Integrated, Multidisciplinary & Technology-Enhanced Science
Education: The Next Frontier
Ivo D. DinovIvo D. Dinov
www.NSER.org
It’s Online, Therefore It Exists!
Challenges of K-College Science
Ed
Challenges of K-College Science
Ed
General• Geographic• Social• Economic • Technological challenges
Specific• The continuing expansion of
the Intergenerational Information Technology (IIT) divide;
• Social demand for broad, comprehensive and balanced multidisciplinary education.
IIT Divide
•Between providers & consumers of educational materials
•Instructors are more conservative, less willing to explore, validate and/or adopt new IT instruments
•Different from the normative gap of knowledge
•Byproduct of the fast-paced evolution of IT dev
Broad/Balanced
Training•Short-term view favors solid training in one narrow scientific discipline
•Faster
•Cheaper
•Measurable outcomes
•Long-term results may be opposite of expectations –
•graduate & professional schools seek individuals with widespread interests, training & capabilities
Challenges & Actions
Challenges & Actions
• Continuing Instructional Technology Training
• Engagement of Instructors in Science & Technology Research Projects
• Institutional Commitment in IT and Blended Instruction
• Funding Agency Engagement in IT and Blended Education
• Integration of Available Digital Resources in the Classroom
• Involve science educators in continuing technology education training.
• discipline-specific or general societal / organizational umbrellas.
• Most instructors participate in some annual continuing education events within their discipline.
• Few are deeply involved in regular technology-based refresher courses (e.g., < 25% of UCLA Stats faculty)
Dinov (2008) Integrated Multidisciplinary and Technology-Enhanced Science Education: The Next Frontier
, JOLT, 4(1), 2008, 84-93. http://jolt.merlot.org/vol4no1/dinov0308.htm
IIT DivideIIT Divide
Challenges & Actions
Challenges & Actions
• Continuing Instructional Technology Training
• Engagement of Instructors in Science & Technology Research Projects
• Institutional Commitment in IT and Blended Instruction
• Funding Agency Engagement in IT and Blended Education
• Integration of Available Digital Resources in the Classroom
• State/Federal Science Fairs
• Learn and contribute to new or ongoing research projects conducted by higher education institutions, professional organizations, private and federally funded initiatives
• Integrate research-derived data into curricula
http://jolt.merlot.org/vol4no1/dinov0308.htm
IIT DivideIIT Divide
Challenges & Actions
Challenges & Actions
• Continuing Instructional Technology Training
• Engagement of Instructors in Science & Technology Research Projects
• Institutional Commitment in IT and Blended Instruction
• Funding Agency Engagement in IT and Blended Education
• Integration of Available Digital Resources in the Classroom
• Provide infrastructure and resources is essential for the engagement of teachers in multidisciplinary S&T education.
• Provide computational resources, audio-visual and Internet-digital infrastructure, seed grants, human resources etc.
• Institutional commitment could be a significant barrier or a considerable asset in developing an IT blended curriculum.
http://jolt.merlot.org/vol4no1/dinov0308.htm
IIT DivideIIT Divide
Challenges & Actions
Challenges & Actions
• Continuing Instructional Technology Training
• Engagement of Instructors in Science & Technology Research Projects
• Institutional Commitment in IT and Blended Instruction
• Funding Agency Engagement in IT and Blended Education
• Integration of Available Digital Resources in the Classroom
• In 2006-2007, the NSF received 44,000 grants, 11,000 of which were funded
• Extramural funding does enable instructors to buy out time for attending continuing education events, develop blended curricula, establish new collaborations, collect data and design research projects
• www.ED.gov• www.GrantsAlert.com• www.NSF.gov• www.spencer.org• www.kidsinneed.net
http://jolt.merlot.org/vol4no1/dinov0308.htm
IIT DivideIIT Divide
Challenges & Actions
Challenges & Actions
• Continuing Instructional Technology Training
• Engagement of Instructors in Science & Technology Research Projects
• Institutional Commitment in IT and Blended Instruction
• Funding Agency Engagement in IT and Blended Education
• Integration of Available Digital Resources in the Classroom
• Digital resource libraries catalogue, curate, evaluate & integrate many valuable IT resources
• See list of resource libraries at
SOCR.ucla.edu/htmls/SOCR_Recognitions.html
• These resources provide • Datasets• methodological & conceptual learning
materials, • tools for data analysis and exploration• hands-on activities, demonstrations, tutorials
and refreshers for all disciplines, topics and levels.
http://jolt.merlot.org/vol4no1/dinov0308.htm
IIT DivideIIT Divide
Challenges & Actions
Challenges & Actions
• Develop New & Diverse Multidisciplinary Educational Curricula
• Institutional Commitment to Multidisciplinary Education
• Introduce Efficient Multidisciplinary Resource Interfaces
• Expectations of Students Enrolled in Multidisciplinary Programs
• Assessment of Interdisciplinary Instructional Effectiveness
• Lack of available multidisciplinary educational materials due to scarcity of expertise to develop such instruments
• Collaborations and interactions between different areas caused by terminology, specifications of data and methodological protocols, a priori assumptions, etc.
