ACM DL'98 Workshop
Pittsburgh - June 27, 1998
By the end of this century, large-scale digital libraries containing the collective legacy of human knowledge and information will be accessed on-demand over gigabit, broadband and broadcast networks, forcing the democratization of information. In the next century, they will become one of the few - and one of the most important - global cultural institutions. Both as libraries, or repositories of knowledge, and as institutions of global significance, they will exert an enormous impact on education.
While their development raises important issues for many areas of technology and culture, and has been the subject of much research and discussion, their impact on education has not received the attention it deserves. The April 1998 issue of the Communications of the ACM, for example, contains 19 articles on digital libraries, covering a variety of technical and social issues from interoperability to multilingual support. Not one article focuses on the role of digital libraries in K-12 education. It is time to seriously address this gap, and to do so within the context of the larger community of DL researchers.
We propose, with this workshop, to raise awareness of the topic among the education communities, and stimulate support for and encourage research in this area. The workshop will consist of panel discussions and breakout sessions. Position papers will be included in a report that will be published in this website. Please join us in this important effort.
This workshop will attempt to explore digital library implications for pedagogy, library science, content, law, policy-making, student access, curriculum, assessment, public involvement, market directions and a diversity of related issues. Participants will be able to identify the needs, advantages, and requirements that will drive digital library research with respect to educational technology.
We expect that this group of workshop participants will become a working group that will propose standards, influence research directions and affect public policy. We hope that this working group will continue to meet and work together, organizing other workshops and participating in other (e.g., education) conferences as appropriate.
Participants to this workshop are invited who share these goals and who can contribute to some of the themes that follow.
The Future of Digital Education:
The Evolution of Libraries:
Information and Technology Infrastructure:
Market Forces and Directions:
Social Responsibility and Public Policy:
The world around the Digital Library:
Dr. Miriam J. Masullo is a Research Staff Member at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. She is currently Director of Educational Technology at NACME, the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, in New York City, on faculty loan from IBM. Dr. Masullo initiated Project EduPort, a pioneering digital library for K-12 education, which was first demonstrated in Nebraska with the support and encouragement of US Senator Kerrey. Dr. Masullo has since been actively working with UNESCO and other organizations worldwide to bring the concepts of digital libraries in education to developing countries. She is now focused on equity and home access to educational technologies in the US.
Contact: mmasullo@nacme.org
Linn Marks Collins, a multimedia designer, is an invited faculty member at the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos and is writing a book entitled Patterns in New Media (MIT Press). Her work in multimedia began at MIT's Project Athena, where she was a visiting associate, and continued at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, where she was the principal developer of Project EduPort, a digital library for K-12 education. She has presented tutorials on design at several human factors and multimedia conferences, including the ACM's InterCHI 93, CHI 94, Multimedia 95, and CHI 96. Prior to becoming a multimedia designer, she was an English teacher. Her goals are to ensure universal access to new media through cognitive equity in design.
Contact: lcollins@nmstudio.com
Rafael Ramirez is the Assistant to the Director of Bilingual Education at the US Department of Education in Washington D.C. Ray has extensive experience in educational policy, having served US Senator Bingaman of New Mexico in that capacity. He later worked at NCREL, the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory in Chicago, Illinois, where he continued his worked in educational policy and became a very active practitioner in the field of educational technology. Ray is personally focused on educational policy issues as they relate to digital libraries.
Contact: rafael_ramirez@ed.gov
Information about participants will be provided as registration progresses.
This workshop will be held in conjunction with the ACM Digital Libraries '98 Conference, at the Mariott City Center, in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, June 23-26, 1998. More details about the conference can be found at the conference URL above. This workshop will b e held on the Saturday following the Conference, June 27th, from 9:00am to 4:00pm.
Please send a memo to Dr. Masullo if you wish to participate. Indicate the reasons for your interest in participating, including your biosketch and a description of your relevant work. Please include URLs pointing to relevant projects or publications. The names of accepte d participants will be published in this website.
There is a Workshop fee of $50 that includes lunch. Details as to the method of payment are being worked out.
This workshop will be a full day, 9-4, activity. The morning will be dedicated to general discussion of the issues, driven by keynote statements from selected participants. There will be breakout sessions in the afternoon to develop the issues in more det ail, followed by a summary session and identification of the next steps toward our goals. Discussion leaders among the participants will be assigned to guide the breakout sessions. The goal is to create a community of interest and a working group that wil l continue to advance the role of Digital Libraries in K-12 education.
Updated May 18, 1998