USCs Education Sciences Centers Vision

1
USCs Education Sciences Centers Vision Enabling
Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM)
Instruction
Nov 08
2
Educational Sciences Centers Concept

• There is a compelling national need for, USC has
  demonstrable pre-eminence in and we can
  articulate credible funding assurance for a group
  of research centers in the VSOE at USC, focused
  on information sciences for education, operating
  under the penumbra of the Information Sciences
  Institute total initial budget 15M/yr.

3
Concept Overview 15M/yr., 10-year Group of
Centers

• The Condition U.S. K-12 STEM education is in
  extremis STEM jobs are moving overseas
• The Conundrum despite national attention and
  sizable funding, there is little improvement
• The Cause lack of cohesion, poor
  interoperability and no durable technical
  champion
• The Challenge create an organization that
  demonstrably serves these needs
• The Capability USCs VSOE/ISI are the home to
  recognized leaders in needed fields -
  distributed computer systems - standards
  establishment - natural language - A/I
  modeling
• The Course of Action USC, VSOE and ISI should
  lead nationally funded ten-year effort (
  15M/yr) to ameliorate the negative impacts of
  this critical problem

4
TIMSS Data on 8th Grade Math (Trends in
Mathematics Science Study)
Average is higher than the U.S.
average Average is not measurably different
from the U.S. average Average is lower than
the U.S. average
Highlights From the Trends in International
Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)
2003 December 2004 U.S. Department of Education,
National Center for Education Statistics
5
CURRENT SITUATION K-12
SHORTAGE OF STEM TEACHERS - 40,000 will be
needed in California - Too few graduating
- Existing STEM teachers need relief INCREASING
HETEROGENEITY IN THE CLASSROOM - Wide spread
in intellectual capability - Diverse
language skills - Inconsistent family
support GROWING ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN ON
TEACHERS - More control from above -
Frustrating records requirements - Little
time left for creativity and student attention
- Many teachers uncomfortable in math and
science
6
CHALLENGES MET BY WORLD-CLASS RESEARCH

• Barriers to Education
• Short life of programs
• Difficulty in distribution
• Heterogeneous classrooms
• Culture
• Boy/Girl issues
• Family support/background
• Languages
• Capability
• Teacher training requirements
• Over-burdened teachers
• Content capture hard
• Standardize testing issues

• ESCs Solutions to Enable Excellence
• Centralized and maintained courses and code
• Communication and bandwidth enhancement
• Individualized training that adjusts to student
• Culturally sensitive teaching approaches
• Sex-neutral derision-protective learning
• Remedial special instruction for those left out
• Language assistance and ELL programs
• Self-paced optimized for slow or fast learners
• Teacher-selected participation level
• Centralized technical facility/simple classrooms
• Automated and easy templates for content
• Supplant or replace with In-place evaluation

7
EDUPLEX CONCEPT
8
Technology Development Plans

• Educational Architectures Sciences Center
• Central Eduplex Cluster Computational and
  Communications H/W and S/W
• Thin Clients H/W features, Design parameters,
  Implementation issues
• IntraNet Architecture Design Design
  requirements, System architecture, H/W
• Educational Pedagogy Sciences Center
• Pedagogy Ingestion Content capture, Efficacy
  evaluation, Classroom VVT
• Interactive Interfaces Underpinnings of
  pedagogy, Human/machine interface
• Education Evaluation Sciences Center
• Performance Based Student Evaluation Data
  structures, Records interfaces
• System Evaluation Planning evaluation,
  Measuring efficacy, Conveying data
• Education Interoperability Sciences Center
• Interoperability Studies Survey of all
  pedagogical and administrative systems
• Standards Creation/Adoption Identifying,
  coalescing, fostering and serving
• Request for Comment Program Design and
  implement more effective communications

9
USCs ESCs Will Garner Buy-in from

• Mainstream students within one s of the mean
• Students outside the norm of the mainstream
  classroom
• Parents both tech-savvy and technophobes
• Broad spectrum of teachers, most of whom feel
  left out
• School District executives and administrators
• Education and training leaders and educators
• Small start-up computer aided education firms
• Large education materials publishers
• Political leadership at local, state and national
  levels

10
WHY THIS WILL SUCCEED!

• Focus on broad Teacher Acceptance
• Provide access to help not addition to burden
• Enable alternative to standardized testing
• Deliver low maintenance/high utility in classroom
• Proven technology and approach from ISI DoD work
• DEN history of success in distributed educations
• Replicability of ISIs Internet infrastructure
  design experience
• Open Source, Published Interfaces Standards
  Body
• Continuous improvement and maintenance of content
  and tools

