Roy Pea CILTNECC 98 Problems Revolutionary potentials of

Roy Pea CILT@NECC 98

Problems Revolutionary potentials of LT but. . . Two decades of strong academic R&D on learning technologies had minimal influences on school practices or industry developments Fragmented field of LT researchers—uncoordinated critical mass, differential strengths rarely combined Fragmentation of LT practitioner craft wisdom— uncoordinated insights rarely shared In sum: weak coupling of research and practice CILT@NECC 98

A distributed center for tackling these problems Seed funding from National Science Foundation ($1. 5 mil@year) An open structure for harvesting knowledge and leveraging efforts of diverse LT R&D Working on “theme teams” in high-priority areas Weaving the web—Creating “virtual critical mass” for a distributed learning organization CILT@NECC 98

The hub of founding members Concord Consortium CILT@NECC 98

CILT Leadership Council John Bransford Marcia Linn CILT@NECC 98 Roy Pea Bob Tinker Barbara Means

Why our four institutions? Long-term common theoretical concerns about learning and its augmentation with technology Robust history of collaboration Devoted to using collaboration and virtual learning community tools for our work, and to engage others to advance the field as a whole Complementarity of strengths • Geographical distribution (CA, TN, MA) • Disciplinary emphases, tool-building, research and evaluation expertise, school partnerships • University plus non-profit offers greater flexibility for Industry Program support CILT@NECC 98

Perspective: innovative technologies for learning New representational systems provide cognitive power and have social consequences (e. g. , writing, algebra, graphing, computer models) “Distributed intelligence” in human-technology systems. Design of tools embodying human activity support. • “Cognitive” technologies: to see, design, build, what’s more difficult, error-prone, impossible without them. • “Social” technologies: Enable collective activity such as collaborations that would be more difficult without them. Enabling new problems to be posed, not only solved Leads to re-structuring of what it means to know and understand in a discipline CILT@NECC 98

CILT Mission To catalyze the development and implementation of important, technologyenabled solutions to critical problems in K-14 science, mathematics, engineering, and technology learning CILT@NECC 98

CILT Overview National context NSF’s KDI initiative and the LIS program that funds CILT How our work is organized How we are doing distributed R&D theme teams How we could use your help CILT@NECC 98

CILT in National Context President Clinton’s “ 4 pillars”—computers, connectivity, teacher prep, hi-quality learning tools and resources (1996) 1997 PCAST Report to the President, follow-on plans FCC “E-Rate” discounts worth billions over next 4 years; DOE’s Technology Literacy Challenge Fund ($200 Mil in 97 -98) National Science Foundation’s learning and technology initiatives CILT@NECC 98

President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) Panel on Educational Technology: Report to the President on the Use of Technology to Strengthen K-12 Education in the United States (March 1997) Near-release of implementation plan CILT@NECC 98

NSF’s KDI announced in February 98 (Knowledge & Distributed Intelligence) “NSF-wide effort that draws on past advances made in networking, supercomputing, and learning and intelligent systems” (FY 98) “The coming age is perhaps best described as an era of ‘knowledge and distributed intelligence’ -- an era in which knowledge is available to anyone, located anywhere, at any time, and an era in which power, information, and control move away from centralized systems to the individual. ” (NSF Director, Neal Lane) Includes the LIS Program (Learning and Intelligent Systems) which funds CILT@NECC 98

NSF’s LIS Program seeks. . . “Centers for Collaborative Research on Learning Technologies (CRLT) to. . . undertake larger collaborative projects act as a technology transfer mechanism train new researchers serve as an evaluation center for learning technology research” CILT@NECC 98

LIS Research. . . “is intended to lead to advances in science and engineering that can foster rapid and radical (as opposed to incremental) growth in the ability to understand support learning” CILT@NECC 98

CILT aims to provide a socio-technical infrastructure for: Identification of high-potential areas for collaborative development of learning technology R&D Greater aggregation of ideas across disciplines, projects, sectors, and funders Rapid, flexible funding of promising learning technology ideas On-line interactions that create content while promoting communication forums Training of multidisciplinary professionals for this field CILT@NECC 98

CILT as a Knowledge Network The vision is a coordinated web of organizations, individuals, industries, schools, foundations, government agencies and labs devoted to the production, sharing and use of new knowledge about how learning technologies can dramatically improve the processes and outcomes of learning and teaching. CILT@NECC 98

CILT as a Knowledge Network An infrastructure for sharing what’s being learned and fostering partnership projects A communication forum to advance work, debate directions, invite practitioners to share experiences A vehicle for bringing researchers, practitioners, and industry into a virtual space together Experimentation in user-profiling and defining communities of interest Establishing multi-organizational collaboratories and testbeds for LT R&D CILT@NECC 98

CILT@NECC 98

“Knowledge applied to tasks that are new and different is INNOVATION” (Drucker, 1992) CILT provide an “open” support system to foster innovation across the learning technologies R&D field Process of innovation: Inclusive, coordinated and focused on breakthrough opportunities We seek multiple types of innovation • Fusion of technological opportunity, developments in the sciences of learning • Creativity from community-based synergies • Refinement of LT projects by “critical friends” CILT@NECC 98

Different flavors of LT R&D Technology-driven proof of concept User-centered proof of concept, small user studies Design experiments: small-scale reform work in a few classrooms, real teachers, iterative methods Testbeds of diverse schools, teachers and learners for medium-scale iterative development of LT innovations Large-scale program evaluation studies of LT implementations (NIH model, PCAST ‘push’) CILT@NECC 98

