Advanced Technology in Higher Education

Listed here are some of the leading centers that conduct research and sponsor projects related to technology in higher education. The information was collected in July of 2000, largely from the centers' own web pages.

UC Berkeley, Multimedia Research Center

• Website: http://www.bmrc.berkeley.edu/

• Description: "an interdisciplinary group of artists, educators, professionals, and scientists who are experimenting with interactive multimedia technology in professional practice, scholarship, and education."

• Founded: 1995

• Headed by: Dr. Larry Rowe

• Staffed by: 70 faculty affiliates in computer science, architecture, chemistry, history, English, etc.

• Funded through: "contributions from industrial partners, grants from public and private organizations, and discretionary UC Berkeley campus funding." Funders include Microsoft, NEC, Fujitsu Network Communications, NSF, Adaptec.

• Areas of focus:

  • Multimedia Authoring "BMRC researchers are developing an authoring environment that integrates asset management and streaming content with hypertext documents and computer mediated interactions.... We also co-develop multimedia content with UC Berkeley faculty members as part of ongoing research initiatives and projects to create advanced learning environments."

  • Teaching and Learning "One aim is to develop and study interactive hypermedia courseware, distance learning models, and new classroom and working environments."

  • Infrastructure "BMRC is developing systems to support storage and delivery of digital media objects (e.g., documents, images, audio, video, and animation) on the UC Berkeley campus."

  • Public Programs "In addition to basic research, BMRC sponsors public programs that include lecture series, symposia, and seminars."

• Major projects:

  • Berkeley Internet Broadcast System: "The Berkeley Internet Broadcasting System (BIBS) is an interactive television system constructed using Internet2 Mbone IP-Multicast technology and RealNetworks streaming media technology that is being developed on the UC Berkeley campus to support distance learning, distributed collaboration, and interactive television applications."

  • BMRC Lecture Browser Demo

  • ACM SIGCHI Video Database: Enables users to "create a browsable gallery of videos."

  • Higher Education in the Digital Age: A Citation Database: A searchable database presented by the BMRC and the Center for Studies in Higher Education. Focuses on "Research and Opinion," "Resources, Tools, and Services," "Online Initiatives," and "Areas of Special Interest."

  • Studio Classroom Development

• Significant research: Video Workbench; Multicast Control Scheme; OpenSoundEdit; "Towards a Common Infrastructure for Multimedia Networking Middleware"; MPEG Tools.

• Assessment: Some impressive work on cutting-edge tools for the campus and beyond. Multimedia focus, but has relevance for education (use of video over networks for education, creation of digital art and music, multimedia learning environments, etc).

• Contact Information:
  626 Soda Hall
  University of California, Berkeley
  94720-1776
  510-643-0800
  

• See also:

  • Higher Education in the Digital Age: develops "programs and projects around the topic of new communication technologies and higher education policy." Sponsors symposia; organizing a database about technology in higher education. Part of the Center for Studies in Higher Education.

  • Digital Projects of the UC Berkeley Library

  • UC Berkeley Instructional Technology Program: Service and training oriented.

  • Cyber Central (http://cybercentral.berkeley.edu/): "The CyberCentral web site is designed to assist faculty find resources for teaching, learning and educational technology. It is organized around key areas of: pedagogy, course web sites, multimedia, classroom technology, intellectual property, recognition awards, grants, training, seminars, and evaluation. It also links to organizational units on the Berkeley campus that provide central campus and departmental services in these areas." There doesn't appear to be a physical center associated with the web site, but the site does point out where instructors can go for further help.

  • UC Berkeley is in the planning stages for a Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology to provide "a central campus educational development and technology focus... to improve teaching effectiveness and student learning, and to promote innovations in the creative and effective use of both new and traditional educational methods, tools, and technologies." The Center would enhance faculty training and involvement in technology by providing "one-stop shopping" for information technology; staging campus conversations about teaching and technology; leading cross-disciplinary initiatives; raising funds; and promoting best practices. See Berkeley Computing and Communications (Winter 2000).

  • The Interactive University (http://interactiveu.berkeley.edu:8000/IU/): "The Interactive University (IU) is a collaboration between UC Berkeley and Bay Area schools and communities. Together we explore how the Internet may best be used to support K-12 teachers, students, and families in all communities."

  • Knowledge Integration Center, which "pioneers educational uses of the Internet and World WideWeb for middle and high school science instruction" (http://www.kie.berkeley.edu/KIE.html)

  • For an extensive listing of educational technologies projects at Berkeley, see Alice Agogino, Distance and Internet-Mediated Learning at the University of California at Berkeley (http://best.me.berkeley.edu/~aagogino/edt.dl/)

Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT)

• Website: http://www.cilt.org/

• Description: "The Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT) is a distributed center designed to serve as a national resource for stimulating research on innovative, technology-enabled solutions to critical problems in K-14 learning. Our approach is to foster and conduct collaborative research and development in areas that we believe promise significant advances in learning." The Center provides training opportunities for postdocs, sponsors conferences, colloquia and other conversations about educational technology, and publishes research. "Seed grants in the amount of $6,000-$15,000 are available to initiate cross-institutional collaboration in areas important to the learning technology field." The Center sponsors "CILT Knowledge Network, a database environment that provides access to a broad range of people, projects, pedagogies, and other resources central to the learning technology field." Founding institutions are S RI International , The Concord Consortium, UC Berkeley, and Vanderbilt.

• Founded: 1997

• Headed by: Roy Pea, Director, along with the Leadership Council.

• Staffed by: 11 dispersed staff, plus 4 postdoctoral scholars

• Funded through: NSF grant of $1.45 million per year for four years, as well as Industry Alliance Members (Intel and Emaginative).

• Areas of focus:

  • "Enabling Tools for Electronic Learning Communities: Software and methods for supporting the establishment and growth of virtual learning communities and collaborative learning on the net."

  • "Visualization and Modeling: Educational uses of various kinds of computer-based models and representations, such as scientific visualizations, to help learners understand complex, interacting systems."

  • "Low-Cost, Ubiquitous Computing: Uses for learning of widespread access for students to inexpensive computers, data probes and component software."

  • "Technology and Assessment Models: Assessment of technology-supported education and the use of network technologies to support assessment."

• Major projects:

  • Sonic Ranger Application for the Palm "Using the Concord Consortium Sonic Ranger (a motion sensor) connected to a Palm via a standard serial interface, users can see real-time data and graphs of position, velocity, and acceleration over time."

  • Synergy projects such as the Alameda Creek Demo project "create curriculum materials for use in classrooms, including software, lesson plans, and other aids."

• Significant research: Publications on ubiquitous computing (smart probes, inexpensive handheld tools for math); developing a learning technologies network; "Cognitive science principles for the innovative organization"; collaborative tools; learner-centered design; teachable agents; science education; etc.

• Assessment: Important organization for coordinating and conducting national research in educational technology. Wide focus on both K-12 and undergraduate education.

• Contact Information: Dr. Christopher Hoadley, CILTKN Project Leader, at christopher.hoadley @ sri.com

• See also: SRI newsbrief on the founding of CILT.

Columbia University, Center for New Media Teaching and Learning

• Website: http://www.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/about/index.html

• Description: A service, support, and training center that promotes faculty use of educational technology for teaching and research, the creation of new learning environments for students, and collaboration across disciplines to transform the university and contribute to strategic planning. "The Center tries to be exactly that, a center of Columbia's on campus activity in the new media and education domain. To this end we actively work with AcIS as a bridge between the technology infrastructure and the changing educational needs of the faculty and students. We collaborate closely with the University libraries that also have generously provided us with space in Butler Library. We offer workshops and forums on topical subjects for the entire University community."

• Headed by: Frank Moretti

• Mission: "In partnership with the faculty as content experts, the Center is committed to advancing the purposeful use of new media and digital technologies in the educational programs of Columbia University. We are committed to ongoing evaluation of the efficacy of our work within the University."

• Areas of focus:

  • Creating the Culture of Use: through faculty workshops, forums, individual consultations, ongoing projects, collaboration with faculty.
  • Empowering Students and Faculty with New Generic Tools. "We are committed to building what we call the Columbia Educational Operating System, a suite of integrated applications that extends the capacity of students and faculty to capture, analyze, and integrate data in new ways. CEOS will also provide equally powerful communications tools to facilitate dialogue and the exchange of ideas."
  • Forging Partnerships: "The Center is about building partnerships and providing the motivation and venue for the integration of disparate efforts in digital development. In this capacity, the Center is presently working with not only individual faculty members but also other entities of the University committed to similar goals, such as CIESIN, CERC, ACIS, CME and others. The Center is also active in contributing to the strategic planning on the school, college and university level."

• Organization: Cuts across disciplines; partners with Academic Information Systems (AcIS), Institute for Learning Technologies, Columbia University Libraries

• Major projects:

  • Online Music Reserves and Virtual Tape Project. http://www.columbia.edu/itc/music/
  • Developing multimedia texts for General Studies courses, including Burke, Milton, Shakespeare, and Jameson. http://www.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/cu/ccnmtl/projects/core.html
  • Asian Topics: a library of short multi-media discussions on topics concerning China and Japan (similar to the Transnational China Project) http://www.columbia.edu/itc/eacp/asiasite/index.htm
  • Brownfield Action, an interactive simulation of a contaminated land site. http://www.columbia.edu/itc/barnard/envsci/bc1001/BFA/

• Significant research: Researches cutting-edge tools such as streaming video, knowledge management, course web templates, and the like. Focused on what tools could be used to greatest effect at Columbia.