11
BUDGET
4
1
2
Year 4 -Refresh hardware
Year 2 -Same as year 1 with no hardware purchases

• Year 1
• -Machine Purchase (Maui)
• -Machine Operation (Bal) and programming
  (Maui-Bal or
• ISI Hawaii)
• -System architecture
• (ISI Marina)
• -Money to be spent on education tools either
• ISI Marina or Hawaii
• or elsewhere (later on)

12
Back-up Slides
13
Eduplex
PROPOSAL DEVELOP EDUPLEX FOR EDUCATIONAL
MATERIAL

• - Make STEM education more uniformly effective
• interactive materials ready to meet students
  tutorial needs
• interoperable systems as aid to teachers
• available for home study supplement
• modifiable by teachers to respond to their needs
• enable performance based evaluation
• ultimately meet teacher testing needs online
• - Introduce intelligent tutors coupled with
  advanced distributed DB
• to tailor material to students needs
• to further improve student performance
• - Continually add to materials and teaching tools

14
Tasks for First Year

• Identify the theoretical pedagogical
  underpinnings for systemic approach to K-12
  problem
• Identify characteristics of classroom teachers
  who will use new technology  
• Identify three to five of the most salient
  pedagogical dilemmas amenable to technology
• Develop and implement skeletal prototype modules
  for student and teacher learning 
• Deliver preliminary modules for alpha and beta
  testing and feedback
• Create an initial set of standards based on
  design efforts and develop an ontology  
• Create an environment for review of the
  infrastructure/tools/ standards

15
Why the VSOE/ISI and Hawaii are the Optimal
Parents for the ESCs
Recognized leaders in their respective
fields Complementary skill sets and team
cohesiveness proven since 1996 Demonstrable
excellence in distributed computing for
education, (DEN) simulation (JESPP) and training
(SIMZILLA) Long track record of the team
successfully delivering major DoD production
capabilities with solid reliability (over a
decade)
16
ISI, VSOE, USC Participants Opportunities

• ISI has resident expertise and acknowledged
  leadership in
• Large computer and communications systems
  development
• International technical standards development,
  vetting and adoption
• System tools conception and development
• Artificial Intelligence research
• Natural language research and implementations
• Continentally distributed HPCC systems
• VSOE (Top 10 for a decade) has ascendancy in a
  plethora of technical areas
• Games development and engineering Zyda
• Visualization development and engineering IMSC
• Departments C.S. department, EE, BioMed,
• Centers ISI, ICT,
• USC (27th) has strengths in needed disciplines
• Rossier School of Education
• Letters, Arts and Sciences
• Annenberg, Cinema, PPD

17
US STUDENTS NEED DEDICATED EDUCATION SCIENCES
CENTERS!

• Innovative researchers and master teachers are
  demonstrating what can be accomplished, with
  encouraging local results!
• National implementation of these programs is
  hamstrung by outdated methods of adoption,
  inadequate systems and daunting retraining needs!
• For a similar Education Revolution to succeed, at
  least three areas need to be addressed content
  capture methods (Hovey, et al.), distributed
  classroom oriented system (Lucas et al.) and
  tailored infrastructure design (ISI Networking
  Division)!
• The Internet Revolution progressed, not when
  users developed web pages (Google, Wikipedia, My
  Space, ), but only after Government-sponsored
  institutes provided the standards (e.g. IP, DNS,
  ), the tools (e.g. HTML, browsers, ) and
  infrastructure (e.g. ARPANet, RFCs, committees,
  )!
• USCs ISI built such essential foundations for
  the Internet new Education Sciences Centers
  could do the same for U.S. Students

18
Special Strengths from USC Information
Sciences Institute
MOSIS Chip Design Service

• ISI/VSOE/USC bring all the assets of a top-ranked
  Engineering School (Top 10 for a decade) and
  Research University (27th)
• Distance Education Network (DEN) three decades of
  world-wide graduate education
• ISI has a three-decade record of delivering
  enabling contributions to the Internet
• Internet protocols development standards
• Prototyping
• Research
• Domain Name System
• MOSIS education and research for computer chip
  design

ARPANET Developer
DEN on Campus
Internet Protocols TCP/IP SMTP Kerberos
Domain Name Sys. .com, .edu, .net, .gov,
K-12 Educ.. Rossier SOE CARTE _at_ISI K-12_at_USC
ICT,
A/I Training Research
19
Central Eduplex Cluster

• Analyze needs for differing sizes of
  implementation
• Parameterize design characteristics
• Project technology path for next decade
• Analyze impacts of this path on future Eduplex
  designs
• Select appropriately sized prototype educational
  establishment
• Specify needs for such a site
• Based on DoD experience, assume
• 256 node cluster, 3GHz Quad Core,
  GPGPU-enhanced, 16 GB RAM nodes
• Unix OS (evaluate which one), cluster management
  S/W to optimize local support ease
• GigE internode connectivity
• Scope SAN size as project progresses
• Procure cluster hardware from cooperative vendors
• Define support requirements for educational
  organization
• Manage installation and configuration of
  prototype cluster
• Implement software as defined in later slides
• Train support personnel
• Evaluate performance of cluster and system
  software
• Upgrade hardware and software as appropriate

