Prepared by Cathryn A. Manduca and David W. Mogk

9/28/99

The Portal to the Future workshop, held August 8-11 at Coolfont Resort in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia brought together 59 leaders from undergraduate, K-12, and informal Earth system education, digital libraries, and information science to develop an action plan for building a digital library for Earth system education (DLESE). The library plan responds to repeated calls from the Earth science education community for access to well-organized, high-quality educational materials and for learner access to data describing the Earth system. As in all of the sciences, these are the raw materials needed to implement discovery based pedagogies that research indicates are most effective for learning the methods and content of science (NSF 96-139). The DLESE shares the mission of the Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology Education (SMETE) digital library envisioned by the National Science Foundation (NSF 99-112): it will provide the structure and services needed to transform the plethora of exciting materials and data available on the web into a community resource with the potential to transform Earth system education.

In Earth system education, a digital library is especially needed at this time for three reasons. The Earth science curriculum is undergoing a period of rapid change in response to new understanding of the dynamic ways that parts of the Earth interact to form the whole Earth system. This new understanding makes Earth science particularly exciting at this time, while requiring major revisions to instructional materials and teaching practice (AGU, 1997). At the same time, the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996) place new emphasis on Earth science in the K-12 curriculum. New materials for students and teachers, better communication between K-12 and undergraduate educational communities, and new curriculum to train both in-service and pre-service teachers are needed to continue implementation of the standards. The Earth sciences also play an important role in science education for undergraduate students, a high priority for SMET education at the present time (NSF 96-139, AGU, 1997). Introductory Earth science courses have large enrollments and are a particularly good vehicle for teaching science concepts. An integrated Earth system approach incorporating all disciplines in the Earth and space sciences, provides the knowledge base, methodologies, and global context that can make science accessible, relevant and meaningful for all students.

Recent advances in information technology now make it possible to effectively collect, evaluate, and organize instructional materials and to deliver these materials over the WWW in a user specific manner. A DLESE, taking advantage of these new capabilities to enhance the collection, distribution and service functions of a traditional library, can support innovation and change in Earth system education. The DLESE responds to community needs, addresses national mandates, and realizes new opportunities.

Discovery is the foundation of the DLESE, providing the means to help educators and learners find materials, tools, and information that they need, when they need it. Holdings can be organized according to user-specified criteria to allow users to link Earth concepts with examples from a particular time or place, with supporting data, and with relevant information on student learning and teaching methods. Portals to Earth data supported by curriculum materials can engage learners in the processes of discovery and inquiry about the Earth system. Of particular relevance is the unique potential for materials that address the special characteristics of Earth-related information, for example, three-dimensional visualization of Earth structure, representations of "deep time", modeling of open natural systems, and understanding of complex interactions in global cycles.

The DLESE offers the ability to easily access, modify, or combine high quality teaching and learning materials to meet the particular needs of a learner or educational setting. Materials can be used to enhance existing courses and curriculum, or to build new courses. There is the potential for customized learning tools to accommodate the variety of learning styles and educational goals in a diverse population of learners. Educators and learners can have access to new capabilities for enhancing learning in both formal and informal settings. The DLESE holds the promise of a new way of designing instruction.

The DLESE will be a dynamic entity establishing new communication networks between people and information, and supporting a national effort to enhance Earth system education. The library can facilitate communication between new users and experienced users of library materials, between the creators and users of materials, and between learners, educators and scientists. These communications can enhance both learning about the Earth system and about effective ways to teach about the Earth system. The DLESE can further support adoption of effective teaching methods by linking materials with evaluation of their impact on student learning, information on effective use, and relevant reports of research on learning. Finally, technology and community feedback can be combined to continuously monitor the ways in which the DLESE is used and to assess its overall impact on Earth system education. In these ways, the DLESE will be responsive to community needs, help provide a supportive environment that will enhance teaching and learning about the Earth system nationwide, and assist in charting new possibilities for the Earth system education.