• Assessment: Very much focused on developing new media tools for teaching at Columbia, but they are involved with some rich, stimulating projects. Their emphasis on collaboration and coordination is worth imitating.

• Contact Information:
  Columbia Center for New Media Teaching & Learning
  204 Butler Library
  Mail Code 1130
  Columbia University
  535 West 114th Street
  New York, NY 10027
  Tel: (212) 854-9058
  Fax: (212) 854-1825
  Web: http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/
  Email: ccnmtl@columbia.edu
  

• See also: The Institute of Learning Technologies, which is affiliated with Columbia's Teachers College, promotes progressive pedagogy (inquiry-based learning, learning by doing, etc.) through technology. Although it focuses upon K-12 education, many of its basic principles extend to the university level: making technology accessible, creating innovative curricula, and sponsoring professional development so that instructors can guide students through new curricula.

Georgetown University, Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CANDLES)

• Website: http://www.georgetown.edu/main/provost/candles/

• Description: "a new initiative at Georgetown focused on teaching, learning, technology, and research.... at the center of Georgetown's efforts to integrate the best of its educational traditions with the tools, resources, and the opportunities of new learning environments in the 21st century. Through an innovative focus on teaching and learning, knowledge, values, and new technologies, the Center serves Georgetown in three ways: through transformations in learning, redefinitions of intellectual work and service, and institutional renewal." CANDLES aims to support the integration of pedagogy, content, and technology.

• Founded: 1999 (opening Fall 2000)

• Headed by: Randy Bass, Department of English, Developer of the American Studies Crossroads Project

• Staffed by: 5, including director

• Funded through: The Provost's Office, University Information Services, and Georgetown University Library.

• Mission:

  • "to foster and comprehensively support an institutional focus on pedagogy and reflective teaching practice;
  • to advance faculty and student work in new learning environments, through professional development, curriculum development, research, and coordination of technology support;
  • to engage in, and serve as a center for, research and scholarship on teaching and learning, especially in connection with new learning environments"

• Aims:

  • "Advance teaching excellence, through professional development programs, coordinated support, and research;
  • Develop and implement innovative curriculum and course materials, through sustained collaboration and project development;
  • Design and publish innovative digital media materials, combining rich content, learning design, and technology through collaborative development with scholars and staff;
  • Promote research on learning and the scholarship of teaching, by putting faculty examination of their own teaching practices at the center of the development of new learning environments;
  • Foster reflective teaching and learning, by renewing the place of spirit, values, connectedness, and community in a technology-driven society and educational environment."

• Organization: Independent group; associated with the Center for Electronic Projects in American Culture Studies (CEPACS) and the Georgetown Teching, Learning, and Techhnology Roundtable (a program through American Association of Higher Education.)

• Major projects: Projects so far focus on training and stimulating interest in designing new learning environments. CANDLES has hosted faculty colloquia on new learning designs and participated in the "Teaching, Learning, and Technology Summer Institute" (through the AAHE's TLT group). It is also developing multimedia case-studies of innovative approaches to teaching and learning at Georgetown and is leading a teaching, learning, and technology self-study.

• Significant research: The case for CANDLES is worth reviewing in its description of innovative approaches to teaching and learning; see http://www.georgetown.edu/main/provost/candles/background.html.

• Contact Information:
  Phone: 202-687-0625
  E-mail: candles@georgetown.edu

Georgia Tech, EduTech Institute

• Website: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/edutech/about/about.html

• Description: "a multi-disciplinary research organization committed to enhancing science, math and design education through innovative uses of technology. Our development efforts are aimed at creating environments for learning, both embodied and virtual, that reflect our knowledge of cognition behind learning, complex problem solving and understanding. While our two target populations are undergraduate engineering students and middle school science and math students, we are also committed to finding ways to facilitate life-long learning and learning across distances for all populations. In general terms, we strive in our research to bridge the gap between experimental studies of learning and education and implementation in the messiness of real classrooms and other learning contexts." Active collaborators with the Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center (GVU) at Georgia Tech

• Founded: 1996 (?)

• Headed by: Janet Kolodner, Professor of Computing and Cognitive Science

• Staffed by: 10 research staff; 9 affiliated faculty from engineering, computing, and architecture.

• Funded through: Has received over $3.5 million in grants from Procter and Gamble, McDonell Foundation, BellSouth Foundation, NSF, etc.

• Principles:

  • "The development of robust understanding occurs in environments which promote active, student-driven learning"
  • To become effective and efficient problem solvers, students must learn to deal with complex and poorly structured problems.
  • Educational innovation must arise from an understanding of both the internal state of learners and the distribution of cognition across activities, people and artifacts.
  • Teams of classroom practitioners, educators, content areas experts, researchers trained in cognitive science who understand the cognition of learning and computer scientists who understand human-computer interaction, are best suited to create effective electronic environments, tools and curricula for learning."

• Goals:

  • "Educating students for a lifetime of learning"
  • "Educating engineers for the workplace of the future"
  • "Providing alternative, dynamic forms of educational assessment, that offer clearer definition of goals and finer-grained feedback of the student's current intellectual state"
  • "Developing technologies to support learning without walls"

• Organization: Part of the College of Computing.

• Major projects:

  • CaMILE, Collaborative and Multimedia Interactive Learning Environment. (collaboration with Georgia Tech)
  • DEVICE, Dynamic Environment for Visualization in Chemical Engineering

• Significant research: Publications on case-based reasoning, design education, collaboration, assessment, multimedia, etc.

• Contact Information:
  Mamie Hanson
  Administrative Coordinator
  The EduTech Institute
  Georgia Institute of Technology
  801 Atlantic Drive
  Atlanta, Georgia, 30332-0280, USA
  Phone: (404) 894-3807
  mamie@cc.gatech.edu

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Center for Computer-Based Instructional Technology (CCBIT)

• Website: http://ccbit.cs.umass.edu/ccbit/

• Description: "a campus service organization to support the development and deployment of instructional technology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. CCBIT builds collaborations between Computer Science researchers and faculty from other campus educational departments as well as researchers at the University's Medical School. The Center uses tools and expertise developed in a decade of technology research to serve University departments as well as the state's K-12 schools."

• Headed by: Director Beverly Woolf and Executive Director Dave Hart, both of Computer Science

• Staffed by: Faculty from psychology, computer science, and education. 11 full-time staff including programmers and administrative staff, and postdocs; 10 graduate students in computer science and education; 6 undergraduate research assistants.

• Funded through: Grants and the university

• Mission:

  • "help meet the University's critical need for effective undergraduate instructional materials by developing advanced, computer-based instructional systems
  • develop and assess educational technology appropriate for K-12 and life-long learning
  • educate the faculty and administration in the use of advanced instructional technology"

• Areas of focus: 1) Breaking Up Today's Monolithic Tutor Architecture; 2) Tutor Interoperability; 3) Network Delivery of Tutors; 4) Building Tools; 5) Making Tutors Smarter; 6) Better Evaluation Methods

• Major projects:

  • Offers courses in intelligent tutoring systems and multimedia
  • OWL, a comprehensive, web-based, homework system (http://ccbit.cs.umass.edu/owl/)
  • Microbiology Animations
  • Lizzie Borden Project
  
  

• Contact Information:
  ccbit@cs.umass.edu
  The Center for Computer-Based Instructional Technology
  Computer Science Department
  University of Massachusetts at Amherst
  Amherst, MA 01002

MIT, Center for Advanced Education Services (CAES)

• Website: http://www-caes.mit.edu/

• Description: "CAES is the main MIT facility for support of, and research in, technology-facilitated education. To the community beyond our campus, CAES is the main source of MIT continuing professional education, often via distance learning."

• Headed by: Richard Larson, Professor of Electrical Engineering

• Organization: 6 divisions: headquarters; advanced study program; Center for Educational Computing Initiatives; Educational Media Creation Center; Hypermedia Teaching Facility; MIT Video Productions (http://caes.mit.edu/mvp/); Professional Institute (http://web.mit.edu/professional/)

• Staffed by: 13 professionals in headquarters; 4 in advanced study program; 10 in Center for Educational Computing Initiatives; 11 in Educational Media Creation Center; 3 in the Hypermedia Teaching Facility; 8 in MIT Video Productions (http://caes.mit.edu/mvp/); 4 in the Professional Institute (http://web.mit.edu/professional/); plus many student workers.

• Funded through: ? Looks like it does, to some extent, make money, particularly in its extension activities.

