Educational Transformations

Enabled by Technology

Robert Tinker
The Concord Consortium
http://concord.org
 The Problem

INNOVATION and APPLIED RESEARCH are:

• Essential to major advances in education that
technology makes possible
• Under funded
• Overlooked in most policy debates

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 It’s a Long Way from Basic Research
to Improved Schools

• A single development does not lead to

classroom change
Instead
• Insights and innovations cascade from more
basic to more applied research
• New materials draw from many sources of
insight and innovation

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 The Research Spectrum

Technical Curriculum
Innovations Innovations
Tools and
Platforms IT-based
Cognitive Curricula
Research

New Educational Implementation

Technologies Applications Research

Basic Applied
Human Resource Development

This all takes place in “Pasteur’s Quadrant” (Don Stokes)

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 Implementation Research
• Focus on in-schools studies.
• Examples
– Use of models across the curriculum
– New approach to political science in which
students design institutions and role play
– Intuitive calculus in elementary grades
followed by major curriculum changes
– Atomic physics before molecular biology

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 Implementation Research

• Characteristics
– Like medical field trials (somewhat)
– The step before large-scale implementation
– A few years ahead of current practice
– Large numbers of students and teachers
– Technology and training may be needed

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 Example: Implementation
Research

• Modeling Across the Curriculum

– Three-year longitudinal study
– Thirteen schools and 10,000 students
– Consistent approach to modeling
– Random assignment of treatments
– Look for cumulative improvements in basic
problem-solving skills

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 Example: Guidance and
Assessment Using Tools

Embed the
tool into
lessons. Kids
can learn from
these through
exploration.
Careful design
and testing
with students
needed.
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 Educational Innovations

• Transformative, large scale educational

innovations
– Are feasible
– Require large scale applied R&D
– Are based on basic research and technical
innovation
– Draw from IT developments in other areas:
games, science research, etc
– Should be open source/open content

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 Who Creates Innovations?

• The funding picture

– MSP: $1B total for implementation
– Labs, Resource Centers, Systemic Initiatives: $1B/yr
for dissemination
– Centers for Teaching and Learning: $1B total for
human resource development
– No major government program for IT-based innovation
– Business can reach large audiences
• Where are the inputs?

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 Who Creates Innovations?

Where are IT-based educational innovations going to

come from that transform K-14 education?
– Not basic research
– Not business
– Not schools

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 A Missing Link

Basic New
Research Technology

Implementation Research and

Innovation

Teacher Professional
Dissemination Development

Improved
Teaching and
Learning

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 Recommendations

• To realize the educational potential of

information technologies, a research
strategy is needed that is balanced between
pure and applied
• Innovation in technology and curricula must
be central to the strategy

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 Education Accelerators

• Promote, support, and study large-scale change in schools

• School-centered
• Large-scale change has risks
• Cannot make mistakes with students
• Schools need insurance and assurance
• Theory-based change supported by evidence
• Support for teachers, administrators, parents
• Extensive formative assessment: early-warning system in
place

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 Education Accelerators
• Applied research requires interdisciplinary teams
• Centers, analogous to research centers in the
sciences, are needed: Education Accelerators
• Centers must have close connections to schools
and colleges
• By concentrating resources and expertise the
research is more efficient and effective

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 Education Accelerators

• Need base funding for staff and a general

research agenda
• Five-year, renewable grants
• Bulk of funding comes through peer
reviewed projects to affiliated institutions

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 The Cost

• Cognitive research: 75 projects at $200K/yr = $20M/yr

• Technology: 50 projects @ $500K/yr = $25M/yr
• Software: 50 projects at $1M/yr = $50M/yr
• Curriculum: 50 at $1M/yr = $50M/yr
• Implementation: 50 at $2M/yr = $100M/yr
• Accelerators: 10 at $5M/yr = $50M/yr
• Human Resources: 200 @ $50K/yr = $10M/yr
• Total: $300M/yr for ten years

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 Worth it?

• $3B total over ten years

• 50 times current levels for innovation and
applied research
• Tiny compared to the educational enterprise
• Comparable to current dissemination
expenditures
• Can transform education

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 Fin

Contact:
bob@concord.org
Information, free software, research results,
reviews, and more at:
http://concord.org
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