[NIFL-ESL:9204] B update on ERIC

lterrill@cal.org

Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 11:08:40 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <B24038C0D3E160419E320030D92C22DED66C0E@hobbes.cal.org>
Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov
Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov
Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov
Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov
Precedence: bulk
From: "Lynda Terrill" <lterrill@cal.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: [NIFL-ESL:9204] B update on ERIC
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Content-Type: text/plain;
Status: O
Content-Length: 4586
Lines: 93

Below is a a crossposting from the AAACE-NLA list:

Lynda Terrill
lterrill@cal.org

This article is taken from The Chronicle of Higher Education, Thursday, July
17, 2003 http://chronicle.com/daily/2003/07/2003071701t.htm
Daphne
Center for the Study for Adult Literacy
Georgia State University

Syracuse U. Team Hopes to Keep Alive AskERIC, an Online Source for Education
Data
By BROCK READ

A team of professors and consultants at Syracuse University is hoping to
keep alive a popular online research tool for education data that the U.S.
Department of Education has decided to stop financing.

The search tool, a Web site known as AskERIC, provides researchers with
access to education resources online and also allows them to request
information from experts in a number of educational fields. The information
that appears on the site was collected by the Educational Resources
Information Center, known as ERIC, which consists of 16 subject-specific
clearinghouses that have been supported by the Education Department. One of
the clearinghouses, the Clearinghouse on Information Technology, has
operated the AskERIC site.

But in June, the department began a search for a contractor to collapse the
clearinghouses into one database, arguing that a centralized system would be
more efficient and affordable (The Chronicle, April 23).

The proposed revamping does not include financial support for AskERIC, which
the Education Department deemed inessential, according to Luna Levinson, an
educational-program specialist at the department's Institute of Education
Sciences. "The new system will include an online database that is
exceedingly fast," she said. "Therefore, a search service like AskERIC
should not be necessary."

But professors at the Information Institute of Syracuse, the location of
ERIC's Clearinghouse on Information Technology, think the AskERIC site is
worth continuing, and are preparing to manage it as a branch of the
university. Since the Syracuse staff already oversees the site's day-to-day
operation, the change will involve only seeking money from the university
and from outside sources, rather than depending on the Education Department
for funds.

R. David Lankes, AskERIC's director, said that the transition would not
impede the services of the Web site, which aims to help teachers, students,
and parents find online educational resources and sift through them -- if
necessary, by putting the site's users in contact with experts who can sort
the wheat from the chaff. The site's team of experts was drawn largely from
administrators of the ERIC clearinghouses, but Mr. Lankes says the
restructuring of ERIC will not affect the experts' availability.

Cataloging useful and credible online sources has been the online project's
goal since 1992, when AskERIC -- which was then run on a lone computer in
the closet of a former morgue -- offered nothing more than an e-mail address
through which teachers could contact a consultant on education issues.

Questions and comments flooded in, according to Mr. Lankes, and AskERIC has
gradually expanded ever since, adding information about postsecondary
education to its collection of K-12 links and broadening its base of
participating experts. The site, managed by Mr. Lankes and a team of
assistants, now employs seven consultants at Syracuse and receives input
from almost 200 education analysts nationwide, including college professors,
library and museum administrators, and officers in state education
departments.

Visitors to the site can contact its staff of experts through e-mail. From 1
to 4 p.m. Eastern Time, they can engage in real-time conversations online.
They can also canvass ERIC's database of resources, which includes links to
about 3,500 Web sites and studies, more than 250 lesson plans, and archives
of mailing lists maintained by the information center.

With the database, and through the online consultations, Mr. Lankes hopes to
offer teachers unbiased information that helps them determine if education
trends like technology integration and high-risk testing will work in their
classrooms. "It's sort of like an academic library," he said of the
database. "It's about delivering multiple perspectives on each issue. Our
job is to say, 'Here are 12 articles expressing different viewpoints from
credible sources.'"

_______________________________________________
AAACE-NLA mailing list: AAACE-NLA@lists.literacytent.org
http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/aaace-nla
LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
http://literacytent.org