• Mission: "The mission of the Center for Advanced Educational Services (CAES) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is to create and distribute educational products and services world-wide. Many business leaders and educators now believe that lifelong education is just as important as lifelong health care. Responding to this need, our off and on campus offerings leverage the growing capabilities of computer and telecommunication technologies. These include interactive multimedia, the Internet, the World Wide Web, videoconferencing, satellite TV, as well as more mature delivery mechanisms such as videotapes and books…. CAES is an Institute-wide facility that hopes to build from related efforts at MIT to enhance all three MIT core activities: on-campus teaching; on-campus research; off-campus learning/collaboration."

• Areas of focus:

  • Programs: Advanced Study Program; Professional Institute; Distance Learning
  • Services: Video and multimedia production
  • Research: Center for Educational and Teaching Initiatives; Hypermedia Teaching Facility
    
    

• Major projects:

  • "PIVoT, the Physics Interactive Video Tutor, is a video-rich, interactive web-based learning environment. The project's goal is to augment the teaching of college undergraduates in core science courses, with the initial focus being one of the required freshman subjects that MIT students find most difficult: Introductory Newtonian Physics."
  • Singapore-MIT Alliance: "global collaboration in graduate engineering education and research. Our technology-enhanced learning activities allow for the delivery of subjects both synchronously and asynchronously to SMA students who learn from materials, including live and archived video, available 24-hours-a-day via Internet 2."
  • PBS: The Business and Technology Network: "MIT distributes non-credit short courses via PBS The Business and Technology Network"
    
    

• Significant research:

  • A recent report called "EduTech: What's a President to Do?", March 2000 (http://www-caes.mit.edu/About/people/larson/EduTech-2000.04.07.pdf)
  • Character-Maker: Janet Murray was a PI for this java-based program that allows user to create interactive characters that can conduct conversations (http://www-ceci.mit.edu/projects/Eliza/)
  • China Longbow Archive: "A prototype of a digital archive containing The Long Bow Group's documentary material about 20th-century China" (http://www-ceci.mit.edu/projects/china/)
  • Database Visualization in 3-D (http://www-ceci.mit.edu/projects/FT/)
  • Operación Futuro, "a multimedia application designed to assist in the teaching of intermediate Spanish" produced in collaboration with the University of Bergen. (http://www-ceci.mit.edu/projects/of/)
  • MIT Shakespeare Project: an interactive multimedia archive focused on Shakespeare's plays, performances, and textual histories. (http://www-ceci.mit.edu/projects/shakespeare/)
    
    

• Contact Information: MIT Center for Advanced Educational Services
  77 Massachusetts Ave Bldg 9 -
  Cambridge MA 02139-4307
  Tel: (617) 253-7408
  E-mail: caes-info@mit.edu
  

• See also: Epistemology and Learning Group at the MIT Media Lab (http://el.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/)

MIT, I-Campus

• Website:http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/projects/i-campus/. See also http://web.mit.edu/alliance/

• Description: "I-Campus is a collaborative initiative of MIT and Microsoft Research to conduct research and create new technologies that will set the pace for university education in the next five to ten years. The project aims at fostering excellence in technology-enhanced education, through producing materials that adhere to open standards, with results and source code which can be widely published and disseminated."

• Founded: 1999 (five-year project)

• Headed by: Joint Steering Committee with members from MIT's School of Engineering, Microsoft, and Academic Computing.

• Staffed by: No central staff; focused on the awarding of grants for projects at MIT rather than accomplishing specific actions at the Center.

• Funded through: Microsoft (5 years of funding for a total of approximately $25 million). MIT will retain intellectual property rights.

• Mission:

  1. "Creating technologies and content to improve student learning"
  2. "Creating and deploying technologies to assist faculty in teaching as well as in creating and delivering courses and learning modules"
  3. "Creating enterprise-level tools to improve university administration"
  4. "Demonstrating new ways to collaborate across traditional university-company, university-university, and company-company boundaries"

• Areas of focus: Funds campus-based projects and initiatives at approximately $500,000 a year for up to five years. Major interests include: transforming teaching through technology, collaboration (within and beyond MIT), integrating alumni as learners and mentors, creating educational resources such as databases, and investigating the post-PC information architecture.

• Organization: An institute directed by members of the School of Engineering and Microsoft executives.

• Major projects: Initial projects include: "an expansion of the MIT Shakespeare Electronic Archive; the design of an educational system using a 'global classroom' recently established between MIT and the National University of Singapore under the auspices of the Singapore-MIT Alliance (which also includes Nanyang Technological University); and an initiative in MIT's Aeronautics and Astronautics Department on the experimental use of distance collaboration in design courses" (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/1999/microsoft.html). They anticipate funding 10-15 research projects over the five years of the collaboration (Chronicle of Higher Education, October 15, 1999).

• See also: Vincent Kiernan, "Microsoft Will Give MIT $ 25-Million for Educational-Technology Research." Chronicle of Higher Education, October 15, 1999.

Northwestern University, The Institute for the Learning Sciences

• Website: http://www.ils.nwu.edu/

• Description: "an interdisciplinary research and development lab dedicated to applying principles of cognitive science, computer science, artificial intelligence, and educational theory to improving the way people learn.... ILS develops cutting edge educational software for use by learners of all ages in schools, museums, in the workplace, and at home. In addition to the applications intended to be used directly by learners, we develop underlying technology, including reusable educational simulation engines, tools for authoring learning environments, and tools for building large, highly-structured multimedia knowledge bases." Instructional program offers MA and PhD in Learning Sciences.

• Founded: 1989

• Headed by: Roger Schank

• Staffed by: 23 faculty (it appears); 11 staff

• Funded through: Research grants from Andersen Consulting, Ameritech, IBM, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Markle Foundation, etc.

• Mission: "to extend the understanding of human learning, to develop computer-based learning environments based on that understanding, and to train the educational-software developers of tomorrow in both the theory and practice of creating the next generation of learning environments"

• Areas of focus: "At the center of the Institute's work is research that advances our understanding of how people learn, of how learning environments can enhance learning, and of how the underlying computer science principles directly and indirectly support learning technology." 4 research groups: Learning Environment Design Group; Intelligent Information Lab; Qualitative Reasoning Group; and the Autonomous Mobile Robots Group.

• Major projects:

  • Educational Software: For these projects, the ILS typically partners with faculty members in other departments, such as foreign languages, history, communication studies, art history, and chemistry. Is It Rembrandt?; ChemLab; Invitation to a Revolution; Emerging Economics; etc. See http://www.ils.nwu.edu/research/LEDgroup.html

  • Authoring Tools for Learning Environments: Script-Based Scenario Builder; Socratic Tutor Tool; Crisis Management Tool; etc.

  • Intelligent Information Lab Projects: Rosetta (indexes information based on how it has been referenced); 2 (collaboration tool that brings together web-surfing, chatting, and recommending); Intelligent Classroom ("the classroom itself observes a lecturer's activity and acts to facilitate his plans"); etc. See http://dent.infolab.nwu.edu/infolab/projects/projectmain.asp.

  • Autonomous Mobile Robot Group: Robotic Teams. Integrated Cognitive Robotics, etc. See http://www.cs.nwu.edu/groups/amrg/research.html

  • Qualitative Reasoning Group: Analogical-Learning and Case-Based Instruction; Articulate Virtual Laboratories for Science and Engineering Education; Building and Using Large Common Sense Knowledge Databases; etc. See http://www.qrg.ils.nwu.edu/projects/index.htm

• Significant research: Releases technical reports on topics such as "A Role for AI in Education," "Empowering the Student," "Teaching Architectures," "Case-Based Teaching," "ASK TOM: An Experimental Interface for Video Libraries," "Practices of Distributed Intelligence and Designs for Education," "Measurement, Course Design, and the Rise of the Virtual University," etc.

• Contact Information: Heidi Levin
  The Institute for the Learning Sciences
  1890 Maple Avenue
  Evanston, IL 60201
  Phone: 847-491-3799
  Fax: 847-491-5258
  levin@ils.nwu.edu

• See also: Northwestern's Searle Center for Teaching Excellence. "The Center promotes an ongoing discussion about teaching and learning matters, striving both to facilitate that conversation and to contribute to it intellectually. It seeks primarily to treat teaching as scholarship, as serious intellectual work that is as important as the research that faculty members produce, and to think of college courses as windows on the way professors define and practice their disciplines. Through its grants program, the Center supports faculty members who wish to experiment. It also offers a number of services to help individuals collect, analyze, and evaluate information about the ways they teach."

The Pennsylvania State University, Schreyer Institute for Innovation in Learning

• Website: http://www.inov8.engr.psu.edu/

• Description: "The Schreyer Institute is a laboratory for the creation of new classroom environments, new instructional designs, and new motivations to inquire. We promote and support high-risk ventures in learning and teaching by providing learning opportunities, support services, and access to resources, such as new assessment tools and instructional design services."

• Founded: January 1995

• Headed by: Renata Engel, associate professor of engineering design and graphics and engineering science and mechanics

• Staffed by: 12 instructional designers, writers, coordinators, and administrators

• Funded through: A large grant from William and Joan Schreyer

• Mission: "To promote a partnership between students and faculty to design, conduct and engage in problem-focused, problem-framing learning experiences that foster inquiry, initiative and team work."

