From Education

here are some observations from Steve Cohen about the workshop:

I think the title might be better beginning with a verb - leveraging,

utilizing, capitalizing on - Information-Rich Environments for 
Research and Teaching, will give Humanities, Arts, and Social Science.

It might also be good to add a speaker who knows a bit about scaling and inference, and what it means to draw inferences when research problems are scaled differently, especially if the inferences are are extended to new and different populations. I will try think of a presenter and pass along a couple of names.

Finally, on the way out of town I thought of a possible justification (I passed it on to Kevin) for addressing arts, social sciences and humanities at one conference. The kinds of research environments, methods and scale we are proposing are expensive (not for physics, but for the domains we are addressing). Part of making them work at an institution or group of institution is recognizing opportunities for sharing resources and forming coalitions/centers It might even be important to demonstrate that awareness during a job talk - or folks might wonder where you are going to get the $$$ to do your research. Might be good to have a funding officer(s) (Gov't (NEH and NSF)/Foundation) talk to the group, and maybe a dean or senior administrators talk about cross disciplinary resources, how to make them happen, and how to support them. Diana Rhoten might be a good candidate - she is currently at NSF.

I (Jim) agree with his suggestion about adding an action verb to our title - any other opinions?

I also agree with the suggstion about the scalability speaker - if you know someone or have someone in mind, please email Steve and compare notes. Once we come up with a name, we'll consult with Kevin about the budget. A personal approach might be most effective so if you know someone please share tha information with us.

The idea of having an NSF funding person seems like a good one, too. - We probably need to contact Diana ASAP - please let me know if you think I should pursue inviting her.

Contents 1 PLANNING CONSENSUS -- CONCLUSIONS 2 PLANNING HISTORY -- DETAIL 2.1 Thursday, April 3 2.2 Friday, April 4

PLANNING CONSENSUS -- CONCLUSIONS

• We agreed that the workshop should be:
  • organized around a central, focused theme (to target a specific audience and ensure future networking and community application / benefit): we chose Information-Rich Environments for Research and Teaching as this year's theme
  • offer a theme that interested all participants, who might be from any discipline within the HASS community and at a variety of levels of institutional support and technical expertise
  • focus on the research problems of participants in elaborating the theme, to make tool-based demonstrations, experimentation, and conversation relevant to participants and motivate adoption (which we might further facilitate by discussing established project successes and educating participants about the grant solicitation, writing, and submission process for such projects) -- we intend to perform discovery on participant problems / questions / interests / needs through a pre-survey
  • provide support for graduate students to help cover the costs of attendance (our goal is to encourage their entrance into the field), and faculty as needed and possible
  • include laboratory visits, hands-on "cool tool" demonstrations, and an overview of major digital tools for the HASS community -- the organizing theme ought to make sense of these, rather than these opportunities seeming imposed
  • provide more opportunity for collegial exchange and more time for reflection upon and dialogue about presentations, demonstrations, and experimentation than was provided last year (which had a packed schedule)
  • promote the adoption of High Performance Computing for HASS community projects as broadly, rather than narrowly, defined -- that is, understood not as Tera- or PetaGrid level computing but computing that requires resources beyond the PC or retail options regularly available to the average technology user (i.e., those that require advanced technical expertise to assemble and implement)
  • carefully evaluate the workshop with live blogging, a post-survey, and independent evaluation offered through UIUC's Office of Continuing Education to ensure future success and community buy-in
  • follow-up the workshop with another networking opportunity around HASS HPC, and continue to follow-up on the workshop's impact: e.g., its participants' efforts to grow their own project visions

• We agreed on the title "Information-Rich Environments for Research and Teaching" (which also serves as the workshop's organizing theme):
  • eliminated "virtual" from the originally proposed title, because we agreed it was too restrictive
  • acts as rubric for subtopics including
    • collaboration (virtual research environments, social networking environments)
    • management and analysis of digital assets (both technological and data-centric), esp. in integrated environments (cyberinfrastructure)
    • virtual environments (agent-based simulations, modeling and visualizations operationalized in frameworks)

