27 June 2000
This version of the LAAP proposal text bolds items I think are at the core of what we want to do and can work on or toward without external $$, and indents sections that are not relevant to that recension of the ideas.
THE NEED A 1988 Gallup survey placed young adult Americans at the bottom of
nine nations in geographical knowledge, and a decade later Americans
remain "woefully ignorant of world geography" (Barry Lopez), and many are
still "lost on the planet Earth" (Newsweek). College students have limited
geographical knowledge, and little experience thinking spatially or
globally. American colleges need to develop ways to teach these analytical
skills and build spatial information fluency to prepare the next
generation of Americans for leadership in a world that is increasingly
interconnected, interdependent, and globalized. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software offers a potential
solution to this problem by providing a means to visualize, explore, and
analyze spatial data. GIS promises to enrich viewpoints, build spatial
literacy and reasoning skills, and expand the mental scope of users.
However, there are four challenges to practical use of GIS across the
curriculum : training, data, support, and integration. The Training Challenge Many colleges and universities offer GIS software training --
generally in Geography or Geology departments -- but few professors
outside those disciplines possess the skills to use GIS in their teaching,
and thus very few students use GIS as an analytical tool. The Data Challenge Remote sensing satellites provide a constant stream of high
resolution data at global scale, and government agencies produce vast
quantities of spatially referenced data. Libraries are beginning to
incorporate such digital information, but access is often haphazard
and
confusing. The Support Challenge University computing services provide the campus network
infrastructure to distribute applications and data, but they are often
unfamiliar with GIS applications and they are only beginning to develop
support for collaboration among institutions in teaching and information
distribution. The Integration Challenge The partners in this proposal have been convinced by fact-finding
visits to preeminent GIS centers that no college campus integrates GIS
instruction, data access, and computing into a coordinated program
for
distribution of spatial information and support of its teaching and
learning across the curriculum. The Partners The partners are the Associated Colleges of the South (ACS),
Washington & Lee University (W&L), and Environmental Systems
Research Institute (ESRI). ACS needs to develop infrastructure to allow
its 15 member colleges to share expensive resources, W&L needs to
develop GIS resources across the curriculum in support of its
globalization initiative, and ESRI needs tested implementation models for
educational use of its GIS software. These needs provide a basis for a
solid working partnership. THE SIGNIFICANCE The partners propose a three-year GIS Initiative to develop a
spatial knowledgebase and distributed learning environment
to support teaching, learning, and research activities of the 15 members
of the ACS, and to provide an exportable working model for GIS in
post-secondary education. Elements included in this Initiative are: (1)
construction of a server-based library of digital data
available to all 15
campuses, (2) development of faculty and staff expertise with
GIS, (3)
creation of course and training materials to support integration of GIS
across the curriculum, (4) use of the GIS materials to improve
spatial
information fluency, and (5) sharing of the implementation model
nationally. The GIS Initiative will build upon existing strengths and pilot
projects completed at ACS colleges, encourage joint development of
multi-campus courses based in shared resources, and produce a scaleable
model for college teaching with GIS. A GIS server will offer students and
faculty of ACS institutions 24-hour Web-based access to analysis tools,
support, training materials, and data resources. The Initiative represents an innovative form of distance education,
designed to inspire collaboration among colleagues at similar
institutions, and build a common body of learning material upon which
people can draw anytime anywhere across the consortium. The Initiative
also provides a framework for collaboration by each of the ACS colleges
with local and state governments and other institutions. The Initiative
also delivers an eminently portable skill to students, based on a
technology which ties classroom activities to the outside world. The
Initiative is an entirely new solution to existing problems. If
successful, it can have a significant impact on spatial information
fluency nationwide. The Partners Associated Colleges of the South (ACS): The 15 member
institutions of the ACS -- liberal arts colleges located in all the states
of the historical South, with a total enrollment of some 25,000 students
-- are developing collaborative relationships and building common