• Areas of focus: Supports the redesign of courses through funding, consultation, and access to information; offers workshops on pedagogy; provides assessment; maintains a web site offering examples of innovation in education. Offers internships to students.

• Organization: Penn State's "educational research and development agency." Part of the Teaching and Learning Consortium (http://www.psu.edu/dept/tlc/)

• Assessment: Focused on Penn State; more of a support institution than a research institution. Not solely focused on technology, but education more generally.

• Contact Information: 304 Rider Building II,
  227 West Beaver Avenue,
  University Park, PA 16801-4819
  Phone: (814) 865-8681
  Fax: (814) 865-8659
  Email: inov8@psu.edu

University of Pittsburgh, Learning Research and Development Center

• Website: http://alan.lrdc.pitt.edu/lrdc/ and http://www.lrdc.pitt.edu/

• Description: "a multidisciplinary research center whose mission is to understand and improve learning by children and adults in the organizational settings in which they live and work: schools, museums and other informal learning environments, and workplaces."

• Founded: 1963

• Headed by: Lauren Resnick

• Staffed by: 23 faculty, who are education researchers, cognitive scientists, computer scientists, developmental and social psychologists, psycholinguists, evaluation and measurement specialists, organizational behavior researchers, and education policy analysts. Most hold joint appointments in Business, Computer Science, Education, Intelligent Systems, Law, Linguistics, Political Science, and Psychology. Also 164 research associates, research specialists, and technical support staff.

• Funded through: Government and private funding; national and local foundations. Financial supporters include the Department of Education, Microsoft, Office of Naval Research, NSF, Spencer Foundation, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

• Mission: to "foster an environment in which research initiatives relating to the science, practice, organization and technology of learning, teaching and training are born and thrive"

• Areas of focus: "Fields of research include: Processes of Learning; Learning in Schools and Museums; Policy research; Outreach and Implementation; Learning and Technology; and Learning and Work"

• Major projects:

  • Andes: An Intelligent Tutoring System for Physics
  • CIRCLE, the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Constructive Learning Environments, "an NSF-funded research center located at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, with multiple partnerships among schools, industries and other research institutions. CIRCLE's mission is to determine why highly effective forms of instruction, such as human one-on-one tutoring, work so well, and to develop computer-based constructive learning environments that foster equally impressive learning."
  • NetLearn: Supported by the U.S. Department of Education and Microsoft, "NetLearn uses specially-designed interactive software to support the efforts of educators and administrators in participating school districts to create high-performance learning environments in their school systems."
  • Participating in Reflective Dialogues in a Complex Real-World Domain
    
    

• Contact Information: LRDC Information Office, University of Pittsburgh, 3939 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. (412) 624-2881

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Center for Academic Transformation

• Website: http://www.center.rpi.edu/

• Description: The Center for Academic Transformation was founded to administers the Pew Learning and Technology Program, "an $8.8-million, four-year effort to place the national discussion about the impact that new technologies are having on the nation's campuses in the context of student learning and ways to achieve this learning cost-effectively." This initiative focuses on three areas: The Pew Grant Program in Course Redesign, which dispenses $6 million in grants to higher education in order to support redesign of large courses by using technology; The Pew Symposia on Learning and Technology, which facilitates a national dialogue on learning technologies; and The Pew Learning and Technology Newsletter, which offers information about the use of technology in higher education.

  Also sponsors The Leadership Forum, which offers The Learning MarketSpace, "a monthly electronic newsletter that provides leading-edge assessment of and future-oriented thinking about issues and developments concerning the nexus of higher education and information technology"; workshops and seminars; and consulting services.

• Founded: 1999

• Headed by: Dr. Carol Twigg (former VP of Educom)

• Staffed by: Advisory board primarily made up of distance education providers and proponents (representatives from Western Governors University, University of Central Florida, Distance Education Publications, etc).

• Funded through: The Pew Learning and Technology Program is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts ($8.8 million over four years); The Leadership Forum is funded through Blackboard, Inc., eCollege.com, Eduprise, SCT, SMARTHINKING and WebCT.

• Mission: "The mission of the Center for Academic Transformation is to serve as a source of expertise and support for those in higher education who wish to take advantage of the capabilities of information technology to transform their academic practices."

• Significant research/ Intellectual cornerstones: Carol A. Twigg, Academic Productivity: The Case for Instructional Software (1996); Carol A. Twigg, Creating and Delivering Collegiate Learning Materials in a Distributed (Networked) Learning Environment: A Business Model for University-Corporate Collaboration; Carol A. Twigg and Diana G. Oblinger, The Virtual University (1996)

• Contact Information: Center for Academic Transformation
  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  Dean's Suite, Pittsburgh Building
  110 8th Street
  Troy, New York 12180-3590
  Voice: 518-276-6519
  Fax: 518-695-5633
  bartp@rpi.edu
  

• See also: RPI's description of how it deploys technology to serve education, Future Teach. See also a report on the Pew grants: Florence Olsen, "Pew Grants to Focus on Classroom Technology." The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 2, 1999.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, The Lois J. and Harlan E. Anderson Center for Innovation in Undergraduate Education

• Website: http://www.ciue.rpi.edu/

• Description: "The Anderson Center provides support for faculty involvement in the renewal of undergraduate learning via a series of workshops on studio teaching methods, the design, creation and delivery of multimedia materials, and the instructional uses of the World Wide Web. Center staff are available for consulting on the integration of computing and multimedia into the classroom and work closely with the Idea Consultants to help faculty create effective interactive learning modules for their courses. The Anderson Center continues to host a variety of national meetings and workshops on educational technology and curriculum innovation such as the Corporate Workshops on Multimedia and Training and the International Center for Multimedia Education (ICME) Multimedia in Education Conference."

• Founded: 1989

• Headed by: Brad Lister

• Staffed by: 6 full-time employees, including a Biology PhD, a systems administrator, a technical writer, a graphical designer, and others.

• Funded through: The Andersons, the Hewlett Packard Foundation, the David Darrin Estate and the George M. Low Memorial Fund.

• Mission: "The Anderson Center is dedicated to improving undergraduate education through the deployment of new pedagogical methods and innovative uses of technology. Since its inception, the Anderson Center has served as an incubator for curriculum reform by supporting faculty involvement in educational computing, developing new techniques and facilities for interactive learning, and sponsoring cutting edge research on the assessment of learning outcomes. The Center works with leaders throughout higher education, K-12, and industry to develop scaleable, economical methods of improving both the accessibility and effectiveness of education in the United States."

• Areas of focus:

  • "Creating a more connected learning environment in which students have online access to all class materials and resources regardless of time or place."
  • "Research leading to a more precise understanding of the cognitive and learning outcomes of studio teaching, especially team-based learning and transfer of conceptual and problem solving to novel environments."
  • "The scaling of interactive learning from local desktop to global classroom."
    
    

• Major projects:

  • Stiulinc@Distance: A collaboration with Cal Tech to develop a "highly interactive, hands-on Studio environment that can link students at multiple sites into one 'Studio Interactive Multimedia Learning Innovation Collaboration at a Distance' classroom"

  • Pre-College Initiative: Funded by AT & T, the Pre-College Initiative is a partnership between the Anderson CIUE and the Center for Initiatives in Post-Secondary Education to revolutionize K-12 education through:

    • Training teachers in technology and methods of interactive learning so that they can be mentors and agents of change in their communities
    • Using new technologies and pedagogies to deliver quality education despite small budgets and teacher shortages
    • "Creating a 'virtual studio classroom' at a distance that will enhance learning and serve as a national model both for university/school collaborations, and for future distance learning efforts of all kinds"
    • Develop students with the aptitude to attend top colleges; develop new funding sources

  • Comprehensive Unified Physics Learning Environment (CUPLE)

  • Virtual Studio Classroom: A collaboration with Northeastern University "to combine traditional satellite broadcasts with Web-based interactive learning to teach a course on interactive multimedia"

  • Pilot Studio Courses: The center is developing courses taught in the studio classroom that will take advantage of the interactive learning environment.

• Significant research: Evaluation of the effectiveness of interactive learning; studio classrooms; continuous education.

• Assessment: Under the direction of Jack Wilson, Dean of Undergraduate Education and Continuing Studies, RPI is making a real push at distance education, interactive learning, and studio classrooms. As a result, it has ranked in the top 5 most-wired universities in Yahoo's annual rankings and has "received the Hesburgh Award for Faculty Development to Enhance Undergraduate Teaching, the Boeing Outstanding Educator Award, and the Pew Leadership Award for the Renewal of Undergraduate Education."

• Contact Information:
  The Anderson Center for Innovation In Undergraduate Education
  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  Troy, New York 12180 USA
  Telephone: 518-276-4831
  Email: laplab@rpi.edu

• See also: Affiliated with the Anderson CIUE is The International Center for Multimedia Education, which "will act as an international resource for concepts, materials and methods to encourage and support the use of multimedia tools in education". For more information about RPI's studio classrooms, which use technology to enable a collaborative, hands-on approach to learning, see Studio Teaching and The RPI Collaborative Classroom.