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PLANNING HISTORY -- DETAIL

Thursday, April 3

(opportunity to reflect - facilitated)

• Stuart
  • map different applications
  • range of technologies: critically assess
• Kelly
  • CS folks think of the tools, HASS folks think of using the tools (focus of interest is on subject of study: research questions, theories, claims)
  • methodology: a step up from Unsworth's scholarly primitive -- methods used across disciplines within H, A, or SS (such as methods of arriving at understanding of underrepresented populations: prosopograhy, text analysis of civic records, newspaper crawls, oral history analysis, etc.)
• Jeff
  • select exemplary hands on tools (e.g. SocialExplorer, Google Maps)
• Steve
  • depth or efficiency (tools, problems, goals)
• Alan
  • maps, spatial; temporarily: combination
  • diffusion of items/ideas
  • meld technology and need
• Andy
  • identify cross-disciplinary problems
• Manisha
  • case study or address problem
• Jeff
  • dialogue on larger problems
  • balance extant tools and speculative wants
• Leta
  • agenda for research
  • online journal that models the field
• Kelly
  • envision how to advance existing tools (e.g. hypertext for web)
  • virtual publishing is timely: humanities publishing crisis
• Jim
  • Extend methodologies
  • focus on nich audience each year (e.g., agent-based simulation)
• Kelly
• conclusion to planning for day, 3 problem areas around which to organize workshop:
  • Scalability
  • Methodology
  • Social Networking

Friday, April 4

(group planning used the ADDIE paradigm from Education Studies)

• Analysis
  • audience
    • mid-career faculty
    • HBCUs
    • grad students
  • topic and focus
    • bring a problem - facilitated
      • Individual or group
      • personal calls to potential attendees -- maintain relationships -- demo -- integration -- follow-up
    • organizing theme brainstorming
      • social networking (received support from several)
      • agent-based simulations
      • knowledge management
      • 2d to 3d ... to Nd
      • scalability
      • security
      • GIS/visualization
      • massive multi-user on-line environments
      • lab visits
      • orientation to useful tools
• Design
  • Goals & Objectives
    • participants bring problems
    • practical hands-on
    • dreaming/Visioning
    • recommendations for development
    • establish network
    • be able to scale problem when they leave
    • advance research of participants
    • pedagogy behind the tool
  • Outcomes
    • durable, long term research
    • grants -> vision
      • publishing
      • structure opportunity to talk with presenters leveraging the portal - informal interaction
      • "consulting" day 1 & 2, GIS networking
      • idea is to use graduate students, but the grant needs us to include faculty as well
      • $150 + travel is a /ton/ for graduate students
• Development
  • Possible Organization for First Morning
    • Keynote -- overview Vernon(?)
    • Problem Discussion (based on pre-survey)
    • Nosh - Social networking
    • Smith, Katherine, Carley
  • Possible Daily Schedule
    • Mon - Fri, 27 Jul - 02 Aug (Arrive/Leave Sun/Sat)
    • Daily Overview
      • 7:30a-8:15a Breakfast
      • 9:00a-5:00p Workshop activity
      • 6:30p-9:00p Optional Lab
    • Day 1 Breakdown (Monday)
      • 9:00a
        • Key Note
        • Set tone
        • Pose challenges
        • Identify a problem / technical analysis
          • discussion
      • Lunch
      • 1:00p
        • Keynote (Nosh Contractor - Meta verses)
        • Publication Issues
      • Lab time? (after dinner?)
        • Hands on: social networking
    • Day 2 Breakdown (Tuesday)
      • Discussion of previous day's topic
      • Presentation of Problem II
      • Small groups address problem
• Implementation(i.e., delivery mode)
  • basic stratgies include presentation, conversation, lab tours, hands-on demonstration
  • visits
    • Peter's lab
    • Wayne's lab
    • Machine Room
    • Cave
    • Guv's lab
    • IACAT lab
• Evaluation (aiming for both quantitative and qualitative methods)
  • live workshop blog (via portal -- collect these all in one place)
  • pre and post Survey
  • follow-up is mandatory: Re-union? Nov? Annual @ SCxx?