Welcome to the December 2003 issue of the IU News. This month's lead story describes a Hewlett Foundation grant that funds ground-breaking work at the California Digital Library. The IU is a strategic partner in this grant, and will play an important role by developing its Scholar's Box prototype into a tool that will enable users to build collections, integrate these with desired instructional technologies, and contribute new objects and collections to archives and repositories. The Hewlett grant story is introduced on the IU Main page and printed in full below. Stories featured in this issue are:
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Hewlett Foundation Funds New Frontiers for the Digital Library
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation recently announced a one million dollar grant to the University of California for a project that develops online tools to permit broader access to the world's leading libraries and other cultural institutions. The Hewlett grant funds a proposal, New Frontiers in the Digital Library: Social and Ecological Diversity of the American West, submitted last summer by UC's California Digital Library (CDL). The Interactive University, which began a strategic partnership with the CDL in April 2003, will be one of 10 partners in the project.
The key priority of the Hewlett Foundation's program in support of educational technologies is, "to use information technology to help equalize the distribution of knowledge and educational opportunities for individuals, faculty, and institutions within the United States and throughout the world. Our focus is on creating exemplars of academic content that are free and accessible to all on the web."
The New Frontiers project provides funding for development of IU's Scholar's Box, and an opportunity to accelerate deployment and integration of its features and capabilities for a new collection in a targeted user community. New Frontiers partners will design, assemble, and evaluate the use of a large virtual collection of digital materials bearing on the social and ecological diversity of the American West. The collection will be developed and presented with a range of tools that support its extensive re-configuration, its integration with online learning environments, and its continued growth through the addition of relevant research and teaching materials that are produced over time in the course of use.
On November 15 and 16, project partners gathered in Albuquerque, New Mexico for an initial meeting, at which they got acquainted and discussed strategies for implementing the proposal. In addition to the California Digital Library and the Interactive University, the project partners include:
- Colorado Digitization Program
- Harvard University
- Indiana University
- The Library of Congress, American Memory
- University of California at Los Angeles
- University of Michigan
- University of Virginia
- University of Washington
In its proposal, the CDL called attention to developments in the past decade, a time when universities, libraries, museums, and other archives have made a large and growing component of society's cultural, scholarly, and scientific record available online over the Internet. However, a number of substantial impediments stand in the way of improving ease of access to, and creative use of, these archives that continue to expand in the public domain. The Hewlett Foundation has funded work to develop mechanisms that will enable users to do three important things:
- build their own collections from existing online materials—that is, select and configure online information to suit their own needs;
- integrate online materials with the instructional technologies preferred by a user;
- contribute the digital products of their own work (such as online research publications, teaching materials, research data, personal text or image collections) to digital libraries where they can be managed and made widely accessible.
The CDL proposal further notes: "These problems will be addressed practically. Through extensive consultation with university researchers and faculty, with educators K-20, and with public librarians."
IU Director David Greenbaum expressed his excitement about the new project after the recent meeting in New Mexico, "The IU is very pleased to be part of this innovative and important project being led by the California Digital Library. This will give us further opportunity to work closely with the CDL to develop the IU’s Scholar’s Box for use at the intersection of higher education and K-12 teaching and learning. It will be highly valuable to work with and help to open up the extraordinary range of content that will be brought together by the university partners who are part of the New Frontiers."
The IU will play a key role in the New Frontiers project as it develops and implements its prototype Scholar's Box. The Scholar's Box will enable users to select individual pieces of information from different formats, include them in a personal workspace where they can be organized, arranged, and annotated, and then output them in formats recognizable to a variety of commonly used learning management and desktop software.
The Scholar's Box is being developed as an open source tool that can be integrated as a feature, or toolset, in any virtual collection; the aim of the New Frontiers project is to make the Scholar's Box openly available with the virtual collection on the American West, thereby facilitating use of the collection for educational and instructional purposes.
