Community News
Call attention to accomplishments, events, news items or "resources of interest" right now by contributing news and information to NSDL. Items submitted will go through a review by the NSDL Resource Center before being published to this website. 
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Aug 18, 2010Reports
The Computing Research Association (CRA) recently published a CRA-E White Paper: Creating Environments for Computational Researcher Education, addressing a concern for higher educators, employers, funding agencies, and policy makers: "...how best to educate students for a future as computationally-oriented researchers in all fields."
The CRA Education Committee (CRA-E) approached the charge by identifying key issues facing faculty responsible for educating such researchers, and made recommendations that address the issues in practical ways, given the realities that higher education institutions face. Their recommendations fall generally in three areas, designed to impart core concept knowledge and skills mastery: 1) developing flexible curricular structures that can adapt to change; 2) providing a 'research-oriented' environment at the undergraduate level, and 3) supporting assimilation and adoption into practice of cognitive skills and core concepts over four years.
In its Recommendation 2: Core/Foundation for All Computer Science Graduates, the NSDL Science Literacy Maps are cited (p. 28) as "...an excellent model for a tool that could help guide both students and organizations in learning about and using core computational cognitive skills, concepts, and techniques. We encourage research into methods for creating and exploring an integrated, interactive map of how the cognitive skills, concepts, and techniques interact with each other in a lean core."
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Aug 03, 2010Reports
Best Practices for Metrics Collection and Analysis: Report of the NSDL Metrics Working Group is now available.
The newly finalized report provides NSDL and other interested projects with recommendations on planning, implementing, and analyzing project metrics for multiple aspects of project activity: web site/web portal development, Web 2.0 social networking use, outreach and marketing, and professional development activities.
The NSDL Metrics Working was convened in January 2009 and met through April 2010, charged with formulating best practices recommendations to the NSDL community for metrics collection, analysis, and reporting.
Community comment is welcome, and can be contributed via the Got Metrics? forum on the NSDL Community site, or by using the Contact NSDL web form on NSDL.org (please indicate "Metrics Working Group report" in the subject line). Thanks!
A developing Evaluation and Metrics resource area is also available on the NSDL Community site, and the report is available there in PDF, and will be published in webpage format in the near future. Your input on resources or suggestions for that area is also welcomed!
NSDL Metrics Working Group members:
- Kimberly Lightle,
Chair; Director of Digital Libraries, College of Education and Human Ecology,
School of Teaching and Learning, The Ohio State University. PI:
Middle School Portal Math and Science Pathways (MSP2); PI:
Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears: Integrating Science and Literacy in K-5
Classrooms (DR K-12).
- Ed Almasy,
Internet Scout projects, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Co-PI:
Applied Math and Science Education Repository (AMSER) Pathway; Co-PI:
ATE Resource Center (ATE).
- Lyle Barbato –
American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). Technical
Lead, ComPADRE Physics and Astronomy Pathway (NSDL).
- Yolanda George,
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). PI:
Biological Sciences EdNet (BEN) Pathway.
- Sherry Hsi, Lawrence
Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Co-PI,
Science and Math Informal Learning Educators (SMILE) Pathway.
- Cathy Lowe, Kent
State University. Project
Manager, Materials Digital Library Pathway (MatDL).
- Paul Mackinney,
University of California, Berkeley. Web
Developer, Engineering Pathway.
- Sharon Clark – Digital
Learning Sciences, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Web
Developer, NSDL Technical Network Services.
- Eileen McIlvain – NSDL Resource Center, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Communications Manage, Pathways Liaison, NSDL Resource Center; Editor.
- Kimberly Lightle,
Chair; Director of Digital Libraries, College of Education and Human Ecology,
School of Teaching and Learning, The Ohio State University. PI:
Middle School Portal Math and Science Pathways (MSP2); PI:
Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears: Integrating Science and Literacy in K-5
Classrooms (DR K-12).
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Jul 30, 2010News
A new user survey report on the use of NSDL.org is available from NSDL's Technical Network Services. It summarizes the results of user survey implemented on nsdl.org for two weeks in April 2010.
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Jul 30, 2010News
The Museum Computer Network is providing NINE scholarships to attend this year's MCN Conference:
I/O: The Museum Inside-Out/Outside-In: 38th Annual MCN Conference; October 27th - 30th, 2010; Austin, Texas.
The competitive scholarship provides free conference registration, free hotel stay, and a $50 stipend to cover additional expenses. To apply, please submit the application form found at http://www.mcn.edu/mcn-2010-scholarships by August 13.
Applicants must meet ONE of the following criteria for eligibility:
1. Employed at an institution with no more than 20 permanent staff
2. First-time MCN conference attendee
3. New to the profession with less than 2 years experience in the field
See the application website for more information about the scholarship program.