Stanford Learning Lab

• Website: http://sll.stanford.edu/

• Description: "The Stanford Learning Lab is a collaborative venture to improve student learning and to promote creativity in education through the introduction of pedagogically informed learning technology. Using methods and technical services that directly support student learning activity-such as note-taking, discussion, composition and the creation of knowledge artifacts, we strive to capture student learning experience and store and retrieve it in a fashion that promotes re-use and discourages "disposable learning" (just enough for the exam). Our approach is an iterative balance of theory, experimental methods and technology deployment. These are applied in core academic curricula, corporate training and continuing education. Though based at Stanford University, and firmly committed to the bettering of education at this university, the Lab will extend its efforts and interests without regard to geographical or cultural distance, entering into creative partnerships with educational, industrial, corporate, and research groups throughout the world." Collaborates with Swedish Learning Lab.

• Founded: established in 1997 by President Casper and the Commission on Technology in Teaching and Learning

• Headed by: Larry Leifer, Prof. ME Design and Larry Friedlander, Prof. English

• Staffed by: 26 professional staff (including professors in Engineering and English, programmers, managers, etc) , 8 graduate research assistants

• Funded through: Industry partners include BMW and DaimlerChrysler

• Organization: In the Office of the President and Provost, under the direction of the Vice President for Learning, Technology and Extended Education (see http://sll.stanford.edu/projects/organiz/index.html for an explanation of the Learning Lab's structure)

• Major projects:

  • CREATE, a project "to integrate research and teaching in which Ph.D. students across all disciplines produce... 1,000 word statements describing their research

  • Global Project Coordination Course "a multi-site course to help students learn how to work effectively in cross-cultural, distributed teams." Partnership with the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden; perhaps a good model for course collaborations with IUB?

  • Enhancing Learning in a Large Lecture Class, a project that "involved developing the curriculum, pedagogical methods, learning technologies, and assessment procedures for a freshman Intro to Humanities course"

  • A Common-Core Learning Technology for Stanford to develop a cost-efficient learning environment.

• Significant research: distributed learning; transforming large lecture courses; learning environments.

• Contact Information:
  sll-info@sll.stanford.edu
  Office of the President
  Bldg. 10 (SLL)
  Stanford University
  Stanford, CA 94305-2060

• See also: Stanford News article on the founding of the Learning Lab (http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/report/news/may21/learnlab.html). The Learning, Design, and Technology trains students to design and evaluate new learning environments that make use of technology.

SRI, Center for Technology in Learning

• Website: http://www.sri.com/policy/ctl/

• Description: "By the early 1990s, it became very clear that technology was to play an increasingly important role in the education of children, youth, and adults. The issues of how to effectively use technologies to support learning were considered to be so important that the Center for Technology in Learning (CTL) was established at SRI. The Center was established within SRI's Policy Division, where it is closely allied with ongoing education and health research programs." (SRI is a consulting and R and D company.)

• Founded: 1997

• Headed by: Dr. Roy Pea, Consulting Professor in the School of Education at Stanford University

• Staffed by: 41 cognitive scientists, computer scientists, administrators, educational researchers, human-computer interaction specialists, programmers

• Organization: Part of a private R and D firm.

• Major research projects:

  • Part of Center for Innovative Learning Technologies, with Vanderbilt, UC Berkely, and Concord Consortium (see above)
  • SSciVEE Project: Supportive Scientific Visualization Environments for Education
  • The Educational Software Components of Tomorrow
    
    

• Significant research: Using technology to help at-risk students; "New Media Communication Forums for Improving Educational Research and Practices," etc.

• More information: SRI, formerly known as the Stanford Research Laboratory, is a nonprofit scientific research institute. SRI helped to develop the mouse, optical read-write storage, the high-speed modem, and more.

Vanderbilt, The Learning Technology Center

• Website: http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/ctrs/ltc/default.html

• Description: "a research center at Vanderbilt University´s Peabody College of Education.... Current members are working on a variety of projects in the areas of mathematics, science, social studies, literacy, and engineering technology in K-12, postsecondary, and professional development settings."

• Founded: 1983

• Staffed by: 70 cognitive scientists, designers, and educators

• Areas of focus: Education, Psychology, Computer Science, Mathematics, Chemistry, Organizational Administration, Public Policy, and Video and Multimedia Design.

• Organization: part of Vanderbilt University´s Peabody College of Education.

• Major research projects:

  • Assistive Technology Viewer

  • Contrasting Cases

  • Innovative Software

  • Knowledge Mining

  • Using Multiple Texts for Academic Learning: Social and Cognitive Perspectives

• Contact Information:
  Peabody Box 45
  Vanderbilt University
  Nashville, TN 37203
  (615) 322-8070
  (615) 343-7556 (fax)
  

University of Colorado at Boulder, The Center for Lifelong Learning and Design (L3D)

• Website: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~l3d/

• Description: An interdisciplinary research center that studies shared understanding, situated cognition, explanation and learning support, domain-oriented design environments, and information retrieval and delivery.

• Founded: 1984

• Headed by: Gerhard Fischer

• Staffed by: 11 faculty from Computer Science, 2 from planning and design, one from journalism and mass communication, and one from biology. 8 graduate students, 5 undergraduate research apprentices.

• Funded through: In part through grants from the NSF, McDonnell Foundation, CASI, etc.

• Mission: "Our goal is to establish, both by theoretical work and by building prototype systems, the scientific foundations for the construction of intelligent systems that serve as amplifiers of human capabilities (e.g., to expand human memory, augment human reasoning, and facilitate human communication)."

• Areas of Focus: "In our current research effort, innovative system development, cognitive theory construction, and evaluation are combined and centered around the following themes: cooperative problem solving, user-centered design, intelligent support systems (e.g., critics, advisors), intelligent information management, construction kits and design environments, human problem-domain communication, explanation and visualization components, reuse and redesign, programmable applications, and learnable language design."

• Organization: Part of the Department of Computer Science and the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "It participates in the Human-Computer Interaction Consortium (which brings together research groups from the USA and Europe working in HCI). It cooperates and has active research relationships with other universities, research laboratories, and industry."

• Major Projects:

  • AgentSheets : "An agent-based spreadsheet environment for creating SimCityTM-like interactive simulations, domain-oriented visual programming languages, infobost, personalized web browsers and games."

  • DynaSites : "Rather than storing information in files, Dynasites stores information content and hypertext links as small pieces in a database. Pieces from the database are then put together by a program to create HTML pages. This model provides new possibilities for users to evolve the information they see in their browser. Users can add to the information space using forms that require no HTML knowledge."

  • Envisionment and Discovery Collaboratory : "A Framework for Integrating Physical Games, Computer Simulations, and Dynamic Information Spaces for the support of Collaborative Learning and Design"

• Contact Information:
  Francesca Iovine
  Department of Computer Science
  Campus Box 430
  University of Colorado
  Boulder, CO 80309-0430
  phone: (303) 492-1592
  email: iovine@cs.colorado.edu
  FAX: (303) 492-2844
  

Cornell, Human-Computer Interaction Group

• Website:http://www.hci.cornell.edu

• Description: "an interdisciplinary research team investigating social, communication and design issues surrounding the use of computers at school, work and play. Using an iterative, user-centered design approach, HCI Group members and research partners are building and evaluating networked, multimedia environments that support involvement, experimentation, exploration, and collaboration." HCI offers courses in interactive media design (see, for instance, http://www.hci.cornell.edu/439/).

• Headed by: Geri Gay, associate professor of communication

• Staffed by: Interdisciplinary staff of 10 includes faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates in communications, psychology, and computer science.

• Areas of focus:

  • "Digital Libraries and Visualization: Considers the challenges end-users face in collecting, organizing and visualizing digital resources.
  • Collaborative Tools: Explores such areas as on-line problem solving, telecommuting efficiency, group design, social interaction, and critical thinking.
  • Mobile & Ubiquitous Computing: Investigates how highly portable, multimedia, real-time database access, and situated data collection affect learning and working experiences.
  • Evaluating New Technologies: Considers the development of technological tools designed to evaluate networked, multimedia environments. "
    
    

• Major research projects:

  • Nomad Project, "an evaluation of student collaboration and team based development in nomadic computing environment.... Students in selected courses are being issued with laptop computers with wireless modems. The research plan is both to evaluate the direct impact of these new technologies, and to create a very rapid feedback cycle for incorporating changes and improvements into the courses."
  • Project Prism, "an NSF initiative... to understand and enhance the effects of digital libraries and distributed information systems."
  • Creation Station "brings collaborative, high-end, multimedia composition together with the rapid emergence of university owned and generated digital collections and archives."
  • Nasa Project seeks to transform the approach to teaching certain core engineering concepts through hands-on and virtual expirimentation, lecture, design, and onsite and remote training.
    
    

• Contact Information: Address: HCI-Group
  Kennedy Hall
  Ithaca, NY 14853
  Phone & Fax: Phone: 607-255-5530
  Fax: 607-255-4346
  Email: Andrew Olcott

• See also: Cornell Digital Library Research Group and Cornell Institute for Digital Collections.

University of Georgia, Learning and Performance Support Laboratory

• Website: http://lpsl.coe.uga.edu/default.html

• Description: "conducts research and development projects exploring how computational and communication technologies can be used to enhance learning and performance support environments."

