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Web 2.0 In Action
'That Which Weaves Together': The NSF Cyberlearning Report
8/20/2008
The National Science Foundation issued its Report of the NSF Task Force on Cyberlearning on June 24, 2008 -- "Fostering Learning in the Networked World: The Cyberlearning Opportunity and Challenge." The purpose of the report is to create "A 21st Century Agenda for the National Science Foundation," but in fact the agenda can be applied to all of higher education in the U.S. http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf08204The report quotes Michael Cole's 1996 book, Cultural Psychology: A Once and Future Discipline (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), presenting "context" as "that which surrounds us" and "that which weaves together." The Web now surrounds us, but how do we weave our new world together? The report provides ideas for higher education in the STEM disciplines to do so.
The Significance of the NSF Report
The report is an invaluable addition to our understanding of the impact of the technology explosion of this century: seven pages of key references -- more than 150 of them; the report is written by 12 prominent authors who speak authoritatively, and very readably; it is an important recognition of where we are; and, it speaks with urgency about education recognizing that the knowledge infrastructure has changed more rapidly than education has been able to adjust to.
The report urges the NSF to "emphasize the transformative power of information and communications technology for learning, from K to grey." (p. 7) It reflects the building consensus that educational institutions should no longer think of how to adapt technology to the existing curriculum, but how to transform the enterprise to thrive in the changed knowledge infrastructure.
The Stages of Human Interaction
On page 11 of the report, we find a graphic from Roy Pea and Jillian Wallis representing the stages of human interaction over the millennia, from face-to-face to symbol mediated to communication mediated to network mediated and, finally, to cyberinfrastructure mediated. The graphic shows that today's students take part in all five mediations.
We can imagine a circular arrow connecting recursively the cyberinfrastructure stage back to legacy human values of orality and social connectedness ("face-to-face"). The Web is not only new, it has grown enormously because in some ways it's an antidote to the distancing factors so prominent in the age of the automobile. Web technology brings the world back to human scale.
The report laments how slowly education has changed in response to the great opportunities of cyberlearning (see excerpts below, all from page 12):
-- [Since A Nation at Risk,] "Few of the innovations tried over the ensuing 25 years have resulted in large-scale systemic change in education. Despite the revolutions wrought by technology in medicine, engineering, communications, and many other fields, the classrooms, textbooks, and lectures of today are little different than those of our parents."
Recommended Reading
- Georgia Tech Helps Develop Web-based Tool To Improve Blood Supply
The Georgia Tech College of Computing, working in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has developed a Web-based tool for tracking blood safety. The program is expected to help developing countries improve the adequacy and safety of their national blood supplies through better monitoring and evaluation.
- Mississippi State Implements Reflex Virtual Management Center
Mississippi State University has implemented Reflex VMC (Virtual Management Center) from Reflex Systems. The application allows IT administrators to monitor a virtual infrastructure and enforce business and IT policies.
- Stanford Law School Launches IP Litigation Clearinghouse
The Law, Science & Technology Program at Stanford Law School has launched the Intellectual Property Litigation Clearinghouse (IPLC), an online database that offers comprehensive information about intellectual property (IP) disputes within the United States.
- Texas A&M Health Science Center Adopts Banner Administrative Management
The Texas A&M Health Science Center has selected the Banner Unified Digital Campus (UDC) from Sungard Higher Education to help unify its geographically-dispersed community and to enhance and expand services and communications to its growing student enrollment.
- NCCC: Data Cleansing Key To Managing Growth
Community colleges are in a good spot in some ways during the economic downturn, as tight family budgets drive up the appeal of the community college option. But along with the rest of higher education, most community colleges also face shrinking IT budgets and tighter resources. That makes it that much harder to handle the growing enrollment numbers that some community colleges are seeing.
- Finjan: Layoffs Could Drive IT People To Become Cyber-Criminals
Security vendor Finjan predicts that the current economic downturn could herald a sharp rise in cybercrime during 2009--driven by the rise in the number of IT people being laid off. According to a report from the company's Malicious Code Research Center (MCRC), more unemployed IT personnel will be tempted to seek "new and easy income by purchasing and using crimeware toolkits that are sold by professional hackers."
