Entomology Digital Library (EntDigiL)

Abstract

American Entomologist • Spring 2008 The importance of the Internet in student education continues to grow rapidly. According to a report by the National Center for Education Statistics Postsecondary Education Quick Information Systems, during 2000-2001, approximately 56% of twoand four-year degree-granting universities offered distance education courses. During this time period, approximately 3,077,000 students were enrolled in all distance education courses offered by these institutions. (Institute of Education Sciences 2003). With the help of universities, virtual high schools with student enrollments in the thousands are also being formed. Along with an increase in virtual high schools, the number of homeschooled students in the United States is currently estimated to exceed 1.7 – 2.1 million and is increasing rapidly (Home School Legal Defense Association 2008). Homeschool educators, many of whom do not have a science background, rely on sources of information and educational materials that are inexpensive or free to help them teach their students about science. As a result, web-based learning offers tremendous potential for science education. Digital materials, such as video clips and electronic presentations, can be excellent teaching tools to help illustrate scientific concepts or demonstrate biological behavior in distance learning situations, classrooms, and homeschool environments. However, three issues can constrain the expanding use of digital insect-related materials to teach science or entomology. Because the majority of entomologically related digital materials used in teaching are developed by individual educators or institutions for internal use, they are not publicly available or widely known. Further, although the Internet is the most likely source to which most educators turn when looking for digital teaching materials, educators face a significant challenge when attempting to locate suitable, high-quality teaching materials on the Internet. Not only does no mechanism exist to assure the quality and accuracy of materials obtained on the Internet, but there also is no efficient mechanism for locating subjectand grade-specific educational materials. By making entomologically related, quality-assured educational materials and resources more readily available and easier to access, an entomology digital library has the potential to become a primary vehicle for promoting education in the insect sciences and the use of entomology-related materials to teach science. To address this need, the Entomology Digital Library (EntDigiL) project was initiated.