Kris Stewart Position Statement
NSF Ed Tech Workshop
Sept. 29 - Oct. 2, 1995

Dr. Kris Stewart (stewart@cs.sdsu.edu)
San Diego State Univeristy


Request in original invitation from Mark Guzdial:

POSITION STATEMENTS: We request a one page AT MOST position statement from you. These will *not* be published or distributed widely. They will be used by group leaders to define the scope of issues to discuss in the group. They may be distributed within the group, but no further. These can be returned to me along with the registration form (unformatted, plain email or fax is fine) or later, as long as it's before the SEPTEMBER 1 DEADLINE. Position Statement: NSF Education Technology workshop, Sept. 29 - Oct. 2
Ed Workshop at NSF Fall 1995

Kris Stewart


At San Diego State University (SDSU), there are several distinct colleges involved with information technology and education. The computer science group resides in the Mathematical Sciences Department of the College of Sciences. The Educational Technology faculty are in the College of Education, which offers a Masters degree that is very attractive for current high school science teachers to provide advancement in their career. Additionally, the Information Systems Department is housed in the College of Business and the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts is developing innovative courses in "art-infused" curricula for the sciences and mathematics.

In the state of California, a prospective secondary teacher must complete a Bachelors Degree in a science or mathematics, along with additional courses in education before they receive their credential. These degrees are granted by the College of Sciences. Currently, the pre-service training has no required computer component to it, which I feel is due to the lack of appropriate introductory courses. The focus of many Computer Science faculty is on the appropriate preparation for computer science majors rather than service courses for other disciplines. In a world of shrinking resources, this can be expected to continue.

Independent of established university curricula for teachers, programs and initiatives are springing up all around the country. Teachers are not prepared to make advantage of these opportunities. For example, a recent presentation "Visualizing Internet Resources: Browsing and Analysis" by Dr. Nahum Gershon of MITRE Corporation provided me with insights that I feel are worthy of further investigation. The computer science research directions that seem most needed should involve information visualization with a thorough investigation of the human interface both to the computer and to information. This would involve working closely with non-"computer science" users and should incorporate the expertise of cognitive psychologists as well as formal educators.

Another interesting viewpoint is provided by the collaborative learning environment called Oceana from Hans Werner Braun at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. This is a text-based virtual reality project aimed at the K-12 student community who have Internet access. This MUSE (Multi-User Simulated Environment) has been shown to foster a strong sense of community among participants, an excellent first step towards collaborative problem solving.

Therefore, I see the need for cross-disciplinary teams to develop both in-service and pre-service courses for teachers so these teachers can pass along to their future students a feeling of comfort, purpose, and success in dealing with the information age that we are in. These collaborations must attract participants from widely differing fields. At SDSU this would mean reaching across College boundaries.