Toward a Learning Technologies Knowledge Network

Roy Pea (SRI International)

Center for InnovativeLearning Technologies

(CILT)

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In Memorial...

Jan Hawkins, Chair of CILT’s Advisory Board

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Overview

• Putting to work our collective intelligence about learning technologies R&D

• Our approach: “Uniting people, technology, and powerful ideas for learning”

• Processes of knowledge networking

• What we are learning

• Thanks for support of CILT to the National Science Foundation under the Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence Program

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The Need

• Revolutionary potentials of Learning Technologies (LT) but...

• Two decades of strong academic R&D on learning technologies --> little influence on industry developments or school practices

• Uncoordinated critical mass of LT researchers with “pockets” of different strengths

• Educators using LT have insights from craft experience but difficult to share

• SUM: little cumulativity, fragmented results, weak coupling of research and practice in a time of new complexities and rapid change of technologies

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Center for Innovative Learning Technologies

• A distributed center for tackling these problems in new ways

• Start-up funding from National Science Foundation ($1.45 mil@year, 4 years)

• Open structure for harvesting knowledge and leveraging efforts of diverse LT R&D efforts

• Working on “theme teams” of high-priority

• Weaving the web—Creating “virtual critical mass” for a distributed learning organization about improving learning technologies

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CILT Leadership Council

Roy Pea (SRI), Marcia Linn (UC Berkeley), John Bransford (Vanderbilt), Barbara Means (SRI), Bob Tinker (Concord Consortium)

Concord Consortium

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Mission

To serve as a national resource for stimulating research on innovative, technology-enabled solutions to critical problems in K-14 learning in science, mathematics, engineering and technology.

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The I4C of CILT • Innovate

– in the technologies we adapt or invent

– in the pedagogies we develop

– in the ways in which we work together within and across sectors, including academic research, industry and educational practice

• Incubate– new research partnerships that display fertile promise by seed funding

– new interdisciplinary research professionals in learning technologies

• Investigate– the processes and outcomes of using innovative learning technologies in a testbed of

educational settings; and

– design models for establishing effective interactive learning environments

• Integrate– compelling but isolated technologies and pedagogies into comprehensive standard-

setting solutions

– design principles and knowledge building practices from diverse communities about how to make learning technologies effective: researchers, practitioners, industry producers

• Communicate – cutting edge ideas by inviting collaboration to build a vibrant, sustainable community of

learning

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Overview of CILT Organization

• The CILT community is a multidisciplinary collective of innovators joining forces to advance the science and practice of learning technologies

• A core team of senior researchers from four diverse institutions

• Four "theme teams" that focus the efforts of the broad CILT community in areas of high promise

• Industry and school alliance programs to broaden impact of research on schools and other learning settings

Concord Consortium

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CILT Themes

• Four cross-institutional theme teams: Visualization and Modeling, Ubiquitous Computing, Community Tools, and Assessments for Learning

• Each team is led by 2-3 senior researchers and...

– hosts and supports a post-doctoral scholar

– works with a broader network of participants who collaborate through workshops and projects to set agendas and advance new research

• CILT theme team leaders...

– provide guidance and critical review for the team’s work

– facilitate collaboration among members of the broad theme team community

– provide seed funding to initiate new partnerships

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CILT’s First Year

• 1998: 1000 invitees to our 4 workshops, 300 persons came from 150 organizations and presented 200 projects

• 5-minute “fire-hose format” to acquaint people (Have learned what? Need what?); demos; posters

• Participants collectively set priorities for new partnership projects, and begin team formation, project definition and roles

• CILT later “seed funds” promising partnership pilot projects (20 so far)

• CILT projects may lead to new grants from NSF or other agencies, and/or be co-funded by industry, or re-direct ongoing grants

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CILT Synergy Projects

• Collaborative efforts intended to provide a model for sustained cross-institutional work

• Synergy projects build on creative work by individual groups to create robust examples of innovation that work in varied school settings

• Example: Collaborative “pocket inquiry” – Using hand-held computers

– For collecting and visualizing water quality data by several middle schools

– With embedded assessment activities and teacher support materials

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Visualization and Modeling

• Leaders– Marcia Linn, Andrea diSessa (UC Berkeley)

– Nancy Songer (University of Michigan)

– Postdoc: Eric Baumgartner

• Aim to support the design and use of innovative visualization and modeling tools in K-14 education

• Seek understanding of the learning value of these different representational forms

• Wish to refine innovative instructional frameworks that help shape the context of tool use for learning

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Ubiquitous Computing

• Leaders– Bob Tinker (Concord Consortium)

– Robert Brodersen (U. California, Berkeley, EECS)

– Postdoc: Sherry Hsi

• Aim to stimulate collaborative research and development on engineering, learning, curriculum and educational issues for new configurations of small, portable computers, networking, and wireless connectivity

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Community Tools

• Leaders: – Jeremy Roschelle and Roy Pea (SRI)

– Postdoc: Jim Gray

• Address tools and processes, both technical and social, that can support the networked collaboration of teachers, students, and other educational stakeholders– Collaborative cognitive technologies

– Knowledge networking tools and activities

– Scaffolding frameworks that guide student thinking and learning activities

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Assessments for Learning

• Leaders: – John Bransford (Vanderbilt University)

– Barbara Means (SRI International)

– Postdoc: Sean Brophy

• Focus on classroom assessment in the service of improving instruction

• Goal to explore synergies between new theories of learning and new assessment approaches made possible by technology

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Examples of Seed projects

• Virtual Reality Solar System

• Visualizing the Amazonian Rain Forest

• Elementary school computer modeling of growth and change

• State of the art on technology and assessment (NEA co-funded monograph)

• Assessment in the context of scientific inquiry

• Technology and assessment in bio-medical & mechanical engineering

• Using Haptics to Learn Mathematics and Science

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Examples of seed projects

• Datagotchi Deep Dive: Envisioning a Future Product Line of Low Cost Devices

• Dynamic Graphs and Motion using Palm-sized Computers

• “Knowledge Mining” on technology and education reform

• Consortium for Net-Based Teacher Professional Development

• Requirements of a Common Framework for K-12 Collaborative Learning Community Tools

• Bootstrapping a LT knowledge network

• Interoperable Components for Shared Active Representations

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Concord Consortium Sonar Ranger

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Later…digging in the dirt withImagiworks Palm probeware

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Seeding the Knowledge Network

• Bootstrapping a web-accessible system for simple sharing of resources about the field– People

– Papers

– Pedagogy

– Projects

– Personals

• Challenges of “work practice change” toward community-oriented knowledge sharing– Make it simple: Integration with workflow

– Goal: A self-maintaining repository with good ROI for time spent contributing

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CILT Industry Alliance Program

• CILT is working with industry leaders to shape a vision of improving learning with technologies, and to provide a window for them into the broad learning technologies community

• Senior partners: Intel; Sun and IBM (final details)

• 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 (infrastructure, teacher support)

• Amplify influence of CILT work—broad-scale dissemination and marketing help

• Help academic community better understand industry needs for collaborative research

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Come Join Us at CILT99: cilt.orgApril 29-May 2nd in San Jose

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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”

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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

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CILT Knowledge Mining

• Eliciting information quickly from a pool of experts over the net and creating a concise summary for commentary and re-distribution

• Many incentives for participating

• Summarization is still hard but easier than working alone

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SimCalc MathCars in your palm