• See National Internet-based Science Educational Resource: www.NSER.org
Dinov (2008) Integrated Multidisciplinary and Technology-Enhanced Science Education: The Next Frontier
, JOLT, 4(1), 2008, 84-93. http://jolt.merlot.org/vol4no1/dinov0308.htm
Broad vs. Narrow Training
Broad vs. Narrow Training
Challenges & Actions
Challenges & Actions
• Develop New & Diverse Multidisciplinary Educational Curricula
• Institutional Commitment to Multidisciplinary Education
• Introduce Efficient Multidisciplinary Resource Interfaces
• Expectations of Students Enrolled in Multidisciplinary Programs
• Assessment of Interdisciplinary Instructional Effectiveness
• Need Firm institutional commitment and support
• 2004 National Academy of Sciences report (Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research) identified barriers to interdisciplinary efforts:
• limited resources, • academic reward system, • differences in disciplinary cultures, • the pursuit of national rankings (based on
traditional disciplinary categorizations), • differences in policies and procedures across
departments, and • decentralized budgets favor departments over
interdisciplinary programs.
http://jolt.merlot.org/vol4no1/dinov0308.htm
Broad vs. Narrow Training
Broad vs. Narrow Training
Challenges & Actions
Challenges & Actions
• Develop New & Diverse Multidisciplinary Educational Curricula
• Institutional Commitment to Multidisciplinary Education
• Introduce Efficient Multidisciplinary Resource Interfaces
• Expectations of Students Enrolled in Multidisciplinary Programs
• Assessment of Interdisciplinary Instructional Effectiveness
Broad vs. Narrow Training
Broad vs. Narrow Training
www.NSER.org
Challenges & Actions
Challenges & Actions
• Develop New & Diverse Multidisciplinary Educational Curricula
• Institutional Commitment to Multidisciplinary Education
• Introduce Efficient Multidisciplinary Resource Interfaces
• Expectations of Students Enrolled in Multidisciplinary Programs
• Assessment of Interdisciplinary Instructional Effectiveness
• Multidisciplinary research projects attract students’ attention rapidly and sustainably
• Learners exposed to well-designed and interactive hands-on multidisciplinary training acquire unique perspectives in understanding and dealing with complex problems
• Balancing the availability of sufficient area-specific high-level knowledge with abilities to look across many areas, draw resources and make inference about general multi-disciplinary challenges.
http://jolt.merlot.org/vol4no1/dinov0308.htm
Broad vs. Narrow Training
Broad vs. Narrow Training
Challenges & Actions
Challenges & Actions
• Develop New & Diverse Multidisciplinary Educational Curricula
• Institutional Commitment to Multidisciplinary Education
• Introduce Efficient Multidisciplinary Resource Interfaces
• Expectations of Students Enrolled in Multidisciplinary Programs
• Assessment of Interdisciplinary Instructional Effectiveness
http://jolt.merlot.org/vol4no1/dinov0308.htm
Broad vs. Narrow Training
Broad vs. Narrow Training Assessment of Interdisciplinary Educational Efforts
Measures Type Analysis Methods Summary
Volume of Multidisciplinary Resources
quantitative
Time-series analysis, parametric inference
Overall measure of interest and motivation behind interdisciplinary educational endeavors
User Demographics
Mixed quantitative & qualitative
Qualitative data analysis
Geographic, socioeconomic, age and level of the consumers of multidisciplinary training
Translational / Transitional Scientific Discoveries
qualitative Domain analysis
Types of problems solved using techniques, data and tools developed by broad multidisciplinary teams
Multidisciplinary Publications
Mixed quantitative / qualitative
Quasi-Statistics & Domain analysis
Scientific perception of multidisciplinary activities by peers and the general public
Training Curricula Overhauls
quantitative
Regression, correlation & parametric inference
Grass root changes in formal and informal multidisciplinary training
Economic demand for interdisciplinary workers
quantitative
Time-series analysis, parametric inference
Economic impact & trend to increase the quantity & quality of workers with integrated and broad knowledge
The National Internet-based Science Educational Resource
(NISER)
The National Internet-based Science Educational Resource
(NISER)
NISER DemoNISER Demo Goal is to demonstrate
http://wiki.stat.ucla.edu/niser/index.php/NISER_FishMercuryActivity
• A real research pipeline
• Data collection, visualization, analysis & interpretation
• Portable web-based resources
• Hands-on example of interdisciplinary training
• Interactions between different science areas
Chlorophyll 3D
Alkalinity
N (μ=10.54,σ2 = 45.64)
AcknowledgmentsAcknowledgments
Funding
NSF DUE 0442992 & 0716055NIH U54 RR021813
CollaboratorsN Christou, J Sanchez, R Gould J Cui, A Che, A Toga
www.NSER.org