The Earth science education community is ready to implement a digital library. Organization of educational materials, learner access to data describing the Earth, and an organization that brings together Earth science educators from K-16 and beyond were identified as high priority needs by leaders in Earth system education in the report "Shaping the Future of Undergraduate Earth Science Education" (AGU, 1997) and more broadly in a number of community meetings (UNIDATA, PAGE, IRIS) These priorities are in line with the goals of the Geoscience Directorate at the National Science Foundation to encourage discovery-based learning and leverage resources through partnerships (NSF97-171).

This report describes the features that leaders from the Earth system education community feel are essential in an initial library effort designed to respond to the community’s goals. It develops strategies for building a library that can respond to changing technology, changing user needs and unanticipated uses, and it puts forth an action plan for initiating the library effort. The workshop participants voted unanimously to move forward by electing a steering committee to begin implementation of the action plan. A collaboration including five Earth science consortia representing broad sectors of the community has formed and received funding to initiate construction of the library. These groups will work together to construct a core facility based on community input and reflecting community needs.

The workshop was developed by an organizing committee representing the various communities essential to DLESE. They developed a workshop structure and process that would allow participants to efficiently develop a common vision of the library, address the major aspects of its development, and draft a report within the three day workshop. Panels were organized around eight questions:

• What are the appropriate scope and focus for an Earth system education library?

• How should the library be governed, managed, and funded?

• What are the key features of a valuable Earth system education library collection?

• How will users find what they need in the library?

• How will the library facilitate Earth system education beyond providing access to materials?

• How will we ensure fairness with regard to intellectual property?

• How will the library respond to the needs of its user communities?

• How will the library foster interactions between and among groups involved in Earth system education?

The organizing committee recognized the need to solicit the broadest representation among Earth scientists, educators, information technology specialists, and others who are already involved with other digital library efforts. Panelists were invited to participate based on consideration of professional expertise, established record of achievement, specific knowledge or skills related to Earth system education or information technologies, geographic distribution, and type of institution.

Prior to the workshop, participants were encouraged to explore digital library resources on the WWW, to become familiar with background reports on Earth system education and digital libraries, and to begin their panel discussions electronically. During the workshop, held August 8-11, 1999 at Coolfont Conference Center in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, time was divided between plenary sessions to develop a common vision and work in panels to develop detailed action plans. The workshop began with a presentation by organizing committee member Mike Goodchild (Alexandria Digital Library at University of California, Santa Barbara) that explored the value of a digital library for Earth system education and introduced a preliminary vision developed by the organizing committee. The remainder of the workshop expanded on, revised, and detailed this vision. The workshop concluded with the presentation of draft reports and action plans from the eight panels. Participants voted unanimously to move forward with the project by establishing a steering committee and organizational structure.

In the coming weeks the panels will have a chance to revise their first draft reports. There will be an internal review of the reports by the workshop participants, followed by a chance for external review by the entire community. Final publication of the report is expected by March 2000.

 

The Moonshot: By 2005, to design and implement a digital library for Earth system education that serves educators and students by facilitating a new era of sharing of materials and by being the repository of choice for those materials.—Mike Goodchild, workshop opening address

An initial vision of the library is an important tool for its development. The workshop participants vision below describes the facility based on current educational practices and technologies that they feel would be most beneficial at this time. This vision combined with the strategies described below provide a starting point for developing a facility that can meet the highest priority needs of Earth system education today and evolve to continue to transform Earth system education in the future.

The library is envisioned as an information system dedicated to the collection, enhancement, and distribution of materials that facilitate learning about the Earth system at all educational levels. It will provide access to a wide variety of materials useful both to educators and to students including: interfaces to data and tools to work with data; images, animations, videos, models and simulations; learning activities; information about how students learn Earth science; tested pedagogical and assessment tools; lesson plans, syllabi and curricula. Initially, the holdings will be a mixture of material contributed by individuals on a non-exclusive basis and links to resources owned by publishers and organizations, with the possibility in the future of materials developed or commissioned by the library itself. The collections policy will emphasize learning resources that effectively bring the Earth into the classroom. The DLESE will serve as the primary point of contact for students, educators and citizens who seek access to reliable information about the Earth, and the best methods to promote learning about the Earth.

