This scenario describes the activities of a student using the virtual school to collaborate with others to complete a lab exercise involving the simulation of a block and plane experiment. The users (Bob, Jenny, and Mark) are members of an 8th grade physical science class.
Bob logs into the virtual school system by entering his username and password into the appropriate text edit fields on the login dialog box and clicking the "Go" button.; After his identity has been authenticated a dialog box comes up displaying the names and icons of members in his group. The dialog box consists of two lists. The top list contains names and icons of group members who are not logged in. The bottom list contains the names and icons of group members who are logged in. Next to the name of each group member is a checkbox. Bob's name appears in the top list and the checkbox is checked by default indicating that he is logging in. In addition, Mark is already logged in so his name and icon appear in the bottom list. Jenny is also at the computer with Bob and they plan to work together on the lab exercise. Bob clicks the checkbox next to Jenny's name and her icon indicating that she is working with him. Bob then clicks the "Go" button to log both he and Jenny into the system.
After Bob and Jenny have logged in, two tiled windows are presented. The window on the right contains the names and icons representing all of the group members. The icons representing group members who are not currently logged in are displayed as grayed out icons. The other window contains a representation of a closed notebook. The notebook has tabs to represent each of several labs.
The first thing Bob and Jenny must do is contact Mark, who is working at another school, to let him know they are ready to begin the exercise. They click on the icon in the right window that represents Mark. A menu pops up containing options that allow the user to Email the person, text chat with the person, A/V conference with the person, or view the person's profile. They select A/V conference. Two windows come up. One window has Jenny and Bob's video image. The other has a status message indicating that they are waiting for Mark's response. When Mark responds his image appears in the second window and the audio channel is opened so that Mark can communicate with Bob and Jenny and vice versa. Mark indicates that he is ready to proceed with the exercise.
On the notebook, Bob clicks on the tab labeled "Block and Plane". The notebook opens to the initial pages of the Block and Plane lab. The page on the right contains step-by-step instructions to complete the exercise. The page on the left contains the Block and Plane simulation applet connected to a graphing utility.
The first instruction is a link to an article containing background information for the lab. Bob clicks the link and he and Jenny read the article (See possible notebook web access scenarios). The same image is presented to Mark.
The second instruction directs the users to run the Block and Plane simulation with specific parameters. Bob tells Mark, through the A/V conference link, to do this. Mark enters the specified parameters and clicks the "Run" button. When he clicks the "Run" button the simulation runs and the data are graphed simultaneously by the graphing utility. The simulation display and graph output appears both on Mark's screen and the screen Bob and Jenny are looking at.
The third instruction directs the user to copy the data from the output of the simulation to the table provided on the instructions page. Jenny copies the data and pastes it into the table on the instructions page.
After copying the data Bob turns the page in the notebook to a page containing questions having to do with the lab exercise (See possible notebook page navigation scenarios). Bob, Jenny, and Mark (through the A/V conference link) collaborate to come up with answers to the questions. They record their answer in the notebook by typing them directly under the questions.
After answering the questions Bob and Jenny choose to log out. Upon selecting the logout option Bob and Jenny are presented with a dialog box asking if they are sure they want to log out. Bob clicks the "Yes" button. They are then logged out of the system.
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