Subject: Letter of Intent ITR Program Resent-Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 23:33:44 -0500 Resent-From: Geoffrey Fox Resent-To: p_gcf@npac.syr.edu Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 22:50:10 -0500 From: Geoffrey Fox To: itr-loi@nsf.gov CC: joe@erc.msstate.edu LETTER of INTENT: NSF Information Technology Research (ITR) Program - ------------------------------------------------------------------- (Information Technology Education and Workforce, and Information Management areas) PI: Geoffrey C Fox, Florida State University co-PI: Chris Lacher, Florida State University co-PI: Joe Thompson, Mississippi State University co-PI: Willie Brown, Jackson State University co-PI: Nancy McCracken, Syracuse University Possible Participating Institutions: Florida State, Florida A and M, Jackson State, Mississippi State, NCSA, Rice, SRI, Syracuse, Wisconsin Possible Title Computer Science Curriculum and the Next Generation of Education Technologies Summary ------- Rapid advances in computer technology requires computer science curriculum changes to best prepare students for jobs in business, academia and government. These advances further allow new types of interactive courseware , new types of learning environments and new business models for educational infrastructure. This proposal weaves these themes together and will develop prototype undergraduate computer science curriculum combined with research and development in the distance and distributed learning environments that could be deployed 5-10 years from now. We will have a focus on the particular needs of Historically Black Colleges (HBCU). We will research architectures that allow modular courseware integrating different authors and different authoring strategies. Further we assume that learning environments should allow integration of capabilities from multiple academic and commercial sources. The major components of the project will be * Development of interactive computer science courseware that exploits the best educational technologies and prepares tomorrow's undergraduates for careers involving computers. This courseware will be integrated into course sequences appropriate for our university coalition and outside use. * Research in and prototype development of a next generation learning environment exploiting the best academic and commercial ideas in both the education specific and general information areas. This environment will support synchronous, asynchronous and interactive learning models. * Delivery of the new courses with teachers from the participating universities and a broad based student body. * Assessment and evaluation of new relevant Information Technology and their application in delivered courses from both outside and inside our new center. A major result will be a networked Computer Science courseware delivery system which will supplement on-campus CS curricula at HBCUs with CS courses from other HBCU's and from major CS departments around the country over the Internet. It will also enable HBCUs to offer courses to other universities via the Internet. This will build on experience gained from delivery from Syracuse of several regular semester Syracuse CS courses at Jackson State (an HBCU) over the Internet. Jackson State now is using this technology to teach their own CS courses at Morgan State. This effort is having a significant effect on the pipeline of minority CS graduates, enhancing the quality of their education and also serving to increase the attraction of a computer science career. We have already shown the potential to be expected from enlarged effort across all the HBCUs, as well as the rewards from involving CS faculty at HBCUs both in the use and enhancement of the underlying information technology. We will enhance this activity by integrating the Florida State distance education CS curriculum into it. The technology approach will be built around the concept of a collaborative portal with shared events supported in both synchronous and asynchronous mode. We will build the system from scratch using ideas and components from Syracuse's TangoInteractive system developed over the last two years. We will integrate Florida State's experience using the commercial Blackboard technology and a recent complete evaluation of current practice from Mississippi State. Geoffrey Fox gcf@npac.syr.edu, http://www.npac.syr.edu Director of NPAC and Professor of Physics and Computer Science Phones Cell 3152546387 Office 3154432163 Npac 3154431723 Fax 3154434741