Transcript The Importance of Inquiry in the Age of Technology

The CAMPWS Collaboratory:
A Space for Research, Teaching,
Learning, and Problem-Solving
Bertram C. Bruce
Library & Information Science
U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Roles for the CAMPWS collaboratory
• Develop tools to support individual research as
well as collaborative research (III.2)
• Enhance opportunities for minorities and women in
research and science learning (III.2.1)
• Support the education mission (III.2.2)
• Provide a platform for knowledge transfer
(III.2.3)
Outline
1) Why collaboratories?
a) What is a collaboratory?
b) Human-computer interaction (a history)
2) Overview of plans
a) CAMPWS collaboratory
b) Community inquiry labs
c) Research on collaboratory use
3) Your questions and suggestions
1a) What is a collaboratory?
Today's challenges require
• large, multidisciplinary teams
• complex instrumentation
• vast amounts of data from multiple sources in
multiple formats
addressed by
• new information & communication technologies
A center without walls…
in which the nation's researchers can
perform their research without regard to
geographical location – interacting with
colleagues, accessing instrumentation,
sharing data and computational resources,
and accessing information in digital libraries
–Kouzes, Myers, & Wulf (1996)
Examples
• Windows to the Universe – SPARC instruments,
computer models, real-time data, and theories
• Collaborate! – alternative to the "adversarial
academy"
• The Collaboratory Project – enables schools,
museums, libraries and other cultural institutions
to share information
• Inquiry Page – Inquiry Unit Generator, contacts
with other teachers
• Urban Legends Reference Pages – track unlikely
stories that appear in the media
Attributes of collaboratories
•
•
•
•
•
•
Shared inquiry – common goals, problems, issues
Intentionality – recognized as a joint venture
Active participation/contribution
Access to shared data, articles, and tools
Technologies – instruments; symbol systems
Boundary-crossings – bridge across geography,
time, institutions, disciplines
– Lunsford & Bruce, "Collaboratories: Working
Together on the Web"
Questions about collaboratories
• How can new technologies reduce
coordination costs and provide more
effective ways to collaborate?
• How do new modes of collaboration support
inquiry in diverse communities?
• How do knowledge, technology, and
community co-evolve?
1b) Human-computer interaction
(a history)
New digital tools
Computer-mediated work
Ubiquitous computing
Collaboratory model
2a) CAMPWS collaboratory
Access to…
• tools (data aggregation & visualization,
remote instrumentation, …)
• information (digital libraries, e-publishing,
curricula, databases, images, …)
• people (email, blogs, teleconferences,
groupware, …)
Profiles (people, groups, projects, …)
Repository model
contribution via web form
URL of stored entry
database of entries
Stone soup (Robins, 1999)
Next steps: Collaboratory tools
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lab notebook for water purification device
Water quality simulation tool
Digital library
Bibliography tool
Profile management; social agent system
Extended search: VisIT, VIBE, IKNOW
Web logs (blogs)
Distributed Inquiry Page
Collaboratory in context
2b) Community inquiry labs
• A cycle of asking, investigating, creating,
discussing, and reflecting; each question
leads to further questions
• Dialogue (two-way communication)
• Connect to life
• Active learning based on the learner's
purpose
A cycle: The Inquiry Page
• Resources for inquiry
teaching & learning
• Support for
communities
• Tools for everyday
problem-solving
(personal websites, todo lists, events
calendars, …)
Dialgue: Two-way communication
• Cholera kills tens of
thousands of people/year
• Rita Colwell: copepods
harbor the bacterium; 200500x larger
• a folded sari cloth can
remove the plankton
• 65 Bangladesh villages;
cholera reduced by half
• effective as nylon filters
• less diarrhea, cheap and
convenient, easily adopted
Connected to life
Active learning
Inquiry involves people as
active learners. Students in
inquiry classrooms may
experience anything from
running a business, to
writing stories, to growing
and hatching chickens.
Example partners
•
•
•
•
•
Living on the Prairie
Paseo Boricua
Sisternet
Corrales, New Mexico
East St. Louis Action
Research Project
• Urbana Middle School
•
•
•
•
Marshall Islands
U Chicago Lab School
K-12 and college courses
National Science Digital
Library
• Distributed Knowledge
Research Collaborative
Surface water quality unit
2c) Research & evaluation
Design through use or participatory inquiry
aims to respond to human needs by
democratic processes. Through creation of
content, contributions to interactive
elements, and incorporation into practice,
users are not merely recipients of
technology, but participate actively in its
ongoing development.
User groups
researchers
university faculty
university students
teachers
K-12 students
science & nature centers
librarians
community members
people in industry
policy makers
Design through use techniques
•
•
•
•
•
•
User interviews
Workshops
Inquiry group meetings
Retreats
Email/bboard discussion
Feedback forms
Evaluation methods
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Front-end evaluation (needs assessment)
User and usability research
Participatory design
Situated evaluation
Online evaluation tools
Social network analysis
Summative evaluation
Co-evolution
Community
Knowledge
Technology
3) Your questions and suggestions