Distributed Learning and Collaboration: Pedagogical Middleware and Computing

这笔资金用于支持一次研究会议，以制定21世纪教学中间件的指导方针：一套集成的概念、方法和技术工具，用于在数字世界中教授复杂的创新和创造性思维。人们感兴趣的重点领域将是对城市地区的可持续性进行建模，特别是在特大城市或特大城市。会议将在亚利桑那州举行，这样研究人员就可以与设在亚利桑那州的NSF长期生态研究网络(LTER)分道扬镳。将从以下跨学科领域挑选专家研究人员参加：(A)学习理论、(B)技术、(C)虚拟学习组织、(D)研究方法和(E)测量。对于每个主题，一名牵头讨论人将在会议前准备工作文件，在会议期间领导讨论，并编写所产生的白皮书的适当部分。为这一倡议提供资金很重要，因为它解决了如何最好地指导技术复杂的学习社区和组织的研究和开发的问题。这次座谈会的目标是将人们如何在跨职能团队中进行创造性思维的理论联系起来，为协作技术的设计提供信息，这一点是创新的。此外，通过在整个过程中考虑评估，最终形成的综合框架(白皮书)将具有良好的基础，并对广泛的跨学科受众有用。

This is funding to support a research conference to develop guidelines for 21st Century pedagogical middleware: an integrated set of conceptual, methodological, and technological tools for teaching complex innovative and creative thinking in a digital world. The focus area of interest will be to model the sustainabilty of urban areas, particularly in very large or megacities. The conference will be held in Arizona so that researchers can parter with NSF's Long Term Ecologial Research Network (LTER) at Arizona State. Select expert researchers will participate, drawing from the following interdisciplinary fields: (a) theories of learning, (b) technology, (c) virtual learning organizations, (d) research methodology, and (e) measurement. For each theme, a lead discussant will prepare working documents prior to the meeting, lead discussions during the meeting, and prepare the appropriate section of the resulting white paper. Funding for this initiative is important because it is address the problem of how to best guide research and development of technologically complex learning communities and organizations. This colloquium is innovative in its goal to link theories of how people think creatively in cross-functional teams to inform the design of collaborative technologies. Further, by considering assessment throughout the process, the resulting integrative framework (whitepaper) will be well-grounded and useful to a wide interdisciplinary audience.