INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION

While the use of information technology (IT) in geoscience education has grown in association with the spread of distance learning, it has also penetrated into geoscience classes and labs that meet on college campuses. As students and teachers shift the standard geoscience curriculum to include the skillful and frequent use of IT, the distinctions between DL and traditional education will break down. Several factors will drive this shift, including (1) the importance of IT in geoscience research, (2) the benefits of IT to instructors for storing course materials, authoring learning exercises, and orchestrating learning experiences, and (3) the benefits to students, which include (a) having course materials and research resources available at all times from many locations, (b) the increased learning enabled by interactive or shared geoscience learning experiences that take place both in and beyond the classroom, (c) the shift in pre-college education to commonly include IT, which creates the expectation for such technology as part of college education, and (d) the expectation on the part of many employers that the people they hire will have skills in IT. At Wenatchee Valley College, we are trying to anticipate and plan for the increased use of IT in our geoscience curriculum. Two distance-learning courses created by the author, earth systems science and Pacific Northwest geology, have become part of a statewide consortium of online courses. The techniques and materials developed for the courses have fed back into lectures, exercises and labs used in face-to-face classes. We now offer several courses in “hybrid” modes that include live two-way video with students at branch campuses, guided email discussions on key topics, and online learning exercises and quizzes. We are currently working to install and start using geographic information systems as part of the earth and environmental science curriculum at our school. While the value of a room with a whiteboard and some maps, rocks, and minerals has not gone away, trends in the economy, in technology, in geoscience research, and in education assure that IT will continue to supplement the way students learn geoscience and ultimately may significantly alter not only the way students learn, but what they learn. Geoscience faculty need to anticipate, plan, and control such changes.