IVOA Interop, 16-20 May 2011, Naples

Welcome!

this space is meant to help us define topics for the discussion at the IVOA in Napoli. Please feel free to insert thoughts and ideas, statements, individual items for the agenda of the plenary session, etc.

-- MassimoRamella - 2011-04-18

George Djorgovski

Let me share some links that may be of interest to this group, in no particular order:

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/tapscott09/tapscott09_index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27taylor.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~george/aybi199/

http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/report

http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki

http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/Future_of_Learning.pdf

Hopefully we can discuss some of these ideas in Napoli. Ciao,

-- GeorgeDjorgovski - 2011-04-20

Yan Xu

I would be interested in discussing with and learning from others about the following topics:

. How is the astronomy education connected or disconnected from astronomy research - i.e. are students exposed to and trained with the latest methods and technologies used in today's astronomical research?

. Is VO a main component of astronomy education today? (I believe the answer varies from region to region) .

. What are good examples of VO curriculum?

. What are the good practice of developing VO-based curriculum?

. Problem-Based Learning is a well acknowledged method of teaching interdisciplinary computing. Is PBL a method for VO-based teaching & Learning?

Massimo Ramella

Important points learned during 3yrs of EuroVO for schools (http://wwwas.oats.inaf.it/aidawp5):

o tools and educational material need plenty of advertising
o teachers need to be formed (but they can form other teachers too)
o make teachers promote VO
o in Europe language is still a barrier, at least in the age range 14-17
o hard to figure out what teachers need in classroom: collaboration with them is vital
o details of school organization in different countries are important
o where possible, integration of VO with real observations or lab activity very fruitful (in Trieste: http://scuole.oats.inaf.it)

Future

EuroVO products:
o Increase and organize library of use cases
o Include solar system data, in particular Sun and planets
o Add spectroscopy

In general:
o Registry of resources and knowledge database
o Exchange info and experiences among VO scientists worldwide
o Form teachers
o Seek for recognition from Institutes and schools at the highest level

A few other questions:

• How will educators find what we have to offer (software, documents, training opportunities)?
• Is sharing of experiences/materials/efforts enough to survive funding fluctuations ?
• How to keep the education theme alive within IVOA?

Giulia Iafrate

here my presentation "Combinig virtual and remote observing for kids":

• iafrate.pdf

IVOA Interest Group on education