| In an effort to improve the science education P-12 students receive, to increase the facility that teachers and parents have in their educational uses of the Internet, and to improve the technological methods that preservice teachers use to facilitate genuine inquiry in schools, the Washington State University Virtual Professional Development School (vPDS) hosted the world's first Internet-based science fair, the 1995 Washington State University Virtual Science and Mathematics Fair (vSMF or Fair). The vSMF was studied in order to understand the influences of the Internet on the many facets of education. The development and use of ethnotechnography, a systematic use of technologically enhanced remote fieldwork, yielded insights into the complex interaction between P-12 students, P-12 teachers, preservice teachers, teacher preparation university faculty, university administrators, the technology, the science instruction, restructuring efforts and online issues and elements of leadership.;Studying this interaction between technology and learners uncovered evidence that Internet may drastically modify practices in P-12 classrooms, teacher preparation programs, and the administration of universities. The specific implications of the Internet introduction to schools include dropping barriers of distance separating markets of students; dropping barriers between public schools, home schools and Schools, Colleges and Departments of Education (SCDEs); and pending programmatic shifts based on the ease of interaction between Internet participants. Herein, is evidence and argument supporting the notion that the deep culture and climate of America's largest economic endeavor will change dramatically as the Internet quickly becomes a major social reconstructive force in education and in our society. |
