Open Education for Educators: an Example from the Geosciences

1. Open Education for Educators: an Example from the Geosciences Sean Fox, Cathryn A. Manduca Science Education Resource Center Carleton CollegeSeptember 28, 2005

2. Who Are We? • Undergraduate Geoscience Education • Websites andWorkshops • Multiple collaborative projects • NSF funding including NSDL and DLESE serc.carleton.edu

3. 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)

4. 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.

5. 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…)

6. We’re Missing “How” • How to use the material in our rich digital library • How to orchestrate that fantastic learning activity • Howto use that reusable digital learning object • How to teach: Tomorrow. The thing that’s on my syllabus.

7. Why is How important? • “I know kung-fu” --Keanu Reeves (Neo) from The Matrix • Learning is hard • How you do it makes a difference

8. 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.

9. Existing Teaching Practice Reflects Hard-Won 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.

10. We’d like to see a learning cyclein teaching practice Summarize New Workand Share Back to Evolvea 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….

11. TheHeart 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.

12. 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/

13. Existing Solutions? • Disciplinary Education Journals (Journal of Geoscience Education) • OpenCourseWare? • Others?

14. What are we doing at SERC? • Collecting examples of classroom practice for adaptation and cannibalizationby other faculty • Activity Collection Form (from a Structural Geology area) • A Submitted Activity

15. 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

16. Connecting Faculty to Pedagogy • Insights from cognitive science inform faculty thinking about using visualizations • And even a step further

17. Address the Apple and Oranges Issue • Demonstrate how disparate internet resource can be built into a coherent activity with a clear HOW

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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.

22. http://serc.carleton.edu/