[ba-ohs-talk] NSF/JISC Joint US/UK Program: DIGITAL LIBRARIES AND THE CLASSROOM
Bootstrappers might want to think about this as a vehicle for funded
collaboration... (01)
Simon (02)
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National Science Foundation and Joint Information Systems Committee
Call for Proposals (04)
Pre-announcement (05)
14 November 2001 (06)
DIGITAL LIBRARIES AND THE CLASSROOM:
TESTBEDS FOR TRANSFORMING TEACHING AND LEARNING (07)
A new £ 6,000,000 / $8,500,000 joint programme (08)
The United States National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United
Kingdom Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) wish to establish a
joint programme of activities in US and UK universities. Four exemplar
projects of up to £1.5million / US$ 2.1million each over three years
will be funded to demonstrate how the education process for
undergraduate students can be transformed using innovative
applications of emerging information technologies and Internet
resources. (09)
The objective of this joint NSF/JISC programme is to bring about a
significant improvement in the learning and teaching process by fusing
state of the art digital and internet-based services, rapidly
expanding global digital content of all forms and emerging
applications in undergraduate education. We particularly wish to
examine how integrating recent technical developments with digital
content will improve the learning experience of students and provide
new models for the classroom across a number of disciplines. (010)
In creating the new courses, projects will be expected to examine
many aspects of the whole learning process including: (011)
* The innovative use of distributed, multi-media, multi-source
electronic content and advanced network technologies and capabilities
in education (012)
* How the student experience can be enriched through the use of
appropriate applications and access to electronic resources (013)
* A better understanding of students' requirements for effective use
of Information and Communications Technology(ICT), Virtual Learning
Environments (VLE) and electronic information resources (014)
* How teachers can be assisted in incorporating ICT, VLE and
electronic information resources in their courses in appropriate ways,
to provide balanced courses for students (015)
* The institutional information infrastructure required to deliver
the new courses, including the provision of suitable networks,
resources, applications, and the development of strategies to manage
all of these effectively (016)
* The organisational changes that will be required to deliver the
courses and support the staff and students involved, and how these can
best be managed by the institutions (017)
* The staff development needs of the teaching staff, the information
service support teams and administrators and consideration of the
reward mechanisms for staff engaged in innovative activities. (018)
* Economic models for the development, delivery and long term support
and development of ICT-based learning. (019)
The NSF and the JISC successfully collaborated in funding digital
library projects in 1999 * 2001. Information on these projects and
other NSF Digital Libraries Initiative projects can be found at
http://www.dli2.nsf.gov . We now wish to build on this work by
funding four exemplar projects, where each project is a collaboration
of at least one institution of higher education in the USA and one in
the UK. Projects will be expected to provide a five-year plan of
activities, although funding will only be provided for the first
three. This will ensure that the projects are embedded into the
institutions and demonstrate that the innovations are sustainable.
Significant financial and intellectual 'buy-in' by the institutions
and faculties chosen will therefore be vital to achieving success; the
objectives cannot be met without considerable change and investment in
new learning and teaching processes, support services and physical
infrastructure. (020)
Institutions should consider opportunities to build on existing or
planned strategic developments in their own organisations that would
benefit from a broader, international approach. The benefits will
include access to a wider base of technical expertise, or different
organisational structures, management approaches and teaching
methodologies. Creation of a larger, shared corpus of electronic
content for student use from existing, dispersed digital resources is
particularly welcome. (021)
A call for proposals is expected to be published in early December,
with a closing date in February 2002. Projects will be
expected to start in summer 2002. This pre-announcement alerts the
community to the imminent call and provides an early opportunity to
explore possible partnerships with suitable organisations in the US
and UK, in advance of the call being issued. (022)
Norman Wiseman, JISC
Steve Griffin, NSF (023)
Initial enquiries to the JISC should be made to Norman Wiseman
on : 0115 9514799
or by email to: nw@nerc.ac.uk (024)
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