| Overview A
distinctive feature of educational innovation in the last quarter century is the
increasing use of multimedia and various emerging technologies to package and
deliver learning experiences for audiences ranging from young children to adults.
Since 1975 the Teaching, Learning and Technology Program at the Institute for
Social Research has studied many of these innovations, examining their assumptions
and discovering the conditions necessary to achieve their goals.
Studies
have explored how learning is shaped by factors in the product design as well
as by factors outside the product: teaching practices, student assignments, arrangement
of the learning space and classroom interaction patterns. Studies have examined
a wide range of content domains, including social studies, science, writing, adult
literacy, foreign languages, and social values.
Research designs range
from small-scale controlled experiments to national sample surveys; measurement
strategies include self-completed surveys, face-to-face interviews, systematic
coding of classroom interaction, and ethnographic field studies. Current
Projects - Project
IDEAL - providing technical assistance to 14 states for the development
of non-classroom approaches to teaching ABE, ASE and ESL learners.
- National
evaluation of Workplace Essential Skills
from the PBS LiteracyLink Project: using broadcast video, print and online instruction
to provide workplace skills training for adults. Study of the impact on learners
under varying conditions of engagement.
- Evaluation of TV411
from the Adult Literacy Media Alliance. using broadcast video and print to provide
basic reading, writing and math skills for adults at the ABE level. Studies of
the impact of the series when used under a variety of conditions: home study,
home study with tutorial support, and viewing and studying in an informal facilitated
group.
- Assessing the Impact of Technology
in Teaching and Learning: A Sourcebook for Evaluators.
This book on methods for evaluating technology projects was published in April,
2002 and is now available.
News
- Expanding
Access in Adult Literacy with Web-Based Instruction. A book summarizing
the state of Web use in adult education. Authors: Eunice Askov (PSU), Jerome Johnston,
Leslie Petty, and Shannon Young. Scheduled for publication in late 2002.
- AAPOR Award - Johnston received the AAPOR 2002 Innovators Award. At the
annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Johnston and four
other researchers were recognized for their role in the development of Audio Computer-Assisted
Self Interviewing (Audio CASI). This innovation helps with the collection of information
that respondents might deem too sensitive to reveal to a live interviewer-medical
condition, drug use, or risky sexual behavior. Audio CASI uses a laptop computer
equipped with headphones to speak aloud questions and answer choices to a respondent.
The respondent answers each question by selecting an answer on the screen or typing
a word or phrase. In addition to helping keep answers confidential, Audio CASI
helps reduce literacy problems associated with a self-completed paper-and-pencil
questionnaire.
Research Overviews Selected
Bibliography | |
