SRI International Receives Three National Science Foundation Grants to Study Technology Innovations in Education; Grants Will Support Groundbreaking Research.

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(Oct. 31, 1996)--SRI International has received three grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study educational applications of technology.

SRI, one of the 23 recipients selected from 76 applicants, was the only recipient to receive three separate awards. Educational technology is one of the top priorities of NSF's FY97 budget.

The grants were awarded by NSF's new Collaborative Research in Learning Technologies (CRLT) program, which is designed to stimulate interdisciplinary research in the integration of technology with learning at all levels of education.

CRLT is expected to produce a knowledge base over several years to foster the development of the next-generation of educational technologies, rather than the development of products for near-term commercialization.

The three research programs will be conducted by SRI's Center for Technology in Learning.

Supported by funding from government, foundation and commercial sources, the Center works collaboratively with educators to develop and adapt new computing technologies for use in education and training, and to assess how advances in the scientific understanding of learning and teaching may be effectively integrated into technology design.

Roy Pea, director of the Center for Technology in Learning, said, "We are pleased with the recognition from NSF of our innovative designs for interdisciplinary research that can advance the frontiers of uses and assessments of computing and communications in interactive learning environments."

Under a one-year grant, SRI will plan a national center for collaborative research on learning technologies. For key themes in learning technologies, SRI and its partners, the University of California at Berkeley and Vanderbilt University, will convene projects from institutions throughout the nation to share research approaches and findings, identify commonalties and differences, establish priorities and commission new activities.

The center will address pressing issues in the integration of research and education, train postdoctoral scholars to work at the intersection of technology and instruction, and support a community-wide dialogue about the future of educational technology.

Another one-year grant will fund SRI and several San Francisco Bay area K-12 science professional development providers to jointly develop a new vision of on-line professional development activities. The multi-user virtual environment -- TAPPED IN -- will provide a place where teachers with diverse interests, skills and backgrounds can meet, be exposed to a variety of education reform concepts and approaches, and find quality resources quickly.

In its third project, SRI will conduct a 25-month program to study collaborative learning within two learning communities: undergraduate chemistry students and science teachers involved in professional development.

The results of the research will be used to design and develop a network-based learning environment that supports collaboration among distributed teams on heterogeneous platforms.

This project will involve collaborations between social scientists studying social and task environments in learning and computer scientists developing technologies to support these environments.

SRI International, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, is one of the largest research, technology development and consulting firms in the world.

SRI's Center for Technology in Learning is part of its Policy Division, which works with government agencies, nonprofit organizations, associations and commercial companies to develop research- based solutions to important educational and socio-economic issues. -0-

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