Digital Libraries for Education: A Progress Report on the National Science Foundation's (NSF) National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Digital Library (NSDL) Program

摘要

The decade since the introduction of the World Wide Web has witnessed dramatic advances in the underlying communication capabilities of the Internet. These include greater numbers of access points; increased bandwidth of existing and new networks; growth in the deployment of new transmission technologies (e.g. various versions of DSL, cable modems, and in remote areas, satellite providers); and the emergence of wireless technologies, from Wi-Fi to WiMax (see www.wimaxforum.org). Indeed, the ability for the latter technologies to "untether" the user from the Internet is quickly permitting new and in some cases unforeseen uses of the Internet, posing interesting questions and challenges to our assumptions about user behavior and information needs. Simultaneously, advances in computational power have lowered the financial barriers to entry for individuals using the Internet (e.g. fixed and mobile computers, and a variety of low-cost devices that are blurring the lines between cell phones and personal digital assistants). Increases in computational power have also led to increases in multimedia capabilities that offer greater levels of interactivity for the user's experience via modeling, animations, simulations, and voice and other audio applications. Finally, if only measured by the sheer number of Web sites added daily and the increasingly international dimensions of that growth, the Web itself continues to evolve. New Web-based technologies are also changing the nature of the Web and the way in which users and, more specifically, learners can interact. One particular capability that has emerged is for individuals to express themselves, contribute their commentary, provide expertise, and otherwise participate in potentially wide and wide-ranging conversations. Through instant messaging and other variants of peer-to-peer communication, and blogging and other self-publishing models, content, commentary, and community are commingling at an unprecedented scale.