Online help for Irish science education

The versatility and power of the Internet has been harnessed in a fresh approach to science education.

A new online education resource allows students to organise aspects of their course and select homework assignments while remaining within the planned curriculum.

The object is to maintain student interest in the course material, explained Dr Shane Harte, who created a company to promote the idea. He hopes the new system might stem the flow of students away from the sciences and maths.

The company is called IASTE - Institute for the Advancement of Science, Technology and Economics. Although Dr Harte lives and works in Detroit, it is an Irish online education resource and provides student and teacher services based on the Irish school curriculum.

"We want to provide students with materials which will capture their interest and then motivate them to take more control of their education," Dr Harte explained.

The education system here and in many countries is geared for the "mass production" of graduates, he believes. "It is one product for everyone and if you don't like it, tough. I think the system fails in that way."

His alternative view is based on giving students a choice and allowing them to mesh with the course work in the increasingly familiar medium of the World Wide Web. Students are comfortable with the Web. Dr Harte exploits this on the IASTE website, where students can surf the physics curriculum.

An extra dimension plays on the current interest in "reality TV" - putting ordinary people in front of the camera. The site includes interviews with professional scientists applying the material being learned by the students.

"With computer technology it is possible to personalise the curriculum around the student and give the student choice," he said. "I think personalisation is the key to what we are trying to do and personalising the reality TV concept."

The website is under construction but there is enough in place to give an idea of how it works. The first section being prepared is the physics curriculum, starting with nuclear theory to be followed by optics, mechanics, heat, wave motion and other course modules.

It works like any good website, but the content is all about what the students are studying. For the teacher, it provides lesson plans and other teacher-directed services. The students have control over how they pursue the information and then have a choice of homework. "We want to provide them with a choice which will interest them," Dr Harte said. "What we want to show the student is a real person and a real application."

The reality TV aspect is part of this. The students can click on to real people in real jobs. Two examples include Dr Conor Collins, a St Vincent's Hospital oncologist, or Mr Joe O'Dwyer in the Honeywell plant in Waterford, who appear on screen talking about their work. "It is the realism of the content that we are trying to use to capture the interest of the students."

Dr Harte believes commercial returns are possible with the IASTE approach, although this is still a long way off. "We would hope that our education model would become the ubiquitous education model," he said.

While it is immediately of value to second-level students and third level when the course material is developed, the approach could also be used to devise and implement in-house company training, he said.

There is also a sponsorship dimension, with sponsors helping to construct course material in return for space to promote a corporate profile. Companies, state bodies and third level institutions already signed up include Siemens, FLS Aerospace, Honeywell, Gammaster Ireland Ltd, the Eastern Health Board, the ESB, the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, FAS and University College Dublin.

The IASTE web site is at: http://www.iaste.com