How CILT is organized Four R&D Theme Teams Core Center functions • Industry Alliance Program • Communications Program for Knowledge Networking • Postdoctoral Program • School Partner and Affiliates Program • Evaluation Program • Advisory Board CILT@NECC 98

Initial CILT Theme Teams CILT@NECC 98

How do CILT Theme Teams work? Identify and recruit team members Conduct partnership “breeding” workshops Community discussions on priorities Select prototype projects and technologies with breakthrough opportunities Foster widespread research and communication Reflect on progress, re-consider directions Provide context for training new professionals CILT@NECC 98

Marcia Linn Andy di. Sessa Nancy Songer January 1998, U. California, Berkeley. 80 members, nearly 40 institutions, 45 projects CILT@NECC 98

John Bransford Barbara Means February 1998: Vanderbilt University. 75 members, 30 institutions, 25 projects CILT@NECC 98

Bob Tinker Bob Brodersen March 1998: SRI International 100+ members, 40 institutions, 60+ projects CILT@NECC 98

Roy Pea Jeremy Roschelle May 1998: SRI International 125 members, 50 institutions, 60 projects CILT@NECC 98

CILT Postdoctoral Fellows 1998 -2000 Sean Brophy Sherry Hsi Eric Baumgarten …more to come CILT@NECC 98

Theme Team R&D funding Provides “seed” resources (~$250 K per team) for pilot partnership projects CILT Partnership Projects will leverage insights from ongoing LT research from a large proportion of funded work CILT projects may lead to new grants, and/or be co-funded by industry, or re-direct ongoing grants CILT@NECC 98

1998 CILT Project Examples Visualizing the Amazonian Rain Forest Virtual Reality Solar System White paper: Cognitively Informed Learning Tools for Inquiry Learning Environments State of the art on technology and assessment (NEA co-funded monograph) Connecting TIMSS, NCTM Standards and Math ILEs Sonic Ranger application for the 3 COM Palm. Pilot Haptic devices for learning math and science CILT@NECC 98

1998 CILT Project Examples Concepts and Scenarios for “Datagotchis” Requirements for a Common Framework for Collaborative Learning Community Tools “Knowledge Mining” on technology and education reform Consortium for Teacher Professional Development using TLC Supports GOAT: Learning Technologies Knowledge Network CILT@NECC 98

Criteria for CILT projects Idea potential Leverage funding Interdisciplinary collaboration and multiple institutions Rapid delivery—developing concepts, toolkits, environments others can use in under a year Prospects for successful integration into or impact on K-14 curricula Plan for testing, assessment CILT@NECC 98

Marcia Linn Andy di. Sessa Nancy Songer January 1998, U. California, Berkeley. 80 members, nearly 40 institutions, 45 projects CILT@NECC 98

John Bransford Barbara Means February 1998: Vanderbilt University. 75 members, 30 institutions, 25 projects CILT@NECC 98

Bob Tinker Bob Brodersen March 1998: SRI International 100+ members, 40 institutions, 60+ projects CILT@NECC 98

Roy Pea Jeremy Roschelle May 1998: SRI International 125 members, 50 institutions, 60 projects CILT@NECC 98

CILT activities are unearthing a huge need to form a LT knowledge network . . . to create web-based communities of interest that can grow around strategic communication objectives, with: Web-based access to socially-filtered content Personalized content views User context-making functions: can add, comment, rate Document and topic-based threaded discussions Notification services for participants based on profiles Powerful search for relevant resources User-controllable security model Working with dka to explore how their knowledge-management tools may meet these needs CILT@NECC 98

LT knowledge network areas CILT Theme Teams People by Profile Research Labs Research Projects Project Funding Sources Research Scholarship (reports, books, journals, societies, conferences) LT Graduate Programs, Syllabi LT Innovating Schools LT Software, Services and Other Resources LT Companies LT in the News LT Glossary of Technical Terms and Acronyms CILT@NECC 98

Please come to C I L T. O R G REGISTER WITH US AND WE WILL BRING YOU INTO THIS CONVERSATION! CILT@NECC 98

Inter-Theme Team Synergies: Toward a “Grand Challenge” unifying focus Middle school level Modeling and interactive visualization-rich activities integrating mathematics and science Strong assessment framework linked to standards Pedagogy—from problem-based learning to open project-based learning Field-based inquiry involving ubiquitous computing Collaborative learning and virtual learning community involvement Teacher development support materials, activities CILT@NECC 98

Building a vibrant Industry Alliance Program will be critical to success Aim: over 100 industry partners from diverse sectors Collaborate in design and development of prototypes using industry tools and talent Contribute to technology transfer for CILT prototypes Enable schools to participate more fully in innovative research (help with infrastructure, teacher support) Amplify influence of CILT work—broad-scale dissemination and marketing help Help academic community better understand industry needs in collaborative research CILT@NECC 98

What does “success” look like? Growing participation in the CILT knowledge network and demand for its activities Wide distribution of knowledge about creating and using LTs to CILT stakeholder communities Increased interaction and dialogue between these target communities and CILT Broad-scale implementation of these findings and products in K-14 classrooms and other learning settings CILT@NECC 98

Please join us at CILT. ORG The art of growing on-line community requires distributed leadership! CILT@NECC 98

THANKS! CILT@NECC 98

CILT@NECC 98