Integrated, Multidisciplinary

1
Integrated, Multidisciplinary
Technology-Enhanced Science Education The Next
Frontier
Its Online, Therefore It Exists!

• Ivo D. Dinov
• www.NSER.org

2
Challenges of K-College Science Ed

• 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

• 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

• 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.

3
Challenges Actions
IIT Divide

• 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., lt 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

4
Challenges Actions
IIT Divide

• 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

5
Challenges Actions
IIT Divide

• 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 ST 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

6
Challenges Actions
IIT Divide

• 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

7
Challenges Actions
IIT Divide

• 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

8
Challenges Actions
Broad vs. Narrow Training

• 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

9
Challenges Actions
Broad vs. Narrow Training

• 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

10
Challenges Actions
Broad vs. Narrow Training

• 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

www.NSER.org
11
Challenges Actions
Broad vs. Narrow Training

• 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

12
Challenges Actions
Broad vs. Narrow Training
Assessment of Interdisciplinary Educational Efforts Assessment of Interdisciplinary Educational Efforts Assessment of Interdisciplinary Educational Efforts 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

• 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
13
The National Internet-based Science Educational
Resource (NISER)

14
NISER Demo
Goal is to demonstrate

• A real research pipeline
• Data collection, visualization, analysis
  interpretation
• Portable web-based resources
• Hands-on example of interdisciplinary training
• Interactions between different science areas

http//wiki.stat.ucla.edu/niser/index.php/NISER_Fi
shMercuryActivity
15
N (µ10.54,s2 45.64)
Alkalinity
Chlorophyll 3D
16
Acknowledgments
Funding NSF DUE 0442992 0716055 NIH U54
RR021813 Collaborators N Christou, J Sanchez, R
Gould J Cui, A Che, A Toga www.NSER.org
17
NISER

• Philosophy
• Tools must be freely available on the Web
• Materials must be useful, extensible, correct,
  validated
• Tools must platform-independent and open-source
  
• Must utilize interactive resources

• Disciplines
• Statistics
• Physics
• Biology
• Engineering
• Chemistry
• Mathematics

• National Internet-based Science Educational
  Resource

http//www.NSER.org