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NSF PR 96-57 - October 10, 1996
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Grants Will Support 'Basic Research' in Educational
Technology
25 Awards Total $5.6 Million
Imagine a day in the future when children use sophisticated
software tools to build their own scientific instruments,
prospective engineers learn their trade in "virtual
factories" that exist only on the Internet, and teachers
use programs that employ artificial intelligence to
help turn student assessments into effective strategies
for helping students to learn better.
All this may come about as the result of groundbreaking
research into the educational applications of technology
supported by the National Science Foundation.
NSF recently awarded more than $5.6 million in planning
and research grants to universities, non-profit institutions,
and one California high school to carry out this "basic
research" under its new Collaborative Research in
Learning Technologies (CRLT) program. The 25 individual
awards range from $37,909 to $880,658.
CRLT will stimulate research on the integration of
technology with learning at all levels of education.
"This research will enable the development of new
educational systems of self-directed and lifelong
learning," noted NSF Acting Deputy Director Joseph
Bordogna. Rather than produce products that can be
immediately introduced into the marketplace, CRLT
is expected to build a knowledge base over several
years that will help educators take advantage of the
Clinton Administration's initiative to insure that
every classroom has access to the Information Superhighway
by the Year 2000.
"The intent of the program is to foster the development
of the 'next generation' of educational technologies,"
said John Cherniavsky, the head of NSF's Office of
Cross-Disciplinary Activities, which coordinates the
CRLT program. "This really is 'basic research,' rather
than the development of applications."
Although computers and other technologies have, in
recent years, become more prominent in classroom teaching,
the use of technology has not become commonplace in
most classrooms as it has in the majority of workplaces.
While the commercial software industry has developed
a number of successful educational applications, CRLT's
primary objective is to promote the development of
products that would not necessarily be immediately
commercially viable.
All of the projects are designed by multidisciplinary
teams and will employ state-of-the-art tools such
as artificial intelligence and cutting edge telecommunications
technologies.
Although all of the programs are designed to improve
the quality of technological tools for life-long learning,
some are specifically designed to improve math and
science education for traditionally underserved groups.
A research team at Bell High School, in Los Angeles
has been awarded a planning grant to explore using
high-bandwidth connections between the school and
the Internet to develop math and science lessons that
will specifically appeal to the nation's growing population
of immigrant students of Hispanic origin. The team
intends that eventually large numbers of urban schools
will be able to apply the teaching techniques and
technologies they develop.
Befitting an initiative designed to foster interdisciplinary
approaches to technology development, CRLT itself
is a joint undertaking of four of NSF's directorates;
Computer and Information Sciences & Engineering; Education
and Human Resources; Engineering; and Mathematical
and Physical Sciences.
Seventy-six institutions applied for grants under
the program, out of a pool of 220 institutions that
submitted preliminary proposals, Cherniavsky noted.
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