[Web4lib] Major NSF Report: _Fostering Learning in the Networked World: ... _

[McKiernan, Gerard [LIB]]

Colleagues/
 
I have learned about a recently issued major report that I believe/hope will be of interest to many:
 
Fostering Learning in the Networked World: The Cyberlearning Opportunity and Challenge / A 21st Century Agenda for the National Science Foundation
 
Report of the NSF Task Force on Cyberlearning  
 
[Christine L. Borgman (Chair), Hal Abelson, Lee Dirks, Roberta Johnson, Kenneth R. Koedinger, Marcia C. Linn, Clifford A. Lynch, Diana G. Oblinger, Roy D. Pea, Katie Salen, Marshall S. Smith, Alex Szalay] / June 24 2008 / Posted August 11 2008
 
Excerpts from Executive Summary
 
The Task Force on Cyberlearning was charged jointly by the Advisory Committees to the Education and Human Resources Directorate and the Office of Cyberinfrastructure to provide guidance to NSF on the opportunities, research questions, partners, strategies, and existing resources for cyberlearning. This report identifies directions for leveraging networked computing and communications technology. It also calls for research to establish successful ways of using these technologies to enhance educational opportunities and strengthen proven methods of learning.
 
Imagine a high school student in the year 2015. She has grown up in a world where learning is as accessible through technologies at home as it is in the classroom, and digital content is as real to her as paper, lab equipment, or textbooks. At school, she and her classmates engage in creative problem-solving activities by manipulating simulations in a virtual laboratory or by downloading and analyzing visualizations of realtime data from remote sensors. 
 
Away from the classroom, she has seamless access to school materials and homework assignments using inexpensive mobile technologies. She continues to collaborate with her classmates in virtual environments that allow not only social interaction with each other but also rich connections with a wealth of supplementary content. Her teacher can track her progress over the course of a lesson plan and compare her performance across a lifelong "digital portfolio," making note of areas that need additional attention through personalized assignments and alerting parents to specific concerns. 
 
What makes this possible is cyberlearning, the use of networked computing and communications technologies to support learning. Cyberlearning has the potential to transform education throughout a lifetime, enabling customized interaction with diverse learning materials on any topic-from anthropology to biochemistry to civil engineering to zoology. Learning does not stop with K-12 or higher education; cyberlearning supports continuous education at any age.
 
Full Report Available at 
 
[ http://tinyurl.com/6ngdaz <http://tinyurl.com/6ngdaz>  ]
 
Enjoy!
 
/Gerry

Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu

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