, and to Internet as well.
Figure2 the structure of the open computer network lab
In all the students’ computers are installed the operating system software Windows 98, in the server is installed Windows 2000. In the computer which is supplemented with an IC card machine is installed a charging administration software, and in all the students’ computers are installed fee counting software. And the net virus detection software is installed in the student computers and server. Besides, a great a mount of other software is also installed in the server and the student computers, such as Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual FoxPro, Visual J++, Office etc. The open computer network lab is connected to campus net with a high-speed fiber of broadband and to Internet.
As for the IC card machine in Figure 2, it is mainly used for charging the fees for using the computers. The fees for using the computers can be charged automatically through the charging administration software, which can really save some money collecting staff.
The open computer network lab is mainly for the students to have some operational practice in and after class. In this lab, students can get on Internet and search for information, learn computer language, do their assignments, type and print materials etc. In a word, the students can do various things efficiently in such environments. And because of the installation of the net virus detection software system and disk protection card in the student computers, the possibility of virus damage is reduced to a great extent. Therefore, we needn’t worry too much about virus attack and we can leave such a classroom open all day, both for the teachers to give the regular classes and experiments, and for the students to use it after class under no special supervision.
3.2 Scientific administration
Because of the frequent use of the open computer network lab and the multimedia network classroom, the administration of the environments is very hard and demanding. Students’ wrong operating, mischief making and virus attacking all can cause damages to the instructional software on the hard disk, and making the scheduled classes unable to be carried out .In such a case, the computer rooms’ working staff have to reinstall or rearrange individual student computers and configurations very frequently. Moreover, because the processing data of the instructional system and other software is getting bigger and bigger, the installing and repairing work is becoming heavier and heavier. Besides, some intentional damage can be only repaired by renewing the hardware. This alone can affect the usual teaching seriously. So to design a set of scientific administrative measures is necessary and vital.
(1)Building LAN: Building LAN can connect the environments with the campus net and then Internet as mentioned in the previous section. This allows us to download the net to repair the damage. If the software on the disk is damaged, we can reinstall it by downloading, and save the trouble of reinstalling individual computers, which often has to be done when the computers are not on the net.
(2)Software maintenance: Software maintenance refers to the measures of renewing software, designing net protection environment and using virus-killing software. For instance, prepare various kinds of virus-killing software available in the classroom and lab, renew and upgrade the software every month.
(3)Installing hard disk protection card: If we install a hard disk protection card, it can help the computer get rid of the virus attack and ensure the classes run smoothly.
(4)Installing net virus detection software: since the computer virus is common and disastrous at present, it is necessary to install the net virus detection software system in the file server and in the students’ computers. Whenever the protection card becomes invalid or the protection code is decoded, this system will work to prevent the net virus attack.
The above set of administrative measures has been proven very effective in practice and worth propagating.
4 Conclusion
The multimedia big-screen network classroom and the open computer network lab based on modern computer science technology represent two advanced teaching environments for the 21st century. In such classrooms, we can shift all the traditional teaching activities like illustrating, answering questions, correcting exercises to the net-screen as well as make the instructional contents into CAI courseware on the multimedia network platform and store it in the server for sharing. In this way we can provide the students with rich learning resources and change the traditional teacher-centered teaching into a student-centered teaching mode.
The fact indicates that the environmental influence on the learning is so substantial that the students learning effect and computer applied ability have been both improved greatly with in a short time.
Reference
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