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Urban Dreams Teachers Gather on Berkeley Campus
On Thursday, November 20, a dozen teachers and curriculum specialists from Oakland’s Urban Dreams Project came to the Berkeley campus for a day of professional development sessions. The morning session in the Bancroft Library featured a presentation by History Professor Richard Candida-Smith, who is also Director of the Regional Oral History Project (ROHO), housed in the Bancroft Library. Following lunch, the afternoon session was held in Moses Hall; it was the second segment in a four part series being offered this academic year, and led by Chicano/Ethnic Studies Professor Alex Saragoza.
Professor Candida-Smith gave an overview of the origins and objectives of oral history as an academic discipline. Oral history emerged with the modern university and modern journalism, and it strives, he said, “to put the human being back into history.” In an era of increased academic and public interest in first-hand accounts and personal perspectives, oral histories map hidden topographies of historical events and give voice to marginalized or silenced individuals and groups.
Candida-Smith pointed out that the Bancroft Library has its origin in Hubert Howe Bancroft’s personal collection of transcribed interviews with early inhabitants and immigrants to the West, as well as in thousands of original historical documents collected by Bancroft. Formative work in the oral history discipline was done during interviews with participants in significant events in Britain and France in the 19th Century.
After a brief discussion, the Urban Dreams teachers viewed video clips from Rosie the Riveter and the World War II Homefront Experience. For this project, ROHO staff interviewed Bay Area residents about their World War II experiences here at home. Many of the clips featured women from a range of economic and ethnic backgrounds discussing their attitudes toward education, the effect of the war on race relations, and changing ideas about sexuality, religion and community.
See Events below for information about the Regional Oral History Office’s Winter Workshop, Saturday, December 6, 2003, in the Faculty Club on the UC Berkeley campus.
Professor Saragoza’s segment continued to develop themes he focused on in an October session—themes of changing identities for Americans and non-Americans living within the United States. Saragoza talked about an America altered by World War II and responding to new challenges and uncertainties arising from the emerging Cold War. America’s image in the world was changed and Americans’ ideas of what it meant to be American were changing. The accompanying uncertainties had significant effects on both citizens and non-citizens living in the U.S., and some of the changing roles and self-images are captured and reflected in the movies and other popular culture creations of the time.
The group viewed excerpts from a cartoon and a war movie (Guadalcanal Diary, 1943) for portrayals of war and representations of the Japanese in two very different mediums. Following that were two contrasting versions of the family in the aftermath of the war. First, an episode of Ozzie and Harriet dramatized a family focused on trivial domestic concerns. This was followed by a scene from Blue Dahlia (written by Raymond Chandler and released in 1946) which portrays a family’s disintegration and tragedy when a soldier returns from the war.
Urban Dreams and Professor Saragoza will continue this year-long series with two more sessions in 2004. In addition, the Teaching Library’s Lynn Jones continues work to create and organize a website to document and supplement the series—with a goal to archive, extend and share information and resources relating to the series and its themes.
For more information about IU/Urban Dreams collaborations, visit the Urban Dreams site.
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IU/CDL Presentation at SIMS Seminar
On November 14, 2003, Peter Brantley, Director of Technology at the California Digital Library, and Raymond Yee, Technology Architect for the Interactive University, were the guest presenters at the UCB School of Information Management and Systems Friday Seminar series. The seminar is hosted by Clifford Lynch and Michael Buckland, and explores selected advanced topics relating to digital libraries, with special emphasis on:
- access to networked resources,
- use of two or more resources in conjunction,
- combined use of two or more retrieval systems (e.g. use of pre- or post-processing to enhance the capabilities),
- the redesign of library services.
In addition the series touches on a number of questions about the nature of information retrieval processes, the feasibility of not-yet-conventional techniques, techniques of making different systems work together, social impact, and the reconsideration of past practices. Anyone interested in these topics is welcome to join .
Brantley and Yee talked about the problem of interoperability between information and learning environments—as viewed from their respective insitutions and their end-users—theoretically and practically, as well as functionally and technologically. They explored the question: how should digital libraries facilitate the use of their content and services in the development of digital learning materials? This question is of current interest in both the library and educational technology communities.
