Bateman and Willis’s (1999) work on environment valuation is readily extrapolated to science education. Its primary considerations are those of use value and conservation value, each of which are of significant importance in building science capacity and sustainable modernization among the world’s nations. While their framework is explored in more detail in Chapter IV, a brief introduction here to the valuation model helps put the importance of global examples into perspective.

The examples described in preceding sections represent use value. Science education is of direct use value to those who utilize science education in professional science or a career that integrates science knowledge, those who use science knowledge as one comprising an informed citizenry, or for personal enjoyment or avocation. Career applications are evident in both the Juma (2007) and Lindholm (2007) examples. Indirect use value is manifest in infrastructure, commodities, and the general application of science knowledge to societal functions for the common good, again evident in both Juma (2007) and Lindholm (2007). Option use value refers to untapped potential, as Lindholm (2007) described.

The conservation value of science education, despite its connotation of a lack of immediacy, is just as crucial to developing countries and areas in need of revitalization. Bequest conservation value refers to the benefit gleaned by future generations from what is done today, a key motivating factor in the development efforts described. Existence conservation value recognizes the worth of science education as a force for reason or progress, what Watkins, Osifo-Dawodu, Ehst, and Cisse (2007) describe as the motivating force for countries on the verge of development. Finally, intrinsic conservation value holds perhaps the weakest position in science education immediacy, referring as it does to, as we state in Chapter XIII, “the natural quest of understanding of a thinking organism.” Science education is of intrinsic value because it enables the educated person to conceptualize issues larger than the immediate, larger than self or of any economic consequence. These valuations are also clearly seen in the science education initiatives occurring throughout the world and, sadly, in those areas without such initiatives, where the lack of use value efforts affects the current populace, but the lack of conservation value efforts bodes ill for subsequent generations.

Much of our treatment of online science addresses and incorporates examples from the U.S., UK, and Europe. To provide a broader view of the efforts and the informational technology infrastructure that will assist in building global scientific capital, we present next brief summaries from other regions, particularly in developing countries. These initiatives are usually part of a larger, more comprehensive aid package that addresses health, infrastructure, and education needs, often—especially in the cases of World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)—also addressing a variety of needs related to capacity building.