RE@L: Research Environments Associated with Learning through Social Networks

0726023 -克莱姆森大学克里希纳MadhavanRE@L：与通过社交网络学习相关的研究环境网络基础设施允许越来越多的千禧一代学生通过极其简单的方法参与这一过程，从而彻底改变了知识生产和创造的世界。这个项目吗?S的愿景是战略性地应用中间件技术，以便为各级学生提供前所未有的交互性，并访问网络基础设施资源、教育工具和社会支持结构。我们的目标是利用中间件工具，使研究和教育在学生的日常生活、技术选择和生活方式的背景下呈现给他们。但在教学上是合理的。这将通过在社会网络环境中集成当前一代中间件和应用中间件技术来工程化教育体验来实现。如今的学生对互动式科学学习资源的期望与通过网络环境（也被称为科学门户）提供给他们的资源之间似乎存在着巨大的鸿沟。当前这一代科学门户提出的最大担忧之一是，它们对学生作为消费者每天如此习惯的实时社交和行为功能的重视程度很低。考虑到消费者可获得的无线、游戏和互动商品服务呈指数级增长，以及以社交为导向的虚拟环境（如Second LifeTM、mySpaceTM和FacebookTM）的快速增长，当前这一代试图连接发现和学习的环境似乎远远落后于千禧一代的学生。甚至科学家？在他们的日常生活中经常感到舒适。当前这一代中间件技术在社交网络中的潜在用途还没有被完全理解，这主要是因为到目前为止，中间件主要是从高性能计算的角度开发的。该项目承担了当前中间件技术在社交网络环境下的全面应用和扩展。有人提议在社交网络Second LifeTM中创建一个名为RE@L的虚拟教育组织。RE@L将作为研究如何利用计算、数据和其他远程资源在学生熟悉的环境中进行学习的原型。网络基础设施本身将是RE@L的主题，学生将学习CI使用和构建CI。我们将利用现有的中间件来构建一个面向服务的体系结构，不仅将环境中TeraGrid （TG）、Open Science Grid （OSG）和Clemson Campus Grid（运行Condor）提供的计算资源结合起来，而且还将名为Samigo的评估引擎连接起来，该引擎可以通过开源的Sakai Collaboration and Learning environment获得。此外，Second LifeTM提供了一组健壮的api，使我们能够在其虚拟环境中轻松扩展工具和服务。在构建此集成工作时，我们利用了授予Goasguen等人的NMI奖的结果（OCI-0438246），同时将其扩展到新的方向。智力价值：这个项目的成功完成将展示当前中间件技术在社会网络环境中的应用，这些技术不仅越来越受欢迎，而且在政治和社会权力中发挥着关键作用。虽然结果将表明网络基础设施可以帮助我们更好地设计教育环境，但它将表明，在教育和教育学的虚拟组织中工作确实可以将中间件的努力推向新的方向。该项目首次构建了适当的以教学为中心的中间件工具和技术，使我们能够根据特定的学生学习风格定制教育内容。更广泛的影响：这项工作基于这样一种理念：教学环境需要更有效地利用网络基础设施，以更适合千禧一代的方式设计教育体验。该项目可以很容易地适应为网络基础设施支持的教育战略奠定基础，该战略具有大多数美国高等教育机构尖端研究的所有关键要素。此外，通过使用吸引数千名学生的社交网络，该项目有可能增加人们对计算机科学和工程的兴趣，并激发新的职业生涯。

0726023 - Clemson UniversityKrishna MadhavanRE@L: Research Environments Associated with Learning through Social Networks Cyberinfrastructure has revolutionized the world of knowledge production and creation by allowing an increasingly large number of millennial students to participate in this process through extremely easy methods. The project?s vision is to strategically apply middleware technologies in such a way that it provides students at all levels with an unprecedented level of interactivity and access to cyberinfrastructure resources, educational tools, and social support structures. The goal is to utilize middleware tools such that research and education are presented to students within the context of their daily lives, their technology choices, and their lifestyles ? yet in pedagogically sound ways. This will be achieved by integrating current generation of middleware in the context of social networks and by applying middleware technologies for engineering the educational experience.There seems to be a significant divide behind what students today expect of interactive scientific resources for learning and what is provided to them through cyber-environments also known as science gateways. One of the biggest concerns that is raised by the current generation of science gateways is the minimal importance that they place on real-time social, behavioral functions that students as consumers are so used to on a daily basis. Given the exponentially increasing number of wireless, gaming, and interactive commodity services available to consumers and the rapid growth of socially-oriented virtual environments such as Second LifeTM, mySpaceTM, and FacebookTM, the current generation of environments that attempt to bridge discovery and learning seem to lag significantly behind what the millennial students ? and even scientists ? are regularly comfortable with in their daily lives. The potential use of the current generation of middleware technologies within social networks has not been fully understood yet, mostly because middleware has so far been developed mostly from a high performance computing perspective. This project undertakes the comprehensive application and extension of current middleware technologies within the context of social networks. It is proposed to create a virtual organization for education called RE@L within the social network Second LifeTM. RE@L will serve as a prototype to study how compute, data, and other remote resources can be utilized to place learning within environments familiar to students. Cyberinfrastructure itself will be the subject matter of RE@L, students will learn CI using and building CI. We will leverage existing middleware to build a service-oriented architecture to tie in not only compute resources offered by TeraGrid (TG), Open Science Grid (OSG), and the Clemson Campus Grid (running Condor) within the environment, but also link the assessment engine called Samigo, available through the open-source Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment. Furthermore, Second LifeTM offers a robust set of APIs that enable us to expand tools and services easily within its virtual environment. In architecting this integration effort, we utilize results of the NMI award that was made to Goasguen et al. (OCI-0438246), while simultaneously extending it in new directions. Intellectual Merit: The successful completion of this project will demonstrate the application of current middleware technologies within the context of social networks that are not only gaining in popularity, but also are playing a critical role in political and social power. While the results will show that cyberinfrastructure can help us engineer educational environments better, it will demonstrate that work in virtual organizations for education and pedagogy can indeed drive middleware efforts in new directions. This project is for the very first time building appropriate pedagogically focused middleware tools and techniques that will allow us to tailor educational content to specific student learning styles. Broader Impact: This work builds on the philosophy that teaching and learning environments need to leverage cyberinfrastructure more effectively to engineer educational experiences in ways that are more appropriate for the millennial generation. This project could be easily adapted to form the foundation of a cyberinfrastructure-enabled educational strategy that has all the critical ingredients of cutting-edge research at most US institutions of higher education. Moreover, by using a social network that attracts the millennia students, this project has the potential to increase interest and spark new careers in computer science and engineering.