• Headed by: Dr. Michael Hannafin

• Staffed by: 14 faculty members in instructional technology, and science and math education; 15 graduate students in instructional technology and computer science

• Funded through: Grants from AT & T; Children's Museum

• Mission:

  • "a commitment to theoretically grounded research, both basic and applied, that contributes to our understanding of how learning and performance may be enhanced by technology;"

  • "a commitment to research and development that will establish a leading-edge capability in the state of Georgia for technology-enhanced learning, performance assessment, and information access at all levels of education, training, and work;" and

  • "a commitment to developing partnerships and research collaborations with other institutions, businesses, and agencies in the state, the nation, and internationally."

• Areas of focus:

  • interactive learning environments,
  • cognition and learning with emerging technologies,
  • electronic performance support systems,
  • assessment of technology's impact and effect on learning and performance, and educational applications of telecommunications and information technologies.
    
    

• Organization: Part of College of Education

• Major projects:

  • Learning in/with Virtual Environments
  • TOTAL ONE: Tools for Teaching and Learning on Networks (LPSL) "allows teachers to design, develop, and implement learning activities using existing resources as well as to integrate newer resources from the Web"
  • Foundations for the Future: Provides training for K-12 teachers to use technology.
  • IQC: "research and theory-building related to human learning and performance in technology-intense work environments"
  • Web-Enhanced Medical Education (MCG)
    
    

• Contact Information:
  Address: 611 Aderhold Hall, Athens, GA 30602
  Phone: (706) 542-3157
  Fax: (706) 542-4321
  E-Mail: lpsl@coe.uga.edu

Georgia Tech, Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center (GVU)

• Website: http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/gvu/

• Description: "The Graphics, Visualization & Usability (GVU) Center at Georgia Tech has assumed a leadership position not only in the development of new technologies in graphics, visualization and usability, but also in making these innovations meaningful for the average person and easy to use. Finding better ways to communicate information between people and between computers and people is key, and we believe that computer graphics, information visualization, and ease of usability are the essential building blocks to turning our vision into reality. We have assembled a team of experts in computer technology-the 'people technologies' of the mind, eyes and motor channels; and applications-who have found a common ground at GVU. Our Center includes 70 teaching and research faculty, and more than 160 graduate students from such diverse areas as architecture, computing, engineering, multimedia rhetoric, multimedia technology, psychology and usability testing. "

• Founded: 1991

• Headed by: Albert Badre, Associate Director for Education; Aaron Bobick, Associate Director for Initiatives in Future Computing Environments; Richard Catrambone, Associate Director for Internal Activities; Jessica Hodgins, Associate Director for Student Affairs; and William Ribarsky, Associate Director for External Relations.

• Staffed by: Affiliates include 70 faculty members and over 160 graduate students.

• Areas of focus: 3 major areas: Geometric and Visual Computing, Pervasive and Intelligent Computing, and the most relevant to this report, Communication, Collaboration and Education, where they are "pioneering the use of new media and Internet technologies in communicating, teaching and creating web-based environments that facilitate collaborative learning and the formation of online communities"

• Organization: College of Computing, with affiliations with other departments and divisions. Coordinates a master of science in Human Computer Interaction.

• Major projects:

  • Usability: I-Observe, an all-inclusive interface usability evaluation environment

  • Educational Technology: Lots of cool projects underway, including the Apprenticeship-Based Learning Environments, CaMile (Collaborative and Multimedia Learning Emvironment), a "Web-based collaboration tool for use by students to encourage learning"; Cognitive Multimedia, "an on-going research effort to develop multimedia systems to support human learning and problem solving, based on cognitive principles and guidelines from cognitive science"; Multimedia Courseware, "sponsored by NSF, focused on building and evaluating multimedia courseware for computer science classes"; Reality Check, "educational software that will aid educators in the development of 'authentic' tasks for students aged 12 to adult"

  • Electronic Learning Communities: AquaMOOSE 3D, "A multimedia, graphical, game construction kit designed to support mathematical, artistic, and computational learning"; IRC Francais, "a project designed to help students learn French through active conversation with other students"; the Turing Game, which uses a "constructionist approach to make learning about online identity personally relevant and engaging"

  • IMAGINE (Interactive Media Architecture Group in Education) aims to serve "the Architecture/ Engineering/Construction community by providing exemplary applications of new media technology, and by preparing students in the use of this technology"

  • Information Design: "with the planning and implementation of digital texts and environments; in particular, we focus on integrating the visual, textual, and aural components of these environments into a "look and feel" aimed at producing specific reactions or effects in targeted users. Our research explores issues in aesthetics, cognitive science, cultural studies, education, engineering, and rhetoric, helping us to build digital systems through which users can more effectively communicate, interact, and learn." Projects include the cognitive multimedia project, the hypercafe, and metaweb.

• Contact Information:
  GVU Center
  Georgia Tech
  801 Atlantic Drive
  Atlanta GA 30332-0280
  Phone: 404/894-4488
  FAX: 404/894-0673

University of Michigan, Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education

• Website: http://hi-ce.eecs.umich.edu/hiceoffice/index.html

• Description: "develops learner-centered technology and curriculum that addresses major needs of schools today--enabling all students to learn and enabling students and teachers to engage in serious intellectual inquiry around authentic, meaningful, motivating, mindful-learning experiences."

• Staffed by: 8 faculty and 10 students and staff from "a broad range of disciplines: Schools of Education, Information and Public Health, and the College of Engineering"

• Funded through: NSF, Centers for Disease Control, U.S. Department of Education, Joyce Foundation, Spencer Foundation, W.K. Kellogg

• Organization: Part of the Advanced Technologies Lab.

• Areas of focus: The website offers a science lab (where visitors can "download and use the latest science investigation tools that hi-ce has developed"); teacher workroom ("jumping-off point to a variety of resources designed to assist you in using hi-ce curriculum and software tools"); digital library ("contains resources and tools to support research and information gathering on the web")

• Major projects:

  • Center for Learning Technologies in Urban Schools (LeTUS)
  • Using Information Technologies to Support Urban Middle School Students in Scientific Inquiry (REPP)
  • Extending the Primary Sources Network (PSN)
  • Creating a Corpus of Learning-Situated Design Guidelines & Software Components: A Foundation for Educational Software Research and Development (KDI)
  • Community Health Investigator Project (CHI)
  • Knowledge Networks on the Web (KNOW)
  • Scienceware
    
    

• Significant research: curriculum; design of interactive learning environments; inquiry-based science; modeling; support for teachers and students; collaboration; student publishing

• Contact Information: hice.info@umich.edu

University of North Texas, Texas Center for Educational Technology

• Website: http://www.tcet.unt.edu/

• Description: "The Texas Center for Educational Technology stands as one piece of an impressive infrastructure created by the Texas Education Agency to bring the benefits of technology to Texas students and educators. Created by legislative statute in June, 1990, TCET's focus is technology research, development, and evaluation. TCET's organizational structure is uniquely collaborative. TCET board membership brings together public school educators, faculty from colleges of education, and representatives from technology vendors. Together they formulate TCET's annual research, development, and evaluation agenda."

• Founded: 1990

• Headed by: Beverly Rodgers

• Staffed by: 22 administrators, researchers, writers, and web developers

• Funded through: Texas Education Association, TIF grants.

• Mission:

  "I: Construct, pilot, assist, and collaborate in the development of 21st Century educational models, incorporating appropriate technologies, and facilitating stakeholder involvement.

  II: Facilitate collaborative efforts with all stakeholders to improve K-12 educational programs via technology.

  III: Serve as a K-12 technology and educational reform R&D clearinghouse that disseminates research-based information to the community, school and classroom levels.

  IV: Conduct meaningful, future-oriented, action research and evaluation on the effectiveness and impact of educational and informational technologies.

  V: Promote TCET to state, national, and international levels through personal and electronic linkages."

• Major projects: electronic emissary to match teachers with specialists in various disciplines; schools as knowledge building communities; assessment tools; studies of attitudes toward technology

• Contact Information:
  Phone: 940/565-4433
  Fax: 940/565-4425
  E-mail: tcet@unt.edu

University of Southern California, Center for Advanced Research in Technology for Education (CARTE)

• Website: http://www.isi.edu/isd/carte/

• Description: Part of the Information Sciences Institute, CARTE develops, evaluates, and disseminates new technologies for education. The Center focuses upon pedagogical agents and intelligent assistants.

• Headed by: W. Lewis Johnson

• Staffed by: 8 faculty,

• Mission: "to encourage new technology development initiatives, and to facilitate the transfer of successful technologies into educational practice"

• Areas of focus:

  • Pedagogical Agents and Guidebots, which lead students through learning situations.

  • Adaptive Hypermedia: "an interactive explanation system, generating answers in response to specific questions."

  • Collaborative and Team Learning

  • Intelligent Course Management to support non-linear courses.

