CI Topics Blog

HPC Considered Harmful....

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 21:14:40 -0400

Talk by Greg Wilson, University of Toronto at Space Telescope Science Institute Fall 2008 Webcasts. See CPT Webcasting. (Requires Real Player). This was recommended by Kelvin Droegemeier.

Video clips illustrating application and impact of of cyberinfrastructure-enabled research and learning.

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:12:10 -0400

This link on blip.tv is a repository of short video presentations providing examples of the application and impact of cyberinfrastructure-enabled research and learning.

Videos of NSF Director’s Review Presentations by the Office of Cyberinfrastructure, May 2009

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:29:04 -0400

These videos provide a good overview of vision, aspirations, and accomplishments of the newly established National Science Foundation Office of Cyberinfrastructure during the first two years of its existence. All of the videos are offered in two resolutions/bandwidths: Small/Lower (480x274) and Medium/Higher (680x360). The videos can also be downloaded to play on a computer or iPhone.

Introduction by Arden Bement, Director of NSF and Dan Atkins, Director of NSF/OCI. (12 mins.)

High-Performance Computation - Part 1 by Stephen Meacham, OCI Program Officer and Science and Technology Strategic Advisor. (18 mins.)

High-Performance Computation - Part 2 by Abani Patra, OCI Program Officer (14 mins.)

The Oxford eResearch Conference 2008

Mon, 8 Sep 2008 11:17:36 -0400

I am participating in this. Check the program to see an interesting mix of socio-technical issues around e-science AKA Ci-enabled science.
Oxford Internet Institute - eResearch 08 - Home
This multi-disciplinary, international conference on e-Research is being organized by a consortium of research projects in association with the journal Information Communication and Society (iCS). It seeks to stimulate and inform multi-disciplinary research on the development, use and implications of information and communication technologies (ICTs), like the Internet, in shaping research across the disciplines. It will bring together research from key e-Research projects from around the world examining the role of the Internet, Web and the Grid in research.
The conference seeks to facilitate scholarly communication and publication on this topic, and help foster a broader public understanding of the significance of this area to the sciences and humanities as well as to the public at large.
Anyone with a serious interest in conducting research on the development or use of ICTs across the disciplines should attend, as well as those with questions about how new research tools might impact the range, significance and quality of research. The conference is intended to complement and extend the activities of key research projects and programmes in this area, representatives of which are among the organizing committee.

Understanding Infrastructure: Dynamics, Tensions, and Design

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 10:29:39 -0500

Report of a Workshop on “History & Theory of Infrastructure:
Lessons for New Scientific Cyberinfrastructures”

Version 1.0 — 13 December 2006

Note from DEA: A must read for those in the cyberinfrastructure community.

UI_Final_Report_Draft.pdf

Report from Summit on Educational Games

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 17:45:19 -0500

Publication from the Summit on Educational Games from the Federation of American Scientists only came out mid-October. Summit on Educational Games

Sloan Foundation Report: Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, 2006

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 15:45:35 -0500

See full report here.

Executive Summary
Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, 2006 represents the fourth annual
report on the state of online learning in U.S. higher education. This year’s study, like those
for the previous three years, is aimed at answering some of the fundamental questions about
the nature and extent of online education. Supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and
based on responses from over 2,200 colleges and universities, the study addresses the
following key questions:
Has the Growth of Online Enrollments Begun to Plateau?
Background: For the past several years, online enrollments have been growing substantially faster
than the overall higher education student body. However, last year’s study, while reporting the same
numeric increase as the previous year, had a lower percentage growth rate. Could this be an early
indicator that online enrollment growth has finally begun to plateau?
The evidence: There has been no leveling of the growth rate of online enrollments; institutions of
higher education report record online enrollment growth on both a numeric and a percentage basis.
• Nearly 3.2 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall
2005 term, a substantial increase over the 2.3 million reported the previous year.
• The more than 800,000 additional online students is more than twice the number
added in any previous year.
Who is Learning Online?
Background: There is some evidence that online education appeals to a different type of student from
those who do face-to-face instruction. Online students tend to be older, and often hold additional
employment and family responsibilities, as compared to the more traditional student. Do these differences
mean that online students are taking different level courses or studying at different types of institutions?
The evidence: The population of online students is a close match to the general higher education
student body, but the mix of schools at which they study is not.
• Online students, like the overall student body, are overwhelmingly undergraduates.
The proportion of graduate-level students is slightly higher in online education
relative to the overall higher education population.
• Online students, especially undergraduates, are more likely to be studying at
Associates institutions than are their face-to-face contemporaries.

2
What Types of Institutions Have Online Offerings?
Background: The previous three reports in this series have shown a very uneven distribution of
online course and program offerings by type of institution. Public institutions and the largest
institutions of all types have consistently been at the forefront of online offerings. Those that are the
least likely to offer online courses, and typically have the most negative opinions about online education
in general, have been the small, private, four-year institutions.
The evidence: This year’s results show no major changes from previous patterns. The same types of
institutions are in the forefront of online offerings.
• More than 96 percent of the very largest institutions (more than 15,000 total
enrollments) have some online offerings, which is more than double the rate
observed for the smallest institutions.
• The proportion of institutions with fully online programs rises steadily as
institutional size increases, and about two-thirds of the very largest institutions have
fully online programs, compared to only about one-sixth of the smallest institutions.
• Doctoral/Research institutions have the greatest penetration of offering online
programs as well as the highest overall rate (more than 80%) of having some form of
online offering (either courses or full programs).