resources across a broad range of academic disciplines and mutual
interests. Programs in Environmental Studies, Digital Libraries,
Information Fluency, Teaching with Technology, and International Studies
(all externally funded) bring faculty and staff from member schools to
workshops where participants exchange and develop ideas which may then
grow into collaborations. The 15 schools of the ACS are similar enough to
work together successfully, but remain diverse enough to be an effective
testbed for scalability of the Initiative. Washington & Lee University (W&L): W&L
is an ACS member with a strong history of leadership in electronic
librarianship and Web development. Part of the GIS Initiative will be
based in the
Teaching and Learning Resource Center in Leyburn Library, and distributed
from the server http://miley.wlu.edu. W&L's Department of
Computer Science will contribute students to test an extension of Virtual
Reality Modeling Language (geoVRML) as a display and distribution medium,
and to construct monitoring software for assessment and evaluation of
the Initiative. Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI): ESRI is
a leader in the development of GIS software and has long been committed to
encouraging educational uses of the technology, through generous support
of K-12, library, and university programs in practical uses of spatial
information. ESRI will donate 20 licenses per campus to permit network
delivery of
ArcView to desktops at all 15 colleges. ESRI will also provide
access to online training through the ESRI Virtual Campus. The Elements A Server-Based Library of Digital Data Available to All 15
Campuses: The Initiative will build a server-based shared
library
of data, maps, metadata, and user support materials. The Web pages
which
describe and distribute this resource will be linked to online library
catalogs by Dublin Core records. The collection will provide resources to
teachers and students at ACS colleges, and will pool resources to support
collaboration in fields such as global studies, environmental studies and
area studies. Materials not constrained by license agreements will be
freely available to users outside of ACS. An Internet map server
will
distribute the work of ACS partners to the world, and facilitate
cooperation with similar efforts elsewhere.
Two digital library
projects
are central to our GIS Initiative: (A) The Digital Earth will provide a uniform interface to maps
and data covering a broad range of subjects at a global scale. It will
combine purchased and licensed materials, data provided with ArcView, and
pointers to non-proprietary information available via the Web. Cooperative
arrangements with other global mapping projects (e.g., SRI International's
Digital Earth Project and the Alexandria Digital Library Project at
University of California Santa Barbara) will facilitate wider distribution
of content created at ACS schools. SRI International has offered to assist
ACS to develop examples for Web distribution. (B) The Digital South will acquire, organize, and deliver
spatial information about the South. This project encourages ACS
institutions to gather and contribute information on its own area to the
electronic archive, which will combine historical coverage and
contemporary information and support collaborative study of the region
across disciplines. Data will include demographic, political and economic
statistics in formats compatible with GIS software; LANDSAT and other
remote sensing data; aerial photographic coverage; geological and
environmental data; digital topographic maps; and digitized paper
maps. In the first year we will start to build a common data library, design
and implement a search interface for the GIS server, and hold a Computer
Services Conference to plan the ACS Wide Area Network (WAN). In the next
two years, we will implement the ACS WAN to support asynchronous and
synchronous communication for users at ACS institutions, and continue to
build the data library. Development of Faculty and Staff Expertise with GIS:
ESRI's online training modules and site-based courses can provide
basic training in the use of GIS software, and can serve as initial
instruction modules for faculty, staff, and student assistants. An
ACS-sponsored GIS Boot Camp in August 1999 created a core group of 20
faculty and staff participants who have subsequently raised the visibility
of GIS at their institutions. A second Boot Camp and an advanced workshop
are planned for the summer of 2000. In each year we will introduce 20 more
participants to GIS at Boot Camps. On campuses we will identify local
needs and resources, develop faculty and staff skills, deploy ESRI's
online courses, and hold advanced workshops for early adopters, many of
whom will then offer workshops and support at their own campuses. The
objective is to create at each campus a critical mass of skills which can
be spread to faculty colleagues and incorporated into courses. Five
schools will be major participants in the first year, and all 15 schools