The California Digital Library (CDL)—the 11th university library of the University of California—and the UC Berkeley Interactive University Project (IU) have been working together to test and develop ways for educational technologies to make the library's resources more accessible to all its audiences—including current and potential users in K-12 communities.
Brantley and Yee suggest reading a white paper by Neil McLean and Clifford Lynch, "Interoperability Between Information and Learning Environments" for background information on this topic. In addition, slides presented at the talk are available here.
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New Governor Proposes End of Outreach Funding
The newly elected California Governor has proposed terminating all funding for University of California outreach programs. These proposed cuts would begin in January of 2004, and are intended to help the state balance its budget without raising taxes—a pledge the new governor made during the recent recall campaign.
University of California President Robert C. Dynes issued a statement regarding the mid-year budget cuts proposed by the new governor. While acknowledging that the University must "play a role in the state's solution to its budget gap," he also said, "I am particularly concerned by the proposal to eliminate state funding for UC outreach programs to the public schools in California. Improving student achievement throughout the public schools remains a major challenge facing our state, and UC outreach programs are making an important contribution to the effort. Part of our mission as an educational leader in California is to help integrate educational efforts across the K-16 system, and our outreach programs have a proud legacy of doing so. I hope to have further discussions in Sacramento about this issue, and about the overall support we need to maintain quality programs for the people of California."
Read the entire press statement from the UC Office of the President here.
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Upcoming Professional Development Events
The Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP) will continue its Saturday Seminars in 2004. Check the BAWP site and the Saturday Seminars page for more information about the next seminar, scheduled for January 31, 2004 at the Albany Middle School. Details are forthcoming.
The Office of Resources for International and Area Studies (ORIAS) still has openings in one of its 2003/2004 working groups for teachers. World Poetry meets for four Saturday mornings beginning in early 2004 (January 31, February 21, March 20, and April 24, from 10:00-1:00). The group is open to newcomers and is a continuation of the History Through Literature meetings first established in 1998. In the past the group has looked at international epic literature and comparative mythology with a focus on world areas mandated in the 6th and 7th grade world history curricula. This session will turn its focus to world poetry.
The syllabus and calendar have recently been posted at the ORIAS site.
The Regional Oral History Office will offer a winter workshop on Saturday, December 6, 2003. This one-day, interactive seminar is suitable for members of both the university and the greater community who are seeking an introduction to oral history. It is also relevant to those who are actively engaged in academic research for which oral history is a central methodology. The group will be comprised of those doing individual, family, and community interviews for personal, academic or professional projects.
See details and registration information here.
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More College Preparation Information and Resources
In the November IU News, we featured the resource links at the Center for Educational Outreach. This month we point to more sites that contain information about college preparation and community college transfer—including substantial lists of contacts.
First is Kindergarten to College: UC Berkeley in the Schools, the UCB outreach site that has recently published the third edition of FFWD to College—which contains stories of former outreach students now enrolled at UC Berkeley, as well as other information about transfer students, myths and facts surrounding the SAT and ACT Tests, stories on Young Entrepreneurs at Haas, Bay Area Urban Debate, Young Musician's Program, Upward Bound, and upcoming summer programs. You can read a PDF version of this newsletter at the site, or request paper copies by e-mailing Gail Kaufman at gkaufman@uclink.berkeley.edu
Other sites with valuable information for families and students interested in preparing for college—whether the questions concern entrance requirements, application dates, or finances—will be found below:
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Computer Illogic?
"Throughout the country, computer technology is dumbing down the academic experience, corrupting schools' financial integrity, cheating the poor, fooling people about the job skills youngsters need for the future and furthering the illusions of state and federal education policy." This is a key argument presented by Todd Oppenheimer in a recent Insight piece from the San Francisco Chronicle: Computer Illogic: Despite Great Promise, Technology is Dumbing Down the Classroom.
Oppenheimer's judgment may sound harsh, and at odds with the goals and intentions of those dedicated to improving education through integration of new technologies into teaching and learning, but the article is cogently written and argued, and points to some of the ways that a blind, unreflective embrace of "the new" can lead to unintended consequences. Read the entire article from the San Francisco Chronicle here.
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