| Learning&Technology | Introduction | - | |
| Help | [Orientation] Support | Lesson | Practice | - |
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This module follows the trajectory of two very different fields, learning and technology, to report on the places where these phenomena intersect. The knowledge base on learning has been building slowly and incrementally over the past century through the scientific study of humans and other animals. By contrast, the scientific study of digital technology has surged forward rapidly, doubling the new knowledge every eighteen months throughout its short history. Widespread public consensus asserts that technology will improve learning. Support for the concept has high-level visibility in government, industry, and academia. For example, the bi-partisan U. S. Congressional Web-Based Education Commission in 2000 recommended a national mobilization to embrace an e-learning agenda as a centerpiece for our nation's education policy. Yet essential questions still need to be answered. Can the confluence of emerging technology applications impact learning or, conversely, can technology transfer stem the failure to learn? The decision makers lack replicated, rigorous, experimental research results needed to estimate cost-benefit relationships for technology transfer efforts in terms of human learning, K-12 student achievement, teaching approaches, school systems' infrastructures, and preparing personnel to use technology in ways consistent with good learning. This module will identify researchers in several fields and roles working on answers to these questions as they simultaneously study the science of learning and the impact of technology on learning. The underlying theme of the module explores what the National Academy of Sciences calls "the path from research to human benefit." |
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