will be included by the end of the three years. Course and Training Materials to Support GIS Across the
Curriculum: Workshop participants will learn the skills necessary
to develop materials to support curricular use of GIS, producing
instructional modules which are primarily oriented toward teaching content
rather than GIS skills. Preparing instructors and equipping students to
make use of GIS as an everyday tool requires development of a GIS
Toolbox: an infrastructure of tutorials, exemplary applications,
documentation, and connections to data. The Toolbox, located on the
GIS
server, will be accessible from anywhere. Instructors can develop and
contribute applications appropriate to the data resources, problems, and
teaching styles of their specific disciplines. Web pages are an effective
means to deliver such tutorial support. We will offer advanced project-based training to those who have
mastered basic skills and want to work further to develop exemplary
applications and training modules. In the first year we will build a
collection of examples of the use of GIS in courses and begin to
create
tutorials and support documents. In the following years we will continue
to add GIS to existing courses, and to develop tutorials and online course
modules. In the third year, we will integrate GIS into ACS Environmental
Studies and International Studies programs with collaborative courses on
several global issues. GIS Materials to Improve Spatial Information Fluency:
Web
tutorials are (1) distributable and available anywhere and
anytime, (2)
repeatable by users, (3) modular, and (4) readily editable and
expandable
by their creators. These online resources will support teachers and
learners in solving
practical and administrative problems in use of GIS materials. A common
core of GIS courseware will allow member colleges to share teaching
materials, and participate in classes offered by other institutions. Web
tutorials are (1) distributable and available anywhere and anytime, (2)
repeatable by users, (3) modular, and (4) readily editable and expandable
by their creators. Sharing of the Implementation Model Nationally: We will
communicate progress through publications and presentations at
conferences. In the second year we will hold symposia on GIS in each of
the following ACS program areas: International Studies, Information
Fluency, and Environmental Studies. In the third year we will disseminate
a model via publications and national meetings such as EDUCAUSE, ACRL, and
the ESRI Annual Conference. The Computing Environments--Current and Future Resources The Miley server at W&L (http://miley.wlu.edu) has
hosted a pilot project serving GIS data and support to the campus for the
last year. There is space on Miley to begin distribution to ACS members.
Miley can support three additional 36GB drives (for a total of 72GB with
RAID backup), and W&L's T3 connectivity to the Internet makes it
practical to deliver large files to distant partners. Each of the ACS partners has some level of existing campus networking
and support for classroom and laboratory use of computers, but most are
not ready to implement campus-wide GIS delivery. In the first year, four
or five early adopters will collaborate to develop, implement, and test
procedures for implementation. In each subsequent year, five or six other
schools will implement the model. During the GIS Initiative we will develop a Wide Area Network (WAN)
connecting the ACS campuses. The ultimate objective is effective
curriculum-wide sharing of documents, databases, hardware resources, and
facilities, to support synchronous and asynchronous collaborative teaching
and learning. Staff Success can be measured by improved student knowledge, level of faculty
and student participation, and use of online resources by ACS and
others. Improved Student Knowledge A Web-based tool for online assessment of geographical knowledge
and spatial analytic skills will be constructed, which instructors can
modify, for pre- and post- measurement in courses with GIS components.
During the second and third years of the Initiative, the online tool will
be used to test freshmen at the beginning and end of the academic year,
and they will be tracked through courses with GIS components to assess the
influence of GIS skills on geographic and spatial knowledge. Faculty and Student Participation Counts will be kept of faculty participation in workshops, courses
at ACS institutions that add GIS components, numbers of students who
complete ESRI’s online training courses, and new collaborations with GIS
across disciplines and between institutions. Inquiries and visits from
outside ACS will be tallied, as will presentations and publications by ACS
faculty and students which include GIS components. Use of Online Resources Counters will be placed on all Web pages created for the
Initiative, to track connections by IP address, and traffic to and from
the server will be monitored from ACS institutions and the outside
world.Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Across the Curriculum:
Implementing Distribution to 15 CampusesTHE DESIGN
THE EVALUATION