Open Education for
Educators: an Example
from the Geosciences
Sean Fox, Cathryn A. Manduca
Science Education Resource Center
Carleton College
September 28, 2005
Who Are We?
• Undergraduate
Geoscience
Education
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
• Websites and
Workshops
serc.carleton.edu
• Multiple collaborative projects
• NSF funding including NSDL and DLESE
The Unifying Theme is….
• Improving the quality of geoscience
education
• We target those who teach
undergraduates (in traditional settings):
the 7000 geoscience faculty in the U.S.
(The connection to open education isn’t obvious? Don’t worry, we’ll get there)
The Big Big Picture
• So how does one improve undergraduate
geoscience education?
• There’s lots of great stuff on the web!
Let’s identify it and catalog it. Then
faculty can find it and will use it and
education will be better.
Perhaps this isn’t a complete
approach
• Get apples and oranges (and
muskmelons) even when we just pick the
‘educationally relevant’stuff: “Exactly how am I
supposed to use this in my class tomorrow?”
• And our collection never seem complete:
“You don’t seem to have a description of that great
exercise I did as an undergrad and which I’m trying to
recreate for my students in class tomorrow. ”
…we seem to be missing something (and it isn’t more
metadata…)
We’re Missing “How”
• How to use the material in our rich digital
library
• How to orchestrate that fantastic learning
activity
• How to use that reusable digital learning
object
• How to teach: Tomorrow. The thing that’s
on my syllabus.
Why is How important?
• “I know kung-fu”
--Keanu Reeves (Neo) from The Matrix
• Learning is hard
• How you do it makes a difference
How we Learn
• Cognitive Science/Educational
Psychology provides Insight
– We construct our understanding and
knowledge
– New knowledge must overcome
incorrect preconceptions
– Learning is active.
– Differences between novice and expert
thinking
– Deep learning can be drawn on to
solve problems, make decisions.
Existing Teaching Practice Reflects HardWon Tacit Knowledge about What Works
• Teaching practice is improved
iteratively in classroom --an ongoing
experiment in what works.
• Understanding of How intertwined
with understanding of the subject
matter.
We’d like to see a learning cycle
in teaching practice
Summarize New Work
and Share Back to Evolve
a new Best Practice
New Work Informed
by this Knowledge
Awareness of Community Best Practices
The cycle is there in geoscience research. And can
by pried open with technology: arXiv, open access
journals, etc….
The Heart of the Problem
• No extant universal sharing culture!
(about the How of undergraduate
geoscience education anyway)
– We can’t just set stuff free with the right technology.
– Searching and cataloging isn’t going to get us to the
How because the How is in file cabinets and faculty
heads
• Existing practice not informed by
research on learning.
Solving the Problem
• Bring transparency to classroom practice
• Integrate the How information from
research on learning
• This opens access to How information to
all learners and teachers, and especially
those building open learning tools
Photo by Kodama, http://www.flickr.com/photos/kodama/6162083/
Existing Solutions?
• Disciplinary Education
Journals (Journal of
Geoscience Education)
• OpenCourseWare?
• Others?
What are we doing at SERC?
• Collecting examples of classroom practice
for adaptation and cannibalization by other
faculty
• Activity Collection Form (from a Structural
Geology area)
• A Submitted Activity
From the Faculty Perspective
• Make sure activities are good targets for
Google searches on the disciplinary topic
• Get them to something they can use
immediately
• Start with a Google search and move
from activity to pedagogy
Connecting Faculty to Pedagogy
• Insights from cognitive science inform
faculty thinking about using
visualizations
• And even a step further
Address the Apple and Oranges Issue
• Demonstrate how disparate internet
resource can be built into a coherent
activity with a clear HOW
Work within the Discipline
• Work within a disciplinary community
where people can feel comfortable that
we understand ‘their’ issues.
• Web-based content management system
for collaborative editing, authoring,
ownership.
• Creative Commons license
This is hard work
• Without an extant culture there’s no
motivation to share
– Don’t feel a professional obligation
– Haven’t personally experienced the value
• Get materials from:
– Workshop participants
– Motivated groups
– Hire editors to extract it from faculty
minds
– Or build How around extent material
Where Are We Now?
• Strong collection of examples
that include how information and
bridge to broader how
discussions
• Use and contributions from the
community
• Use by those outside the
community
• A high-quality, open how-rich
resource for learners and
resource builders working in the
geosciences
• Moving into new disciplines
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Implications for Open Education
• Importance of capturing and sharing how
as a component of any open education
resource
• Just capturing existing digital objects
often misses the mark.
• Include both disciplinary tacit knowledge
and generalize (cog sci) knowledge.
http://serc.carleton.edu/