Planning for Effective Community Input on Cyberlearning and Workforce Development for Cyberinfrastructure

Hispanic Association Of Colleges And Universities, San Antonio TX

Investigators

Abstract

For the 21st century, our nation must be cyberinfrastructure savvy if it is to be competitive in the international marketplace. Education is no longer PK-20, but rather a lifelong endeavor affecting the general citizenry as well as future and current scientists and engineers. The very nature of what and how we learn is being greatly impacted by cyberinfrastructure (CI) and the emerging computational sciences and engineering(CS & E) fueling much of CI development. We are witnessing the emergence of CI-enabled learning, or cyberlearning, which holds tremendous potential for formal and informal STEM education and other fields. To meet its anticipated workforce demands, the nation must broaden the participation of traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM, particularly in CI and CS & E, and utilize CI to help this broadening effort. A series of workshops, planned by a select group of experts in the field, would greatly advance research and curricular developments for cyberlearning and cyberinfrastructure workforce development. Cyberlearning and CI workforce pipeline development have the potential to greatly expand the participation of women, persons with disabilities, underrepresented minorities, and minority-serving institutions in the future of STEM and CI. The NSF?s learning and workforce development goals for cyberinfrastructure envision an expansion of CI knowledge, skills, and opportunities throughout all levels of education and society. Developing an effective approach for community input on achieving those goals would help the nation and the CI community to move effectively in that direction, and thus ultimately realize the full benefits of CI for learning, discovery, innovation, and broader engagement in and the democratization of science and engineering.