DiBiase, David

Abstract: This paper describes efforts to extend educational descriptions of learning objects to enable semantic search for suitable resources held within digital libraries and cyberinfrastructure, and describes some further advantages that accrue from the use of formal description languages (ontologies) to describe both pedagogy and domain content. These advantages include: semantic browsing and visualization of learning object contents, advanced search capabilities linking to several different online collections, easy extension of learning objects with external content added by learners and educators, and utilization of the many rich models of education and educational domains now available as ontologies. As well as conceptual justifications and descriptions of our work, we provide examples throughout to concretize the ideas presented, using learning objects developed for college-level education in geography and the geosciences. We conclude with some thoughts on the further possibilities that arise from the application of detailed semantics, and associated reasoning, in the pursuit of genuinely reusable educational content that integrates more closely with community research activities such as exemplified by e-science.

  This article is not yet tagged

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: The Internet is a hospitable medium for distance learning. Some geography educators fear that distance education confronts the discipline with a moral dilemma, however. One, in particular, acknowledges some of the advantages of distance learning, but contends that it cannot convey the sense of place that is 'the essence of what it means to be a geographer'. This paper is concerned with the morality of distance learning. In particular, it considers educators' obligations to deliver quality education, and to make it as widely accessible as possible. The paper stresses that the key distinction between distance learning and traditional resident instruction is not the mode of delivery, nor is it the distances in time and space that separate students and teachers. Rather, it is that distance learners are a qualitatively different, older population, with different educational needs from traditional on-campus undergraduates and graduate students. The paper argues that geography educators have a moral obligation to serve lifelong learners, an obligation that should take precedence over our allegiance to conventional notions about what constitutes the essence of our field

  This article is not yet tagged

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: The potential of geographical information science (GIScience)1 to attract new students to geography has not been fully realized. Faculty attitudes about the role of GIScience in the geography curriculum, along with logistic constraints imposed by the conventional model of laboratory instruction, conspire to limit enrolment. Attitudes are changing, however, and alternative instructional models exist. This essay presents the rationale for an instructional delivery model designed to accommodate large enrolments in both resident and distance versions of an introductory GIScience course. The course-a social-science general education introduction to geographic information-emphasizes students' understanding of, and ability to articulate, the unique properties of geographic information and the social contexts in which it is produced and used. The alternative model divides laboratories into two components: discussion sessions that foster collaborative learning in small groups of students, and computer-based activities developed specifically for independent student use on personal computers ('homeware'). It is argued that the alternative model not only overcomes logistic constraints on enrolment, but is desirable on pedagogical grounds as well.

  This article is not yet tagged

Checkout More Details | Available Online