e-IRG Education and Training Task Force Report

The e-Infrastructure Reflection Group (e-IRG) Education and Training Task Force Report delves into specific motivations for increased investment in education and training in e-Infrastructure, presents challenges and opportunities for education, and defines strategies and policies to optimise e-Infrastructure use.
The rapid development of computational and digital resources and the pace of technological change open an immense number of opportunities for innovation every year. Adroit exploitation of these opportunities— in business, medicine, engineering, government and virtually all walks of life—depends on the ability of individuals to understand their potential and recognize new opportunities. New curricula, a significant evolution from present curricula, are needed to enable EU citizens to exploit these opportunities.
These curricula must be available in on-site as well as distance learning formats to allow the greatest number of citizens to become proficient in the use of, and thus benefit from, e-Infrastructures.
Changes are needed in tertiary education to equip graduates to recognize and exploit the opportunities created by e-Infrastructure advances. Much needs to be done to enable educators to share material and resources, and to adapt the present curricula sufficiently quickly. Hands-on experience is essential. This requires a common platform, called t-Infrastructure, for classroom and distance learners. Such an approach has already been pioneered and used in web-enabled learning.1
The International Winter School on Grid Computing (IWSGC), first held from 6 February to 12 March 2008 and referenced in the ETTF Report, is an example of distance learning in the e-Infrastructure education and training, providing a template for others to follow when it comes to international multi-project and multi-technology collaboration on curriculum, t-Infrastructure, student support and the development of self-paced hands-on e-learning exercises. While the International Summer School on Grid Computing (ISSGC) series involved travel to a location to attend on-site classes, the IWSGC opened the learning experience to students who could not manage the time commitment and cost of summer school attendance. The winter school repurposed summer school materials and provided students with access to a comprehensive repository of resources in the ICEAGE digital library.2 Tutors were on hand to offer online assistance and support. The winter school also used summer school-tested t-Infrastructure GILDA to run teaching exercises for students, introducing example technologies such as g-Lite, UNICORE, OGSA-DAI, Condor and Globus. IWSGC successfully offered students the opportunity to learn distributed computing technologies via an online, distance-learning format.
The ETTF Report stresses that EU Member States should increase their investment in relevant education and training, perhaps by repurposing existing programmes. Academic institutions should build on pioneering work—such as the ISSGC series and IWSGC—and engage professional bodies in all disciplines.
International collaboration should develop mutually recognised standards and programmes that promote the mobility of learners, teachers and graduate workers. Policy and technical agreements are necessary to underpin sharing, mobility and trustworthy qualifications. For more details or infomation, please see the e-IRG ETTF Report.3