  • Student Monitoring and Assessment

• Contact Information:
  email: carte-info@isi.edu

• See also:
  Center for Scholarly Technology

Acadia Institute for Teaching and Technology

• Website: http://aitt.acadiau.ca/

• Description: The Acadia Institute for Teaching and Technology (AITT) provides training and support to faculty members employing educational technology, as well as opportunities to student designers. AITT stands out for two reasons: First, it provides opportunities for students not only to develop their skills, but to demonstrate them publicly through their instructional design portfolios. Second, Acadia's mobile-computing environment fuels innovation.

Carnegie Mellon University, Center for Innovation in Learning

• Website:http://cil.andrew.cmu.edu/

• Description: "CIL's mission is to improve undergraduate education at Carnegie Mellon and in so doing to advance the field of instructional science. CIL focuses on the development of innovative and effective curricula. This complements other campus organizations that focus on the improvement of faculty teaching, improvement of students' learning skills, and implementation of technology in the classroom. At a national level, CIL is nearly unique in its emphasis on interdisciplinary educational research and development for college education. The Ph.D. program in Instructional Science trains young researchers to contribute to the advancement of this applied field."

• Staffed by: 7 faculty, 5 staff, 6 graduate students and postdocs

• Areas of focus: Experts in "applied cognitive science, curriculum design, assessment, and educational use of technology" develop innovative curriculum and work with faculty. Viewing curriculum development as a cycle, they perform research on how students learn, develop innovative curricula, study how technology should be used, collaborate among disciplines, and assess the success of curricula and instructional strategies. As part of its PhD in instructional science, CIL offers graduate courses in instructional design and problems in instruction.

• Major projects: Significant work on major curriculum development and assessment projects at CMU, including courses on physics, statistics, writing, and programming languages.

• Significant research: Research briefs on the effectiveness of introductory courses, retention, and students' time management.

• See also: Studio for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon, which supports "experimental and cross-disciplinary work in the arts." The Studio has produced several projects focused on education, including Tracking the Human Brain ("interactive, multimedia planetarium show"); Building Electronic Communities; and Art History Learning Environment (http://www.cmu.edu/studio/overview/index.html).

Penn State, The Royer Center for Learning and Academic Technologies

• Website: http://www.clat.psu.edu/index.html

• Description: An institute serving all 18 Penn State campuses that seeks to make learning at these locations "highly interactive and student-centered." To this end, instructional development specialists provide support at each campus by conducting workshops and providing one-on-one assistance.

• Founded: 1995

• Staffed by: 8 central staff, 16 instructional design specialists (network specialists, curriculum experts, and multimedia designers).

• Mission:

  • "To leverage the Royer Center's resources in such a way that it can rapidly and effectively disseminate the pedagogical perspective, skills, and technical skills necessary for large numbers of faculty and staff to create an active and collaborative learning environment that both enriches and transcends the traditional classroom setting.
  • To assist the Commonwealth College in providing the best information and communications technologies in direct support of academic programs.
  • To support Commonwealth College faculty in the redesign of major instructional segments or entire courses.
  • To create a technology-supported "curricular core" of courses and instructional modules that can be used by distance learners and by faculty at all Commonwealth College locations.
  • To conduct the experimentation necessary to provide Penn State and national leadership in systemwide instructional technology dissemination, academic culture change, and pedagogical reform."

• Major projects:

  • Project Empower: Promotes a learner-center approach to education and develops the educational tools associated with this approach.
  • Project Vision: "Project Vision combines active, project-based learning and Internet technologies to provide a high-quality university experience to both residential and distance students."
  • General Education Models: a package of 22 instructional resource modules for general education, such as notetaking and research skills.
    
    

• Contact Information:
  101 University Support Building 1
  University Park, PA 16802
  Phone: (814) 863-5512
  Fax: (814)863-5513
  

See Humanities computing units and institutional resources for an extensive listing of humanities computing programs and research.

UC Berkeley, Humanities & Technology Project

• Website: http://ishi.lib.berkeley.edu/Humanities/

• Description: supports "the integration of World Wide Web and Internet applications into humanities teaching and research. The Project provides a one-stop, technologically 'smart' venue where humanities graduate students and faculty can share knowledge and collaborate in developing new Internet applications." Now defunct, apparently because of a lack of funding.

• Founded: 1996

• Headed by: Dr. Diane Harley

• Staffed by: Half-time by the director, plus 11 graduate students in history, languages, and literature

• Funded through: Dean of the Humanities, the Library, Berkeley Multimedia Research Center, and Center for Studies in Higher Education

• Mission:

  • "to train graduate students how to design, build, and publish websites through our workshops in basic web editing, Photoshop, and scanning;
  • to provide opportunities for experimentation through open access to our computer lab, The Collaboratory, housed in Doe Library;
  • to fund and support specific projects, including conference sites, course sites, and Townsend Center Working Group sites (for a complete listing, see http://ishi.lib.berkeley.edu/Humanities);
  • to provide consultation and guidance on securing additional funds and identifying other sources of campus technical support."
    
    

• Areas of focus: One of its central missions was to provide IT training for graduate students in the humanities; see Diane Harley's talk on this subject at the 1999 ACH-ALLC meeting, http://www.iath.virginia.edu/ach-allc.99/proceedings/harley.html. Offered workshops for graduate students and faculty on using technology.

• Organization: Folded, apparently because of a lack of funding. (See article in Berkeley Computing and Communications, http://istpub.berkeley.edu:4201/bcc/Summer99/acad.htp.html)

• Major projects: Supports the IT needs of several history and Art History courses

  • Alfred Kroeber and the Ethnographic Representation of the Yurok Indians of Northwestern California http://www.qal.berkeley.edu/~kroeber/
  • A Cultural Analysis of Foreign Language Acquisition Through Real-Time MOO Conferencing http://ishi.lib.berkeley.edu/cshe/projects/university/language.html
  • Human Rights Violations: From Discrimination to Genocide http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/violations/
  
  

• Contact Information: Diane Harley
  510/642-4343
  dianeh@uclink2.berkeley.edu

Brown University, Scholarly Technology Group

• Website: http://www.stg.brown.edu/

• Description: "The Brown University Scholarly Technology Group (STG) supports the development and use of advanced information technology in academic research, teaching, and scholarly communication. STG pursues this mission by exploring new technologies and practices, developing specialized tools and techniques, and providing consulting and project management services to academic projects."

• Headed by: Allen Renear

• Staffed by: 15 full-time employees, including programmers, electronic publications editor, researchers, managers, and license coordinator

• Funded through: Brown; grant-funded research projects

• Areas of focus:

  • "document architecture and markup systems;
  • humanities computing and textbase development;
  • networked and multimedia communication and publishing"
  
  Also runs the Multimedia Lab, "Brown University's primary facility for teaching creative computing applications and techniques"; and consults with faculty on humanities computing projects.
  
  

• Major projects: Brown Women Writers Project, Victorian Web; XML and Open eBook validators.

• Contact Information:
  Scholarly Technology Group
  Box 1841, Brown University
  Providence, RI 02912-1841 USA
  phone: (401) 863-2934
  fax: (401) 863-9313
  e-mail: info@stg.brown.edu
  

Johns Hopkins University, Digital Knowledge Center

• Website: http://dkc.mse.jhu.edu/

• Description: "conducts research and provides expertise to facilitate the development and creation of digital curricular, instructional and informational resources which further instruction, research and scholarship both on and off campus"

• Headed by: Sayeed Choudhury

• Staffed by: 4 full-time staff; 6 student assistants.

• Funded through: "The Information Technology Assistants are supported by funds from the Hodson Trust Graduate Assistantship in Information Technology." (Established in 1996 by The Hodson Trust to assist a graduate student enrolled at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences or the Whiting School of Engineering who undertakes a project in the Milton S. Eisenhower Library's Digital Knowledge Center. This assistantship is awarded competitively.)

• Mission: to serve as a "a campus hub for the creation, production, marketing, distribution, and archiving of multimedia information and instructional resources. It is also a laboratory for employing new technologies in the teaching, learning and scholarship processes."

• Areas of focus:

  • "providing technological expertise, consultation, and support for the creation of high-quality digital resources in a complex university environment
  • initiating, conducting and coordinating technology research and development projects
  • creating innovative technology solutions to further the library's service programs
  • advising the Johns Hopkins University Press on Project Muse, the successful electronic scholarly journal publishing initiative
  • adopting and implementing technology, data formats and standards for access and archiving
  • working with departments for intellectual property policies and guidelines for electronic resources
  • fostering faculty impetus and encouragement for the creation of digital knowledge resources"
    
    

• Organization: "an innovative collaboration between the Milton S. Eisenhower Library and the faculty of the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the G.W.C. Whiting School of Engineering, and the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education (formerly School of Continuing Studies)."

• Major projects: Involved with a range of projects, including Electronic Publishing, developing emerging technologies, developing new tools for research and teaching, assisting with the development of innovative multimedia courses and educational projects, staging online exhibits, and participating in digital library initiatives.

