Research: Development

Summary
Since 1994, I have been developing Web-based educational resources for dental professionals. I started to develop systems which where designed under the broadcast paradigm which centers around the teacher, not the student. This one-size-fits-all approach resembles a mass-production idea in which "you teach the same thing to students in the same way and assess them all in the same way."¹ My current projects try to exploit adaptive hypermedia research in order to move to an individual teaching approach. This learner-centered education begins with the selection of a learning goal, the evaluation of abilities and the determination of the individual learning style in order to structure and tailor the offered material in the most efficient way. As foreseen by Papert, Seymour in 1996, "In the learning environment of the future, every learner will be 'special'."²

Figure 2: Development of Web-based educational resources.

A new intelligent tutoring system for dental education (2003)

Spallek, H. Adaptive Hypermedia: A new paradigm for educational software. Advances in Dental Research, 17, December 2003: 38-42

Spallek, H, Schleyer, T: Adaptive Hypermedia for Online Dental Education. American Dental Education Association 2003 Annual Session. March 8-12, 2003; San Antonio, TX. Journal of Dental Education Vol 67 (2), 2003: 203.
[Poster PDF 406 KB] [Access to the online course--3CEU]

"Introduction to Computing" — An information technology course for predoctoral students (2003)

[Access to syllabus]

Internet Dentistry Resources, a self-maintaining database-driven repository for dental resources on the Web (2001)

[Access to online resource]

Interactive Anterior PFM Crown Preparation module (awarded "Honorable Mention" at the ADEA 2001 Instructional Computing in Dentistry Software Competition) (2000)

Spallek, H, Kaiser, R, Boberick, K, Boston, D, Schleyer, T: Web-based 3D online crown preparation course for dental students. AMIA Fall Symposium, Los Angeles, CA, November 4-8, 2000.
[PDF 258 KB]

Technical implementation of online course on the histology and the microscopic anatomy of the periodontium "Histology of the Periodontium" by Max A. Listgarten (1998)

[Access to online resource]

Online Continuing Dental Education courses at Temple University, School of Dentistry: "Dentistry on the Internet" and "Accessing and Searching Bibliographic Databases" (1997)

Computer-based Training in Periodontology (1995)

[Access to online resource]

¹Howard Gardner of the Harvard Graduate School of Education

²Papert, S. The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap. Marietta, GA: Longstreet Press, 1996.