| An online teaming community was created using a web site that featured science education resources from around the world. The web site is called learningscience.org. The web site used the categories of the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996) as the design template for the web site. Creation of the web site took two years, from June 2002 until May 2004. Scientists and science educators reviewed the selected science education resources. The web site went live on the Internet on June 2004. Users of the web site were tracked to determine the extent to which various science education resources were utilized. Users of the web site could also choose to post in the online forum (which was part of the web site) to comment, ask questions, or suggest other resources. Data was collected over a three-year period from June 2004 until May 2007, to determine the frequency of usage Data clearly showed there was a steady rise in usage for the three-year period, peaking in March 2007, with over 700,000 monthly hits from over 90 countries worldwide. Additionally, a number of users created reactions and questions in the online forum. |