• Contact Information:
  sayeed@jhu.edu

University of Maryland, Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH)

• Website: http://www.mith.umd.edu/splash.html

• Description: "With collaboration at the heart of its vision, MITH (the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities) at the University of Maryland is a community of scholars, interdisciplinary institute, and electronic space devoted to exploring ways in which new technologies can be used in university research, teaching, and community outreach... Exploring the profound effects of the new materialities presented by digital culture, MITH serves the university and community with technical resources and a broad array of programs: summer institutes for secondary, elementary, and postsecondary teachers; resident fellowships for university faculty; networked associate fellowships for faculty, graduate student, and community activist projects from around the world; colloquia; polyseminars; conferences (regional and international); curriculum development; and dynamic mentoring."

• Founded: 1999

• Headed by: Martha Nell Smith, Professor of English

• Staffed by: 3 staff, 2 fellows

• Funded through: $410,000 National Endowment for Humanities Challenge Grant; Apple; Sun; IBM; University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities, Graduate School, Office of Information Technology, University of Maryland Libraries

• Mission:

  1. "to generate and foster the development of innovative projects that respond to the traditional interests of the humanities while nurturing emerging modes of scholarship and learning;"
  2. "to guarantee aggressive outreach of these new technological approaches not only to the faculty members and students of UM, but also to the state educational community in grades K-12;"
  3. " and, in support of goals one and two, to provide advanced technological resources for the creation, deployment, and dissemination of technology-based scholarship and instruction. The facility will include office space, study facilities for the resident fellows, training areas, a conference room/computer studio, and advanced technology rarely seen outside the hard sciences."
     
     

• Areas of focus: "digital projects and research; teaching with technology; and outreach"

• Organization: "a joint venture supported by the College of Arts and Humanities, the Libraries, and Office of Information Technology (OIT)"

• Major projects: (It's a new center, so not many projects underway yet)

  • Sponsors MITH faculty fellows: "Each semester, MITH awards fellowships to 2-3 University of Maryland faculty members from within the College of Arts and Humanities. Fellowships provide a one-semester course release to professors developing their research and teaching in ways that implement and creatively exploit electronic resources. Fellows are expected to work full-time on the project proposed and participate in a MITH polyseminar, conducting one session during their fellowship. Fellows will also be expected to be available for mentoring faculty and students during three virtual office hours each week."
  • Computer Music: For the past several years, Robert Gibson has been working with an object oriented graphical programming environment for MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) called Max, after Max Mathews, the "founding father" of computer music.
  • Offers a summer training institute for University of Maryland faculty and graduate students. Also provides leadership in training secondary school humanities teachers in Maryland.
  • Sponsors graduate courses: America in the Nineteenth Century, Virtually Yours; Buried Histories: Biographies of Women in Print, Film, and Other Media
    
    

• Contact Information:
  2M100E McKeldin Library
  University of Maryland
  College Park, MD 20742-7011
  phone: 301.405.8927
  fax 1: 301.314.7111
  fax 2: 301.314.9148
  email: mailto:mith@umail.umd.edu

• See also: Original Proposal for MITH: http://www.mith.umd.edu/about/proposal.html

Stanford Humanities Lab

• Website: http://www.stanford.edu/group/shl/

• Description: "Intellectual start-up" that will support innovative projects in the humanities. The SHL provides funding to pilot projects that are "collaborative in nature, drawing together teams of senior faculty, advanced undergraduates and postdocs, as well as museum curators and individuals from area cultural centers and industries." The end result is not specified; for example, it could be a performance, a website, a course, a book, an exhibition, or a book. In the first phase, the SHL provides between $20,000 and $50,000 to 3-8 during 2000-2001 and 2001-2002; in the second phase, foundations will fund between four and eight projects per year.

• Founded: Will be launched in September of 2000.

• Headed by: Jeffrey Schnapp, the Rosina Pierotti Professor in Italian Literature and chair of the Department of French and Italian

• Contact Information: SUHUMLAB@stanford.edu
  phone Kellie Smith, (650) 725-9225
  or Schnapp, (650) 725-3270

• See also: Stanford News article on the SHL, April 2000. Through the Learning, Design, and Technology program in the School of Education, Stanford offers a masters degree in educational technology; its students are involved in some innovative work.

• University of Virginia, Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH)

  • Website: http://www.iath.virginia.edu

  • Description: One of the leading centers for humanities computing, IATH grants fellowships to faculty members who are developing scholarly electronic resources. To develop their projects, faculty members receive technical and managerial support from IATH's staff, as well as office space, access to high-end equipment and software, a budget, assistance from student workers, and server space.

  • Founded: 1992

  • Headed by: John Unsworth

  • Staffed by: A core group of programmers, project managers, and a development officer; fellows include faculty from English, Religious Studies, History, Architecture, and more.

  • Funded through: initial grant from IBM; Mellon Foundation; Department of Education; NEH; UVA; and more.

  • Mission: "to provide researchers in the arts and humanities with an opportunity to employ sophisticated technical support and advanced computer technology in the service of their scholarship."

  • Areas of Focus: "The principal goal of the Institute is to see that humanists have the tools, the training, and the support to make the most of computer technology. In part, this entails a consolidation of existing tools and techniques in order to produce an integrated environment for the production, distribution, and analysis of networked information resources. In addition, the Institute's support is often concentrated on converting information into electronic form and addressing issues of standards and formats that arise in the process of that conversion. Finally, where existing software does not meet the needs of scholars in the humanities, the Institute's technical staff will work with the Institute's Fellows to produce broadly useful software tools."

  • Major Projects:

    • Valley of the Shadow

      "The Valley of the Shadow Project takes two communities, one Northern and one Southern, through the experience of the American Civil War. The project is a hypermedia archive of thousands of sources for the period before, during, and after the Civil War for Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Those sources include newspapers, letters, diaries, photographs, maps, church records, population census, agricultural census, and military records. Students can explore every dimension of the conflict and write their own histories, reconstructing the life stories of women, African Americans, farmers, politicians, soldiers, and families. The project is intended for secondary schools, community colleges, libraries, and universities."

    • The Blake Archive

      "A free site on the World Wide Web since 1996, the Blake Archive was conceived as an international public resource that would provide unified access to major works of visual and literary art that are highly disparate, widely dispersed, and more and more often severely restricted as a result of their value, rarity, and extreme fragility."

    • Samantabhadra Collection

      "The Samantabhadra Collection is an electronic and collaborative project aiming at the reproduction, analysis, interpretation, and translation (as appropriate) of Tibetan literature in the Nyingma tradition."

    • Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture: A Multimedia Archive

      Presents a range of materials related to Uncle Tom's Cabin, from sentimental precursors to songs, movies, and knick-knacks inspired by the bestselling novel.

    • Contact Information:
      electronic mail: iath@virginia.edu
      U.S. Post: Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities
      
      Charlottesville, VA 22903
      Voice: (804) 924-4527
      Fax: (804) 982-2363
      

  Centers Focused on Consulting and Training

  Wake Forest, International Center for Computer Enhanced Learning (ICCEL)

  • Website: http://iccel.wfu.edu/index.html

  • Description: ICCEL hosts conferences and presentations on topics ranging from "Affordable Models of Ubiquitous Computing" to "Teaching History with Technology." It also provides training in the pedagogical purposes of technology and in using particular applications. Faculty associated with ICCEL offer customized consulting services for colleges and universities all over the world, advising them on best practices, collaboration, and interactive learning. (Note: According to a recent article in Wake Forest Magazine [April 2000], ICCEL "has reduced its staff and narrowed its focus," now centering on "its successful conferencing and consulting work with colleges and schools").

  • Founded: 1997 (?)

  • Headed by: Craig Runde

  • Funded through: IBM

  • Mission: "The Wake Forest International Center for Computer Enhanced Learning (ICCEL) seeks to establish technology initiatives that increase learning outcomes in higher education, K12, corporate and community settings."

  • Significant research: ICCEL staff have published on "Teaching with Technology," "Interactive Learning: Vignettes from America's Most Wired Campuses," "Best Practices in Ubiquitous Computing," etc.

  • Assessment: ICCEL seems to be more a training and consulting service than a project and research center (although ICCEL does study the effectiveness of various IT strategies). ICCEL is very much a partnership with IBM.

  • Contact Information:
    Mailing Address: ICCEL
    Wake Forest University
    P.O. Box 7718
    Reynolda Station
    Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7718
    Phone:
    (336) 758-3762
    Fax:
    (336) 758-3786
    E-mail:
    iccel@wfu.edu

  • See also: For more in ICCEL, see a Wake Forest news release from 1997: http://www.wfu.edu/wfunews/97releases/112197w.htm . For more on activities at Wake Forest (which has been highly rated in Yahoo's annual survey of wired campuses), see Wake Forest's Computer Enhanced Learning Initiative (CELI).

  Related Resources

  • Teaching Centers: United States

    A fairly complete listing of teaching resource centers in the United States; many of the centers include technology on their agendas.

  • New Media Centers

    A non-profit organization that promotes collaborations between academic centers devoted to multimedia and industry. Academic members include Amherst, Yale, Cornell, Georgia Tech, and MIT, while corporate members include Apple, Adobe, and Macromedia.

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  Home URL: <http://www.rice.edu/projects/code>
  Copyright © 2000 by CODE.
  Last updated December 14, 2000 by Lisa Spiro for CODE (Committee on the Digital Environment: at Rice University).