REMOTE EXPLORATORIUMS - COMBINING NETWORK MEDIA AND DESIGN ENVIRONMENTS

In an educational context, World Wide Web clients such as NCSA Mosaic( R) are of limited value because they put learners in the role of infor mation absorbers. Drawing on a museum analogy, learners using Mosaic c an be perceived, similar to museum visitors, as passive observers of e xhibits. Despite the richness of exhibits in terms of the amount of in formation as well as the use of multimedia, activity is restricted to navigation through real (museum) or hyper (Mosaic) spaces. More effect ive learning would include constructive activities that are more engag ing than just browsing information spaces. Distance education could be improved by augmenting network media with design environments to crea te remote exploratoriums that encourage highly interactive, engaged le arning experiences. In contrast to classical museums, exploratoriums, such as the one in San Francisco and several children's museums, featu re hands-on learning exhibits that are not only observed but can be ac tively manipulated. The Agentsheets Remote Exploratorium is a mechanis m to facilitate the easy exchange and distribution of interactive educ ational exhibits through the Internet. Agentsheets is a programming su bstrate to create design environments. In this paper, we discuss the i mplications of combining a network medium and a design environment in order to support distance education.