To balance the need for an efficient source of quality materials with the desire for community sharing of a wide variety of materials, the library holdings will be divided into two parts. Materials held in the core collection will be reviewed to ensure that the material is accurate, important, pedagogically effective, well documented, easy to use, motivational, and robust. The authors of core material will be entitled to the highest respect of their peers and should receive career credit for their efforts. The remainder of the library collection will be less rigorously reviewed and is envisioned, in part, as a needed test bed for the development of core holdings. A full range of communications tools for improving materials are envisioned in this area including peer commentary, testing, and evaluation.

Of primary importance is an interface that allows users to quickly discover what they need, when they need it. This interface will adopt and adapt existing technology and metadata structures to allow for rapid implementation and to work toward a seamless interface with other libraries. The interface will grow and develop to 1) allow maximum flexibility and specificity in finding desired materials and presenting them to the user, and 2) to effectively integrate and visualize data and information from a variety of sources. The library interface will facilitate creation of new educational materials that combine, build upon, or are inspired by the existing collection.

A full range of digital and human services for users and creators will be an integral part of the library. The goals for services will be 1) to promote collaboration and sharing among Earth system educators in their many roles as learners, researchers, and information providers, 2) to instruct and assist users and creators in finding data, information, and tools that they need, and 3) assist consumers with special requirements (e.g. the Americans with Disabilities Act). While some services will be automated, human-mediated services will also be essential.

The DLESE will facilitate change in Earth system education by providing direct access for all educators to effective teaching methods, and by assuming a proactive role in the development of new educational materials. The DLESE will actively solicit community input to guide the nature and direction of this change. Mechanisms for formative evaluation through user and creator feedback will be an integral part of the design of the library from the outset. It will also assume a leadership role in the evolution of Earth system education by informing the community of new technological advances and providing the training necessary to use these technologies. The library will play an active role in promoting communication in the community, in building user groups, in developing its collections, and in reaching out to government agencies, other digital library efforts, other educational efforts, and to the private sector. Fundamentally, the library will become a hub and focal point for Earth system education.

To best capitalize on the distributed strengths of the community, the DLESE will consist of a broad-based collaboration of contributors with interests in different realms of Earth system education. An initial project, the Geoscience Digital Library (GDL), has been funded by NSF to build a prototype discovery system (including the infrastructure for requisite metadata), to develop initial holdings, and to host two workshops that germinate communities of users and creators. Among the stated intentions of the GDL effort is to implement, as practical, the recommendations and findings that emerge from this workshop, including the acceptance of advice that flows from the workshop-recommended governance structure. The GDL project is a collaboration among seven organizations with diverse disciplinary foci:

• Program for the Advancement of Geoscience Education (PAGE) and Unidata, at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research;

• Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS);

• Earth System Science Education Consortium (ESSE);

• Keck Geology Consortium;

• Alexandria Digital Library, University of California, Santa Barbara;

• Center for LifeLong Learning and Design, University of Colorado at Boulder.

We anticipate that other major library partners will emerge from existing efforts (e.g., Digital Earth, SMETE Digital Library, JESSE, Earthscape) or will be developed as need, opportunity, and funding dictate.

In the short term, library development will be managed by a steering committee that will provide strong, policy-level guidance and direction to an initial set of federally funded activities. A set of committees will ensure that the steering committee is advised by the user community, the creators of library materials, and by appropriate technical experts. The committees will be responsible for overseeing and implementing specific aspects of library development. Broad-based, two-way electronic communication with user and creator communities will be used to inform library construction and policy decisions. This initial governance structure is designed to reflect a simple philosophy, minimize central costs, and rely heavily on volunteer efforts and contributed resources. It will enable broad participation, foster a culture of users as providers of library contents, and emphasize the Earth-system characteristics that make the library a uniquely valuable educational resource. The initial governance structure is viewed as an interim step in creating a suitable structure for library management in the long term. The long term governance structure will be matched to a long-range business model developed with appropriate economic and market analyses and reflect appropriate relationships with the Digital Earth Initiative, the SMETE library, and other related projects.

