Coming Soon: A National Center for Educational Technology Research
What are your thoughts?
This past week, President Bush signed into law a bill that will establish a new national research center for studying digital technology and learning. The center aspires be to edtech what the National Institutes of Health have been for medical research.
The National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies is part of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, approved by Congress at the end of July, and signed into law by President Bush on August 14.
“This new National Center will help move schools, universities, and training facilities nationwide into the 21st century,” said Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), one of the project’s original sponsors. “America’s reputation as an international leader rests in the hands of our youth, and it should be among our top priorities to provide our students with the tools they need to maintain and build upon this standing. The National Center will help future American workers compete in the global marketplace.”
“The National Center couldn’t come at a more critical time,” added Congressman John Yarmuth (D-KY). “American businesses know that they need a well-educated workforce to face growing competition from China, India, and Europe. Americans need to constantly upgrade their skills to keep pace with technology and international competition, and people who are losing their jobs often need to acquire new skills to rejoin the workforce.”
Via PBS Teachers
This past week, President Bush signed into law a bill that will establish a new national research center for studying digital technology and learning. The center aspires be to edtech what the National Institutes of Health have been for medical research.
The National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies is part of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, approved by Congress at the end of July, and signed into law by President Bush on August 14.
“This new National Center will help move schools, universities, and training facilities nationwide into the 21st century,” said Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), one of the project’s original sponsors. “America’s reputation as an international leader rests in the hands of our youth, and it should be among our top priorities to provide our students with the tools they need to maintain and build upon this standing. The National Center will help future American workers compete in the global marketplace.”
“The National Center couldn’t come at a more critical time,” added Congressman John Yarmuth (D-KY). “American businesses know that they need a well-educated workforce to face growing competition from China, India, and Europe. Americans need to constantly upgrade their skills to keep pace with technology and international competition, and people who are losing their jobs often need to acquire new skills to rejoin the workforce.”
Via PBS Teachers
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by nlowell on
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I'll confess, this frightens me.
So few people understand educational technology and fewer still the implications of such wide ranging and disparate applications as 3G phone access, in-state vs out-of-state tuition structures, and the nature of "distance education" that I fear what this "research institute" will actually do.
My suspicion is that we're going to see more of the same-ole-same-ole with silly research focused on the toys and boys and not on the actual applications of various educational technologies. The problem here is that, unless you are very careful in what and how you study, what you get is a "media comparison study" with little or no validity or generalizability for application.
A lot will depend on the actual mandate, who gets the nod to run it, and what tasks they shoot for first. Given the track record, I'm not terribly optimistic but I would love to be wrong about this one.
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Permalink Reply by DJ White on
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Well, I would be really impressed if this was to rival the NIH. For the last year and a half I have lobbied members of congress and the Senate on issues in education. While NIH has the largest lion share of the federal research dollar , education is pretty much always bottom of the barrel. I hope this might change.
Just like the America Competes act, the bill can be passed and then funded at a very low level. America Competes , which looks great on the surface and gives congress members the ability to say that voted for the a mega education bill when pressed on "what have you done for education", has been given less than 10% of its original funding.
With 2 wars going on, bailouts of Freddie mac , fane mae and now AIG , I have no idea where that money would come from.
Guess we will see.
DJ
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