Annual Meeting

If you have recently used the search at NSDL.org, you will have noticed some changes to the search results page. The changes reflect the production release of a new underlying search system at nsdl.org.  Some of the main changes to note:

• Normalization of vocabulary terms across collections in the library (building from the recent TNS work around Learning Application Readiness) to provide more consistent results
• Search User Interface (UI) includes links for terms to allow for drill-down (faceted search)
• Interactive histograms for showing resource distributions in the library, and for each collection (in the collection logo pop-up on search results pages, and through the “full description” link on the collections browse page
• Simplification of the search and advanced search pages
• Inclusion of annotations (e.g. teaching tips, comments) in addition to the education standards.  For an example, see the second result on the following URL:

http://nsdl.org/search/index.php?q=the+global+sun&submitButton=Search&n=10

• 
  Annotations such as tips, usage information, etc., come into the library through the usual cataloging or OAI-PMH mechanisms using annotation frameworks including NSDL Common Annotation, and upcoming paradata (data on how users are using digital resources)
• Release of a new search service API that provides the engine that powers these features  http://wiki.nsdl.org/index.php/Community:Search

You can always get further information through the NSDL support page at http://nsdl.org/about/contactus/.

Some further details:

The underlying search service is accessible through a REST-based API (simple query extensions on a regular URL) that provides results across the collections of metadata (nsdl_dc) and annotations. The NSDL.org search UI and browse (histograms) are examples of using the API.  Other clients of the API include science.gov (where NSDL is one of the databases included in science.gov federated search), the Instructional Architect and NSDL Science Literacy Maps, plus a number of other projects.  The old search service will continue for a short time while clients transition.

The normalization of vocabularies for search has taken the large variety of terms used by collection providers and mapped them to the NSDL controlled vocabularies to provide consistency for application developers using the search API, and to provide users more consistency of terms when using the search user interface.  The mappings are applied at collection ingest for some collections, and in building the search index for others.

The normalization process allows NSDL to ingest collections through OAI that are shared in other metadata frameworks other than nsdl_dc, but the speed at which this can happen will depend on the level of work for required transforms to be developed.

While nsdl.org search and API use the nsdl_dc metadata framework (and associated vocabularies) for primary resource descriptions, the search service includes annotations (tips, comments) that are provided as annotation collections using recent NSDL annotation frameworks.  Annotation collections will be handled in the same manner as collections of primary metadata about resources through the collections accessioning process including NSDL Accessioning Board (NAB) review.

There is an ongoing project examining an overall redesign of the whole NSDL.org site.  We expect that further changes to the search UI will result from that effort.  The release to production of the new search service, along with the work around the metadata and controlled vocabularies, will provide a foundation for that work, and to other clients of the search API service.

Mike Wright
NSDL Technical Network Services
http://nsdl.org/about/contactus/

If you haven’t been following or are unfamiliar with recent developments for NSDL, here’s a nutshell summary and links to more information:

1. At the November 2010 Annual Meeting (NSDL’s 10th Anniversary), the NSDL community of projects continued a process of reflection begun in August 2010 at the annual Pathways projects PIs meeting: see Resource Center Director Kaye Howe’s reflections: A Community Pauses to Consider… and Annual Meeting Discussion.

2. In February, 2011, the National Science Foundation confirmed that NSF would discontinue funding for the NSDL program in the Directorate of Undergraduate Education, as of September 30, 2011 (conclusion as a funding program within NSF). It is hoped that funding commitments for current grants would be able to be honored, and that a potential transitional NSDL solicitation might be forthcoming. NSF would like to see NSDL continue as a brand and entity in some way; NSDL PIs were encouraged to explore opportunities offered by the Cyberlearning Transforming Education solicitation and the Math and Science Parternerhipsprogram.  Community comments included that within the network, it is crucial to identify the critical pieces of NSDL, to preserve and carry forward in some way. RC/TNS will explore mechanisms for that. A reverse site visit by NSDL PIs to NSF remains on the schedule for late April.

