From Ocean Teacher Library
About Data Management Students in OceanTeacherContents |
Background
From the standpoint of marine data management, the purpose of OceanTeacher is not to teach the basic marine sciences, but to prepare young and mid-level professionals for the very complex and broad area of <a href="Marine_Data_Management" title="Marine Data Management">Marine Data Management</a>. Most of our students (see below) come to us from national agencies or institutions where they are already engaged in building and managing marine data collections, or where they have recently received that assignment. They may or may not have a background in the marine sciences, per se, but they almost universally do have earth sciences backgrounds. To the extent that we can assist them in their education by providing the fundamental concepts of marine science and closely related topics, we have tried to do so. But this is not our main focus. We are preparing highly specialized technical resource persons whose skills integrate numerous disciplines.
When any OceanTeacher instructor or editor or author is preparing materials for this wiki or for the courses, the most important concept to keep in mind is this: What does a data manager need to know about this topic?
Student Preparation
Academic Background
Our students all have at least the equivalent of a bachelor's degree, at least half have master's degrees, and about 10% have doctorates. We aren't aware of any former students from a discipline outside the earth sciences, but this is possible. Marine data managers have to be fluent in the language of all the earth sciences, and are no longer able to focus only on the sea and coastal zone. So, our goal is to take their current knowledge, generalize it through a wide range of exercises and classroom projects, and help them to provide a broad spectrum of data management, quality control and analysis services in their home organization.
Although UNESCO/IOC's ultimate goal is to provide training in all the major teaching languages of the world, our limited resources and the small number of people who can donate their time to developing OceanTeacher restrict most of our resources to the English language. This places one limitation on student backgrounds, in that they must be reasonably fluent in scientific English. Efforts to apply real-time translation, and also to translate the <a href="http://hosting1.iode.org/moodle/">OceanTeacher Courses</a> are underway.
The OceanTeacher curriculum includes many available courses, some of which occur in sequences, and some of which are stand-alone. In either case, the training sessions are not typical "one off" activities; we encourage and organize follow-up projects, such as the actual setup of a National Oceanographic Data Center (and there are now over 20 new ones from this activity) and the creation of regional marine atlases (two at present). This insures that we also have host of "returning students" for more advanced courses who are extremely capable.
Computer Literacy
Full-time access to a PC in the home organization can be assumed for most students, but in a few cases the computer is shared with someone else in the same office. In the latter situation, instructors may encounter very conservative attitudes toward PC use, such as unfamiliarity with file and folder management, but all our recent experiences with students show excellent to superior skill levels during the use of [frequently] complex software. Very few students report Windows versions other than XP or Vista, so operating system differences don't appear to be a big issue.
Data and Information Infrastructure
Target Infrastructure
It has been said that to a first approximation, all the creatures on earth are insects, due to their numbers. It is similarly true that all the personal computers in the world are PCs running Windows. No matter how strong the arguments for or against this concept, this is the reality facing international training activities. We have therefor, heavily tilted our training in this direction, and only coincidentally and under special circumstances have been able to expand beyond that limitation. Also, there are local issues of conservative management and resource limitations that simply don't allow expensive software licenses to be purchased. So our "target infrastructure" (with the exception described below) is freeware, running on a PC, usually in Windows XP. The usual suite of MS Office programs (or freeware equivalent) is also assumed and provided during training.
In the past, Internet access was an issue and good bandwidth only a dream. But in the past few years, the Internet has become universal, and the ordinary bandwidth in nearly all global locations now allows multi-MB downloads in a reasonable timeframe. For those remaining locations that do not have adequate bandwidth to allow large datafile or software downloads, all OceanTeacher instructors should be sensitive to the possible need to create CDs or DVDs during classes for the students to take home, or to arrange for the IODE Project Office to mail these items directly.
Target Exceptions
The OceanTeacher training program includes at least one course and many practical exercises that utilize the commercial Geographic Information System (GIS) software from Environmental Sciences Research Institute (ESRI), which is already widely available and in use in most participating States. We also offer parallel training using freeware.
If and when UNIX or XWindows-type programs are required, then instructors must also train in the installation and use of system extensions to the normal platform.
Paperless Environment
Almost no data and documents, except a few physical invitation letters, are currently managed or presented in hard-copy formats by OceanTeacher, and this situation is urged on all instructors. Numerous special websites have been created for the events leading up to courses, and for exercises after the courses. This practice guarantees a paper-less environment, and improves communication. Would-be instructors, are urged to consider these tools. Some examples are:
- <a href="http://iodeweb2.vliz.be/omap/CMAtechnical/">Caribbean Marine Atlas</a>
- <a href="http://iodeweb2.vliz.be/omap/Modeling/">Modeling Capacity Building</a>
OceanTeacher Alumni
Since 2005 most training activities are being organized at the UNESCO/IOC Project Office for IODE in Oostende, Belgium. These courses are focused on either marine data management or marine information management and target a professional audience (staff of NODCs or Marine Information Centres). A new target group for OceanTeacher now includes university students in marine environmental sciences. A special curriculum has been developed for this group to provide basic skills in oceanographic data management in support of their research activities.
Some statistics (2005-2009) on IODE training activities:
- Countries represented: 110
- Total number of Students: 670
- Total number of Courses: 46
An overview of IODE alumni can be found on the alumni web pages (<a href="http://www.iode.org/alumni">http://www.iode.org/alumni</a>). IODE Trainees are required to register in OceanExpert (<a href="http://www.oceanexpert.org">http://www.oceanexpert.org</a>).
New courses are being announced through different channels: OceanExpert, the IODE website and email to national coordinators. The IODE Training Courses are open for self-funded participants. A limited number of IODE sponsorships are available for trainees and interested trainees
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Information about this article
Short title: Data Management Students
Description: none
Expertise level: beginner
Author: Murray.Brown
Approval status: approved
Approved by: Murray.Brown
Last change: 2010-3-24
Subsection of: General
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