The UK and USA to collaborate on major digital initiative

Citation

(2003), "The UK and USA to collaborate on major digital initiative", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 37 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/prog.2003.28037cab.009

The UK and USA to collaborate on major digital initiative

The UK and USA to collaborate on major digital initiative

The JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF) have agreed to fund a programme which will provide exciting new content and a range of benefits to education sectors on both sides of the Atlantic. The five-year programme, called "Digital libraries in the classroom", will cost around £6m ($9.5m) and will draw on best practice in the creation and delivery of content from both the UK and the USA, resulting in a range of resources in four key subject areas.

The focus of the programme is to investigate and exploit the potential of online resources in learning and teaching across a range of pre-selected subject disciplines. A key focus for each of the projects across the programme will be to combine the application of sound pedagogic principles in the creation, delivery and use of online materials, with new research to develop the underlying information technology. The result will be resources that will provide exemplars for the provision of digital resources in disciplines beyond the ones chosen for development.

Malcolm Read, JISC Executive Secretary, welcomed the new programme, saying: "The JISC and the NSF have a long history of collaboration, but this is a particularly exciting programme which will bring a number of important benefits on both sides of the Atlantic".

The programme consists of four projects, each of which will pool the resources and expertise of UK and US universities with long and distinguished track records in the use of information and communication technologies. The projects are:

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  The spoken word. New resources for transforming teaching and learning – Glasgow Caledonian University, North-Western University, Michigan State University. Sound remains an educational resource as yet fully untapped, but its possibilities in the digital realm are immense. Drawing extensively on BBC and other sound archives and using the latest technology at their disposal, this project will look at how audio resources can be manipulated, applied and used within a variety of learning situations.

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  Teaching and learning anthropology. Using "scalable" digital library platforms and innovations in approaches to content – London School of Economics and Columbia University. Digital resources provide the opportunity to deliver new insights in a variety of ways. This project will develop digital tools and the approaches and methods to use them successfully in undergraduate anthropology courses. Many of the lessons of the project will be directly relevant to teaching in many other disciplines.

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  Digital libraries in support of innovative approaches to teaching and learning in geography – University of Southampton, University of Leeds, University of California, Santa Barbara, and University of Pennsylvania. Important skills in the analysis of spatial information can be taught online and made available to undergraduates. This project will explore these and other possibilities and, crucially, will explore how cross-national collaboration can enhance and enrich the learning experiences of geography students.

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  Accelerating globally distributed team innovation – University of Strathclyde and Stanford University. This project will enable students to take part in global team-based design engineering projects in which they directly experience different cultural contexts and access a variety of different information sources via a range of appropriate technologies.

Crucial to these projects will be the cross-disciplinary lessons that projects in other subject areas will be able to learn. They also represent the first instance of combining the use of rich electronic content with the technologies that enable innovative delivery in core use in the learning process. They will therefore provide an important testing ground for the application of digital technologies to the practicalities of learning and teaching in the classroom. Peter Freeman, the NSF Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, said: "NSF is delighted to partner with JISC in the support of these innovative projects. We anticipate that they will help set the standard for the development of digital resources of the future".

Taking these resources and these methods of teaching with technology out of the domain of the enthusiasts and into the broader arena where whole departments and institutions will have to engage, will mark a significant cultural, educational and technological shift, one with important implications for the future. Howard Newby, Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), fully endorsed this approach, saying: "These projects provide a model for the future. These institutions have put their full weight behind this programme. This will mean that the resources created by these projects will have direct and beneficial use in the classroom."

For further information, please contact: Rachel Bruce, Programme Manager and Acting Team Leader, JISC Executive, King's College London, Strand Bridge House, 138-142 The Strand, London WC2R 1HH, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7848 2572; Fax: +44(0) 20 7848 2939; E-mail: rachel.bruce@kcl.ac.uk; URL: www.jisc.ac.uk