Poster Presentation/Demo Abstract
The Mapping Controversies web directory enhances student learning within a sub-domain of social science. Online resources are vetted and organized in such a way that students are guided towards recommended tools and thus their research process and learning experience is more efficient.
Statement of the problem or issue
How to provide students with a directory of recommended resources for research in order to study all aspects of a controversial issue in science and technology.
Description of activity, project, solution, and outcome
Lepinay collaborated with OEIT to construct a web directory that would point students to potentially useful sites for learning media response and public opinion on a particular controversy, for exploring tools and resources to help visualize and display the various viewpoints and perspectives, for researching institutions, sites and repositories that contain contextual or historical insight, and for providing a searchable archive for the students to add more resources to the site.
Importance or relevance to other faculty, staff, students, departments, and programs
- Research tools such as the Mapping Controversies web directory can be adapted to fulfill academic needs across many domains in the humanities and social sciences. Of particular interest in the Mapping Controversies web directory are the features that promote its growth and evolution. Students and interested researchers can add new tools and resources as they become available, as well as rate and comment on existing resources, thus adding value for subsequent visitors.
- Most recently the web directory has integrated itself with a national collaborative research project (MACOSPOL). While it retains its original form, it also participates in a federated search among multiple related portals.
Verena Paravel, Research Associate MACOSPOL
Vincent Lepinay, Associate Professor, Science Technology and Society
(Presented at MIT Educational Technology Fair 2009)
Topic Area(s)
2. Finding and integrating digital content into the curriculum