3. On March 2, 2011, NSDL program officer Lee Zia participated in a conference call with the NSDL community of principal investigators, to answer questions about the decision. Lee confirmed NSF’s appreciation of the valuable knowledge and experience within the NSDL community, but, as expected, confirmed that the national budget outlook was not encouraging (given ongoing disagreement in Congress about budget composition, and the need for continuing resolutions for government funding). NSF encourages the NSDL community to look both within and without NSF for opportunities, including state funded options, Dept. of Education opportunities (e.g. Race to the Top; American Recovery & Reinvestment Act).  An NSDL 2011 solicitation was drafted and it is hoped more will be known about possible release after the budget impasse is resolved. Lee encouraged and Kaye confirmed that RC/TNS will work to enable ways to identify key elements of NDSL, with an eye to exploring all sustainability avenues possible, and will advise as that becomes more clear.

4. Early April update: upcoming meetings that will help to formulate future planning for NSDL take place in April and May.

The Annual Meeting Planning Committee has completed a report on the 2010 Annual Meeting Survey results. We had results from 65 of the 165 attendees, including 247 unstructured comments. A quick preview of the results include an overall meeting rating of 4.32/5.00.

You can find a complete analysis of the results posted on the Annual Meeting site, which includes ratings of sessions, meeting support and opportunities to interact with your fellow NSDL colleagues, along with comparisons to previous meetings.

I eventually got there! After an interesting travel experience on Thursday (re-routing via Newport News, Virginia), I was happy to at last get to my intended destination in Washington DC to represent NSDL at the meeting of principal investigators from NSF’s Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (TUES) program. Held every two years, the TUES meeting is a great chance to learn about projects and visit with educators from STEM disciplines who are creating terrific resources and services.

The winter storm that hit the DC area and East coast in the final week of January proved a challenge to everyone, but the folks at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) - our meeting hosts - handled everything beautifully, and the airport and hotel personnel in Newport News were gracious in dealing with two unexpected planeloads of people who weren’t really supposed to be there. It was great to reconnect with NSDL partners as well: Flora McMartin (NSDL Reflections); Joe Tront (Engineering Pathway); Cathy Manduca (CLEAN, Teach the Earth), Bill Frey, Lynette Hoelter, and JP DeWitt, all from TeachingwithData; Lang Moore (MathDL), Yolanda George (BEN), and Chanda Halderman from AMSER and the Scout Project.

The theme of this year’s meeting was Making and Measuring Impacts - certainly a topic of  interest to all TUES and NSDL projects and PIs. While I missed the opening plenary, it was a treat to hear Associate Director for Science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) (and Nobel Laureate), Carl E. Wieman, who engagingly discussed Measuring Impact in STEM Ed: Are They Thinking Like Experts?

Wieman’s presentation focused on what constitutes effective learning and understanding, and the goal of encouraging and developing “expert thinking” in students - the skills that cognitive science and research on learning identify as features of expert thinking. These certainly include factual knowledge, but more than that, the development of

- mental organizational frameworks

- pattern and relationship recognition

- testing of mental models and problem solving

- ability to weed the relevant from the irrelevant

- ability for “sense-making”

- the ability to monitor one’s own thinking and learning

- reflection balanced with guidance

Many hours of employing such skills and incorporating them in “deliberate practice” over time (10,000 hours) results in a change in cognition, a differentiation in the brain that enables “thinking like an expert.”

So, how can educators foster and encourage expert-like skills, and test the cognitive aspects of student thinking, in evaluative practice?

It’s a challenging but achievable goal, says Wieman, who has worked to develop, test, and refine instruments for understanding student expertise: employing “cognitive task assessment” that reveals decision-making, problem-solving, and that tests the use of mental models, using open-ended survey questions, multiple choice questions, and iterative validation interviews with students. It’s challenging and difficult work, and requires careful analysis, adaptation, and reworking, but results in more sensitive and meaningful outcomes than typical exams. Wryly noting that “there seems to be general agreement that intro courses produce thinking like a novice”, Wieman affirmed that not everyone needs to be a scientist, to be an expert - it’s an unrealistic goal - but making the practice of expertise more evident in teaching and learning holds more promise for moving students up the “expertise continuum” and improving motivation, response, and engagement in science and math.

Forthcoming: W. Adams and C. Wieman (in press). Development and validation of instruments to measure learning of expert-like thinking. Intl J Sci Ed