20
Thin Clients

• Analyze both needs and concerns by accepting
  input from
• Teachers
• S/W developers
• Educational administrators
• H/W vendors
• Initial concept
• Self contained machine (save for mouse and
  keyboard)
• Weight lt10 pounds, gt2.5 GHz, Quad-core, gt16GB
  Memory,
• Finger-print reading pad
• No moving parts, i.e. no fans, no disks,
• USB and video-out ports
• Similar devices now under development by H/W
  manufactures
• Scope power and memory requirements based on
  needs of S/W developers
• Obtain early prototypes for testing
• Negotiate first deliveries as loss-leaders
• Evaluate H/W and performance

21
IntraNet Design

• Analyze needs of typical and atypical educational
  organizations
• Estimate bandwidth requirements and security
  levels desired
• Evaluate different communications technologies
• Based on DoD experience assume
• Copper, GigE Routers and Switches
• Use existing networking where available
• Optimize network design to meet latency and
  bandwidth minima
• Architect system to meet needs, reduce cost,
  provide redundancy, reduce disruption
• Previous experience suggests
• Intermediate server (ten node cluster) at
  individual schools
• lt 10 MB/sec from central server to school servers
  (may be as low as T1/D1)
• GigE at schools
• Install prototype in research environment
• Evaluate performance and additional needs
• Re-Architect system for initial deployment
• Install and test system in test educational
  environment
• Monitor student and teacher abuses and attacks,
  both intended and accidental
• Record and analyze performance and reliability
• Poll for satisfaction by teachers,
  administrators, students, and sys admin personnel

22
Pedagogy Ingestion

• Develop a verifiable assessment procedure for
  candidate pedagogies
• Vet assessment procedure with educational
  professionals
• Use natural language skills (Hovey, et al.) to
  pursue more effective content capture
• Use A/I skills (Arens, et al.) for machine
  optimization of pedagogical processes
• Select appropriate grade level and subject matter
  for early prototyping
• Construct germane lesson plans and pedagogical
  materials for test course(s)
• Design, adopt and implement interactive learning
  modules (Zyda, ICT, )
• Install in the experimental intranet in research
  environment
• Evaluate performance, reliability and efficacy
  with teachers and students (Rossier)
• Install in test educational environment
• Monitor the impact on classroom behavior and
  teacher activity
• Monitor any changes in test scores or achievement
• Conduct analysis of A/I modification of pedagogy
  due to experience with operations

23
Interactive Interfaces

• Using USC/ICT/ISI/IMSC technologies, plan optimal
  interface possibilities
• Compare and contrast possible interfaces
• Visual 2D, 3D, size, ..
• Audio Voice, optimal speed, quality, devices,
• Agent animated, filmed MPEGs, live,
• Text presentation, size, movement, color,
• Input keyboard, mouse, microphone,
  touch-screen,
• Rigorously evaluate actual impact on behavior and
  learning
• Analyze impact on teacher accptance
• Optimize for three sizes
• Individuals
• Small groups
• Classrooms
• Implement and evaluated in
• Research environment
• Test educational environment

24
Performance-Based Evaluation

• With assistance from Rossier colleagues, assess
  student evaluation needs
• Design student evaluation into learning modules
  and interactive interfaces
• Survey existing student record systems, strengths
  and weaknesses
• Design system to be interoperable with existing
  systems
• Create and support working groups to further
  define needs and standards
• Implement prototypes in research environment and
  test on students
• Incorporate changes defined by the above and
  re-implement
• Field system and monitor results
• Evaluate all records for compliance with
  educational standards
• Compare performance-based evaluations with formal
  testing and teacher assessments
• Monitor a class cohort for entire K-12 career to
  gain insights from linear comparisons
• Report findings to appropriate bodies for
  consideration of use of performance-based
  evaluations in lieu of standardized testing

25
System Evaluation

• Establish independent evaluative body
• Convene such body to establish parameters for
  system evaluation
• Have them meet with managers and technical
  personnel to ensure understanding
• Publish proposed standards and solicit community
  comment via RFC process
• Meet with sponsors, leadership and project
  personnel to formally adopt evaluation scope,
  directives and planned evaluation times
• Slavishly follow evaluation plan and submit
  results
• Meet quarterly with representatives to maintain
  open communication on progress
• Convene plenary session whenever there are issues
  to be resolved
• Publish results for community comment, again via
  RFC mechanism
• Report evaluation results to sponsor periodically