1. CILT@Media Lab Toward a Knowledge Network for Learning Technologies R&D Roy Pea

2. CILT@Media Lab Problems  Revolutionary potentials of LT but...  Two decades of strong academic R&D on learning technologies has 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

3. CILT@Media Lab The Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT)   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

4. CILT@Media Lab The hub of founding members ConcordConsortium

5. CILT@Media Lab Perspective on 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. “Cognitive” technologies: to see, design, build, what’s more difficult, error-prone, impossible without them. “Social” technologies: Enable collective activity such as collaborations, cooperations, more difficult without them. “Social” technologies: Enable collective activity such as collaborations, cooperations, 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

6. CILT@Media Lab CILT Mission  To catalyze the development and implementation of important, technology- enabled solutions to critical problems in K-14 science, mathematics, engineering, and technology learning

7. CILT@Media Lab 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

8. CILT@Media Lab 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  FCC “E-Rate” discounts worth $10 billion over next 4 years; DOE’s Technology Literacy Challenge Fund ($200 Mil in 97-98)  National Science Foundation’s learning and technology initiatives

9. CILT@Media Lab 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 (April 1998)

10. CILT@Media Lab 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” (FY98)  “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

11. CILT@Media Lab 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”

12. CILT@Media Lab 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 and support learning”

13. CILT@Media Lab CILT seeks 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

14. CILT@Media Lab 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.

15. CILT@Media Lab Change theory-practice model for LT R&D

16. CILT@Media Lab CILT as a Knowledge Network  An infrastructure for sharing what’s being learned among researchers and fostering formation and conduct of collaborative partnership projects  A communication forum to advance work, debate directions, invite practitioners to share insights and experiences about what is working or not  A vehicle for bringing researchers, practitioners, and industry into the same virtual space  Experimentation in user-profiling and defining communities of interest  Establishing multi-organizational collaboratories and testbeds for LT R&D

17. CILT@Media Lab “Knowledge applied to tasks that are new and different is INNOVATION” (Drucker, 1992)  CILT will provide an “open” support system to foster innovation across the networkable multi-disciplinary field of learning technologies R&D  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 Fusion of technological opportunity, developments in the sciences of learning Creativity from community-based synergies Creativity from community-based synergies Refinement of LT projects by “critical friends” Refinement of LT projects by “critical friends”

18. CILT@Media Lab 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’)

19. CILT@Media Lab How CILT is organized   Four R&D Theme Teams (~ seed funding total: $1.1 mil per yr)   Core Center functions (~$300K per yr) School Partner and Affiliates Program Industry Alliance Program Communications Program for Knowledge Networking Postdoctoral Program Evaluation Program Advisory Board

20. CILT@Media Lab Initial CILT Theme Teams

21. CILT@Media Lab Theme Team R&D funding  Provides “seed” resources (~$250K per team) for pilot prototype projects, inc. CILT postdoc  Prototype projects will leverage insights from ongoing LT research from a large proportion of funded work in the field (min. 50-60 best researchers per theme plus industry, school innovators)  CILT projects may lead to new grants, and/or be co-funded by industry, or re-direct ongoing work

22. CILT@Media Lab How Theme Teams will operate  Identify and recruit team members  Conduct partnership “breeding” workshops  Foster community discussions on priorities  Select prototype projects and technologies with breakthrough opportunity  Foster widespread research and communication  Reflect on progress, re-consider directions  Provide context for training new professionals

23. CILT@Media Lab Experiences with CILT workshops   Jan98: Visualization and Modeling (80+, nearly 40 institutions, 45 projects).   Feb98: Technology Support for Assessment (70+, over 30 institutions, 25 projects)   Mar98: Ubiquitous Low-Cost Computing (80- 100)   June98: Enabling Tools for Virtual Learning Communities (70-100)

24. CILT@Media Lab Visualization and Modeling  We defined visualization and modeling tools broadly to include scientific visualizations, simulations, virtual reality, model building environments, and programmable drawing environments.  Focus on educational uses of various kinds of vis-mod tools to help learners understand complex, interacting systems.

25. CILT@Media Lab Emerging Vis-Mod partnerships  Think Globally, Learn Locally—Integrate global vis’n tools/data/activities with GIS for local field-based inquiries in ecology and biology  Vis-Mod LED design framework: Synthesize lessons learned re: learner-centered tools, inquiry-model activity structures, cognitive models-content needs, embedded assessment  Integration of diverse vis-mod environments to make a comprehensive testbed for middle school science  Make scientists’ tools for simulation modeling in astronomy, engineering available at high school level (focus on VRML 2.0), e.g., virtual galaxy

26. CILT@Media Lab Emerging Vis-Mod partnerships  Visualization and modeling exhibits and activities for a multi-organization Virtual Science Museum  Assessment Benchmarks and Models: synthesize covariation that many vis-mod projects share --> promising research and assessment practices  Video-case library tools and paradigms for on-line teacher professional development networks on effective use of vis-mod  Creating user communities and a marketplace for Cocoa simulations

27. CILT@Media Lab Technology Support for Assessment  Problems: teaching to inadequate tests  Opportunities: embedded assessments that teach, performance assessments  Emerging emphases: Assessment of technology-supported education (e.g. progress portfolios) Assessment of technology-supported education (e.g. progress portfolios) Use of network technologies to support assessment activities Use of network technologies to support assessment activities

28. CILT@Media Lab Emerging Assmt-Tech Partnerships  Synthesis of best practices in embedding assessment in instruction  Web-based, comprehensive design framework for assessments with many usable examples, community annotation capabilities  Challenges and models for group learning assessments in technology-rich environments  Defining strategies and tactics for improving public perception of viability and superiority of alternative assessments  Pooling diverse alternative assessments to create a dream project

29. CILT@Media Lab Ubiquitous Low-Cost Computing  Exploring uses for learning of widespread access for students to inexpensive mobile computing, data probes, network computers, wireless networking, and interoperable component software.  Concept papers: cheap smart probes for project-based learning cheap smart probes for project-based learning beyond graphical calculators beyond graphical calculators tradeoffs in low-cost educational networked computing designs tradeoffs in low-cost educational networked computing designs emerging technologies for low-cost global educational telecommunications emerging technologies for low-cost global educational telecommunications

30. CILT@Media Lab Enabling Tools for Virtual Learning Communities  Software and methods to support growth of distributed learning communities on the net  Examples: shared whiteboards, videoconferencing, groupware notebooks and portfolios, social information filtering systems that define “communities of interest” and make recommendations  Emerging emphases: Advancing the CILT knowledge network (bootstrap) Advancing the CILT knowledge network (bootstrap) Focus on distributed teacher learning scenarios Focus on distributed teacher learning scenarios Requirements for learning around shared conversational props including simulations, math representations, video Requirements for learning around shared conversational props including simulations, math representations, video

31. CILT@Media Lab 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

32. CILT@Media Lab LT knowledge network areas  CILT Theme Teams  People  Research Labs  Research Projects  Project Funding Sources  Research Scholarship (reports, books, journals, conferences)  Software and Other Resources  Information Exchanges and Services  LT by Subject Matter Domains  LT in the News  LT Companies  LT Glossary of Technical Terms and Acronyms, Metadata

33. CILT@Media Lab 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

34. CILT@Media Lab What does success look like?  Growing participation in the 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

35. CILT@Media Lab Please join us!  The art of growing on-line community requires distributed leadership  Your involvement in conceptualizing and building aspects of the learning technologies knowledge network would be invaluable  We welcome summer interns

36. CILT@Media Lab THANKS!