Have Perceptions of Quality Changed for Online Offerings?
Background: The first study in this series found that a majority of Chief Academic Officers rated
the learning outcomes for online education “as good as or better” than those for face-to-face instruction.
The following year’s report displayed similar results. Do academic leaders hold the same opinion today,
given the rapid growth in the numbers of online students?
The evidence: By an increasing margin, most Chief Academic Officers believe that the quality of
online instruction is equal to or superior to that of face-to-face learning.
• In 2003, 57 percent of academic leaders rated the learning outcomes in online
education as the same or superior to those in face-to-face. That number is now 62
percent, a small but noteworthy increase.
• The proportion who believe that online learning outcomes are superior to those for
face-to-face is still relatively small but has grown by 40 percent since 2003 from 12.1
percent in 2003 to 16.9 percent.

What are the Barriers to Widespread Adoption of Online
Education?
Background: Previous studies in this series have identified a number of areas of concern for the
potential growth of online offerings and enrollments. Academic leaders have commented that their
faculty often don’t accept the value of online learning and that it takes more time and effort to teach an
online course. To what extent do these leaders see these issues and others as critical barriers to the
widespread adoption of online learning?
The evidence: Problem areas identified in previous years are still seen as areas of concern among
academic leaders.
• Only 4.6 percent of Chief Academic Officers agreed that there are no significant
barriers to widespread adoption of online learning.
• Nearly two-thirds of the academic leaders cite the need for more discipline on the
part of online students as a critical barrier.
• Faculty issues, both acceptance of online and the need for greater time and effort to
teach online, are also important barriers.
• Neither a perceived lack of demand on the part of potential students nor the
acceptance of an online degree by potential employers was seen as a critical barrier.

Two articles from Science re Social Networking: 1) Google’s Hidden Wealth and 2) Making Connections

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 13:47:18 -0500

Recent short but interesting piece from Science.

Google.SocSciGoldmine.2006[1].pdf

CornellSNAInternet.1006[1].pdf

Arden Bement speaking on CI

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 09:34:53 -0500

Dr. Bement, Director of NSF, gave a talk recently to a Chronicles of Higher Education Forum. Here is the article about it from the Chronicles. I will later post the entire speech. The content of the story is good; the title of the story reveals that the article’s writer didn’t get the big picture.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

NSF Chief Urges Colleges to Build Better High-Speed Networking Tools

By JEFFREY R. YOUNG

Henderson, Nev.

American colleges and universities should quickly build a better set of shared high-speed networking tools and protocols for research if the United States is to maintain leadership in technology and higher education, said Arden L. Bement Jr., director of the National Science Foundation, in a speech here on Wednesday to college leaders.

In the speech, "Cyberinfrastructure: The Second Revolution," Mr. Bement highlighted the importance of what has become the major focus of the foundation's support for technology at colleges in recent years. He predicted that innovations in cyberinfrastructure would have an effect similar to that of the invention of the Internet, which was also sparked in part with the foundation's support.

Mr. Bement delivered the speech at The Chronicle's Technology Forum, which this week drew about 250 attendees to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in this city just outside Las Vegas.

"Leadership in cyberinfrastructure may well become the major determinant in measuring pre-eminence in higher education among nations," he said. "Indeed, to be even more provocative, I would suggest that leadership in cyberinfrastructure may determine America's continued ability to innovate -- and thus our ability to compete successfully in the global arena."

He said that colleges have "a responsibility" to embrace a vision of sharing computing resources and developing better digital tools for research, and to do so "at a fast clip."

Exactly what is cyberinfrastructure? Even many of its proponents have had trouble answering that question in clear and simple terms.

One aspect is to set up better ways to share scientific instruments and high-speed computing power over distances using networks. Another aspect is to create better simulation methods and better ways to turn data into pictures so that greater degrees of complexity can be understood.

Mr. Bement said cyberinfrastructure was a "comprehensive phenomenon that involves creation, dissemination, preservation, and application of knowledge." He said it was not just about building new networking tools, but new "norms of practice and rules, incentives, and constraints that shape individual and collective action."

That means colleges' research projects should focus more heavily on collaboration, on crossing disciplinary lines, and on international cooperation.

Although some prognosticators have said the growth of online networks would one day spell the end of traditional colleges, Mr. Bement said, he disagreed. "There is ample time," he said, "to respond decisively to the changing landscape through important innovations in education."

Copyright © 2006 by The Chronicle of Higher Education

Cyberinfrastructure for Elementary, Secondary, and Informal Education

Thu, 9 Nov 2006 09:53:41 -0500

The Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) Cyberinfrastructure for
Elementary, Secondary, and Informal Education (ESIE) project focus is to
examine how ESIE has been contributing to CI-related efforts.
TP8PT The project goals
included:

• To review selected ESIE programs;
• To identify sample ESIE projects that have potential relations to the
cyberinfrastructure components; and
• To provide recommendations for future ESIE cyberinfrastructure efforts.

Report Author:

Umesh Thakkar
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, IL 61801

Telephone: 217-333-2095
Email: uthakkar@ncsa.uiuc.edu

pdf below:

SGER CI ESIE 0610156.pdf