Prospects for Innovation in Learning Technologies

by Dr. Roy Pea

"Only connect" — E. M. Forster

We believe that connections—among disciplines, organizations, people—lie at the heart of human innovation. With his phrase, Forster highlights the juxtaposition of disparate elements that can lead to creative associative leaps, and unlikely synergies across formerly dissociated areas of thought and action. In the field of research and development of learning technologies, much is to be gained by such connections. Providing an "open" support infrastructure that fosters innovation across the multidisciplinary field of learning technologies is an overarching goal of the design of the Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT).

Exponential performance accelerations in information technology, growing societal interests in network technologies and services, our increasing understanding of learning and intelligent systems, and the widespread concern for educational standards and appropriate technology utilization for comprehensive reform of learning environments have combined to enable an educational revolution augmented by technology. The small and diverse community of researchers in learning technologies must seize this opportunity in a coordinated, inclusive, focusing effort to stimulate effective innovations and achieve increasing returns for improving education.

CILT's activities, including seed partnership projects, industry alliance program, knowledge-networking, and "synergy project" framework are all designed to contribute to rapid and advances in our collective ability to understand and support learning—to what Douglas Engelbart, the pioneer of personal computing has described as a "networked improvement community." As new partners seek to connect around a common ground, the surfacing of different points of view and the assumptions behind them provoke opportunities for innovation in concepts, understandings, models, and solutions for improving learning, as well as in how to work together more effectively to design, develop, and improve learning technologies.

We believe that innovation emerges not only out of innovation in the "technology," but from multidisciplinary learning technologies R&D activities. CILT activities are designed to lead to three other forms of innovation than "technology innovation" per se:

1. Fusions of technological opportunities and developments in the sciences of learning. Our multidisciplinary emphasis for each of the themes brings together experts who have made fundamental advances in the sciences of learning difficult science, mathematics, engineering, and technology topics, and innovators in the academy and industry in technology design, including component software engineering, wireless networking, web system architecture, and ubiquitous low-cost computing.



2. Community-based synergy. CILT theme teams bring together diverse disciplinary researchers who share their ongoing work, and debate what are key findings and needed next steps for the field as a whole. The theme team process may help the field develop innovations in providing an ongoing forum for sustained thinking and reflection about the work of the field as a whole and not only individual efforts.



3. Refinement of projects by critical friends. We hope that CILT partnership projects will become more innovative as a result of "critical friends'" reviews of research projects at theme team workshops and afterwards. This approach contrasts with the standard single research project advisory committee because it should afford motivation to build and maintain a community of mutual support and accountability to higher standards.

Some of our favorite books on innovation are:

Kanter, R. M., Kao, K., & Wiersema, F. (Eds.) (1997). Innovation: Breakthrough thinking at 3M, DuPont, GE, Pfizer, and Rubbermaid. New York: HarperBusiness.

Drucker, P. F. (1985). Innovation and entrepreneurship: Practice and principles. New York: Harper & Row.

Schwartz, P. (1996). The art of the long view: Paths to strategic insight for yourself and your company. New York: Doubleday. (Schwartz pioneered "scenario-based" planning at SRI International in the 1970's and 1980's and is President of the Global Business Network.)

More concretely for computing, an exceptional report summary from the National Academy of Sciences report entitled "Funding a revolution: Government support for computing research" is available as:

Hughes, T. P., & Sheehan, J. R. (1999, February). What has influenced computing innovation? IEEE Computer, pp. 33-43.