Several strategies emerged at the workshop that provide the basis for developing a resource that is grounded in the community, reflects the specific needs of Earth system education, and quickly adapts to changing technology, use and need. We believe these strategies are essential because technology is changing so rapidly that our initial vision will undoubtedly need to change in fundamental ways as the library progresses. Further, if successful, the library will lead to fundamental changes in the way Earth system education is delivered, requiring further adaptation of the library vision. By setting forth strategies we design a system that will produce a flexible educational resource that can respond to emerging community needs.

• The library will grow from the community. The form and the function of the library will evolve in response to changing community needs. The concepts of user input, evolution, and adaptability of the library were central to discussions across the workshop. The library will enable users to become creators of new or enhanced educational materials. The library will establish feedback mechanisms to monitor the value of the library to the community and to be responsive to its needs. Thus, the library will grow out of itself.

• The library must be provocative and engaging, with discovery and inquiry as core principles. The library must be the resource of first choice for anyone interested in learning more about the Earth. The scope of the library will be defined by the "distance from the core", i.e. no arbitrary boundaries are placed on the interests of the library. The library must reach out to build and support its user and creator communities, and to create relationships with other digital and Earth science education efforts. Most of all, the central mission of the DLESE will be to serve the needs and address the interests of educators and students at all levels of instruction.

• This library is unique because of its focus on Earth system education. The Earth system is heterogeneous, dynamic, and complex, and thus the core information within the library must specifically address the knowledge, processes, and interfaces among the Earth’s many sub-systems. Organizing principles must accommodate spatial and temporal relations in the Earth system (on all scales), reservoirs and pathways of mass and energy, feedback mechanisms, interactions with biota, and particularly, with humanity. It is essential that users be able to navigate back and forth from the general to the specific, from theory to observation, on scales from global to local, and through horizontal and vertical connections among and within the Earth science and cognate disciplines. This philosophy will drive the development of the collection and the discovery system. The focus on the Earth system will be complemented by materials on pedagogy, learning, and evaluation that educators need to design effective instruction about the Earth system.

• The library will serve all educators and learners who seek quality teaching materials and other information about the Earth system. This encompasses the full range (K-16 and beyond) of formal education contexts, informal settings (such as museums, aquaria, and parks), and direct access by community members (including journalists, public planners, and interested citizens). As a starting point, the initial emphasis will be undergraduate education, as this is the focus of the (already funded) GDL effort. As soon as practical, the library should support pre-college studies in Earth and space science, consistent with the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996). In general, the library is envisioned as an organic, evolving entity that responds quickly as community members self-organize and participate—both as users and as providers of material. In this way the holdings and strengths of the library will respond to community action, and there is no inherent limit on its educational scope.

• The library will be a federation organized around a core set of principles. Due to the magnitude and diversity of content and function, the library must necessarily be distributed and operated by many contributing agencies. The formation of a steering committee has been unanimously authorized by the participants at the workshop to formalize the governing principles, establish standing committees to direct implementation of the library, and to design a business plan for the long-term operation of the library.

• The workshop participants recognized numerous polarities or tensions in the scope and mission of the library: Elitism must be balanced against populism in library governance and in the library collections; the strengths of a centralized facility and a distributed, federated effort must be effectively combined; the library must be responsive to immediate community needs while it also assumes a leadership role in formulating the vision for future initiatives; the library must simultaneously receive resources from the community while shaping its collections through the creation of new resources; the holdings must provide both breadth and depth. The library must restrict acceptance of its core holdings to those materials that have been reviewed to ensure the highest standards of quality, while other public domains of the library should be universally available to promote open and free exchange of ideas and information. These tensions are not necessarily detrimental, and it will be left to the community to achieve the appropriate balance. As Buckminster Fuller demonstrated, tensile forces provide strength and integrity to structures; so it will be for this community library.

• To effectively design and implement the library, we need help from resources beyond the scope of the workshop. It was recognized that expertise external to the Earth science community is needed at this formative stage to a) implement an effective mechanism for formative evaluation and user feedback, b) investigate issues surrounding intellectual property rights, c) do market research and develop a sound business plan, and d) engage other digital library initiatives and link with relevant existing libraries.

Integrated Highest Priority Action Plan