Questions? Please contact Scholarship Committee chair Jana Hill at jana.hill@cartermuseum.org.
Founded in 1967, the Museum Computer Network has been serving the cultural heritage community for over 40 years. The Museum Computer Network (MCN) supports the greater museum community by providing continuing opportunities to explore, implement, and disseminate new technologies and best practices in the field.
Please pass this on to your colleagues. You can also contact Christina DePaolo, Conference Chair, with questions about the conference, at 206 654-3165 or christinad@seattleartmuseum.org.
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Jul 30, 2010News
The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Research (NCER) is soliciting proposals in 14 long-term research programs under its Education Research Grant Programs, including the Education Technology program. Applications are accepted twice a year, and program announcements, deadlines, and more information are available from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) website. Education Research Grant Programs include:
Mathematics and Science Education
Cognition and Student Learning
Teacher Quality - Reading and Writing
Teacher Quality - Mathematics and Science Education
Social and Behavioral Context for Academic Learning
Organization and Management of Schools and Districts
Education Policy, Finance, and Systems
Early Learning Programs and Policies
Analysis of Longitudinal Data to Support State and Local Education Reform
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Jul 29, 2010News
The DuraSpace organization unveiled the open source code for the new DuraCloud platform, a hosted service and open technology that makes it easy for organizations and end users to use cloud services, at the Fifth International Open Repositories Conference (OR10) in Madrid, Spain earlier this month. DuraCloud is an open source platform that is built upon commercial cloud infrastructure. The platform itself deploys into a cloud server environment and is integrated with multiple cloud storage providers, including Amazon AWS and Rackspace. DuraSpace is making the open source code available to enable the community to create new software and services that integrate with the core platform.
Developers who are looking into building applications in the cloud are encouraged to experiment with the DuraCloud code and provide feedback about what you see as development synergies and potential additional features. See the DuraCloud wiki for technical documentation and links to download the code:
https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/duracloud/DuraCloud
The DuraCloud open source platform enables cloud storage across multiple commercial and non-commercial providers and offers a cloud-based services framework focused on preservation support and data access for reuse and sharing. Features include replication, image transformation, bit integrity checking, image viewing, media streaming and general compute processing.
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Jul 25, 2010News
The American Association for School Librarians includes NSDL in its top 25 Best Websites for Teaching and Learning for 2010: "The "Top 25" Websites foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. They are free, Web-based sites that are user friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover."
Thanks, AASL!
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Jul 19, 2010News
The ChemEd Digital Library has released a specialized collection of resources supporting use of their award-winning Periodic Table Live! interactive resource. PTL! includes a graphing and sorting applet that enables comparisons among elemental data; a glossary; information on characteristics; discovery; preparation; uses, animated atomic-scale structure; images, and/or video for elements in the Periodic Table.
The PTL! Resource Pack is a collection of ready-to-use teaching and learning materials that include worksheets, example assessment questions, relevant journal articles from the Journal of Chemical Education (JCE), and online resources from ChemEd DL and other NSDL Pathways, including Teachers' Domain, the Computational Science Education Reference Desk (CSERD), and ComPADRE Physics & Astronomy Digital Library.
The PTL! Resource Pack is incorporated in Chem Ed DL's developing ChemTeacher service, designed to aid high school teachers by featuring a broad range of resources on topics typically included in high school introductory chemistry courses.
John Moore, Chem Ed DL's Principal Investigator (University of Wisconsin), will receive the Merlot Classics 2010 Award on behalf of ChemEd DL and its Periodic Table Live! resource, at the Emerging Technologies for Online Learning Conference in San Jose, July 20-23, 2010.
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Jul 15, 2010Call for Participation
The National Research Council (NRC) has released a draft of the framework for the new science education standards. All educators can provide input on the framework via an online questionnaire:
Review and comment on the Draft Framework:
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/Standards_Framework_Homepage.html
Background info and FAQ from NRC:
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/Standards_Framework_FAQs.html
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Jul 15, 2010Call for Participation
With the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) is sponsoring the 2011 Network for Academic Renewal Conference: Engaged STEM Learning: From Promising to Pervasive Practices, to be held in Miami, Florida, March 24-26, 2011.
The Call for Proposals deadline in August 31, 2010
The conference "will focus on faculty and institutional leadership to adapt, scale up, and sustain effective practices in STEM teaching and learning. The conference is designed for participants who wish to develop institutional capacity for systematic STEM educational reform, broaden student participation and success in STEM fields, and better assess STEM learning in both general education and STEM majors."
Proposals are invited in these five key areas:
- Expanding the STEM Pipeline through Student Success
- Creating Integrative and Interdisciplinary STEM Environments
- Assessing STEM Learning
- Enhancing STEM Learning through Technology
- Scaling Up and Sustaining Pedagogies of Engagement
See full information at the AACU call-for-proposals site.
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