Recognizing the need for more research and development in educational technology, the Concord Consortium has joined with three other leading research and development groups to launch the Center for Innovation in Learning Technologies (CILT). The project is a joint activity of the University of California at Berkeley, SRI International, and Vanderbilt University, whose web site has information about the collaboration.

Already CILT has identified five areas that have great promise for education, but which need substantial research and development before their promise can be substantiated and supported. Each area has a research plan in place and CILT is currently recruiting post-doctoral fellows who can spearhead innovative projects in these five theme areas, which have potential for important advances in education across the K-14 spectrum.

Research will emphasize the importance of carefully designed activities that engage the learner in acquiring a combination of skills, concepts, and mental models through active engagement in guided inquiry, exploration, challenges, reflection, and communication. Technology can support these learning strategies by providing access to new collaborators, mentors, and teachers; enhancing the range of inquiry with more powerful tools; helping students visualize and model complex situations; and supporting alternative, authentic methods of evaluating student performance.

Starting with this perspective on educational and technological needs, the CILT participants searched for breakthrough opportunities where a national collaborative structure could make major contributions. To provide substance to our collaboration, we needed to identify opportunities close enough to reality that we could create prototype technologies that can be tested by our colleagues in a variety of real classrooms and other learning contexts. At the same time, the technology must not be transitory; we need to rely on the technology's wide availability and continual improvement over the next decade.

Some of the most respected names in educational technology research and development have become part of CILT. Besides the four founding institutions, BBN, Educational Development Center, The Center for Children in Technology, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UICU), Georgia Institute of Technology, the MIT Media Lab, Northwestern University, NCSA, TERC, the University of Michigan, and Xerox PARC have all signed on.

After much discussion the following areas were selected for investigation:

Enabling Tools for Electronic Learning Communities. Developing and testing software that can support collaborative learning on the 'Net. Directors: Roy Pea, SRI International, and Jeremy Roschelle, University of California at Berkeley.

Visualization and Modeling. Educational use of various kinds of computer-based models and representations to help learners understand complex, interacting systems. Directors: Marcia C. Linn, University of California at Berkeley, and Nancy Songer, University of Michigan.

Learning with Ubiquitous Computers. Educational uses of inexpensive computers and interfaces and the impact of every student having ready access to these tools. Directors: Earl Craighill, SRI International, Bob Brodersen, University of California at Berkeley, andRobert Tinker, the Concord Consortium.

Technology and Assessment Models. Issues of assessment of technology-supported education as well as the use of network technologies to support assessment. Directors: Barbara Means, SRI International, and John Bransford, Vanderbilt University.

CILT is poised to undertake critical, interdisciplinary R&D and to be the focus of increased investment in these vital areas. We expect core funding from the National Science Foundation for our first five years and have already had a very encouraging response from leaders of technology industries who could greatly increase the scope of our work. Even with this funding, we cannot support large-scale research projects that we think are necessary. However, CILT provides the only institutional base that could support such projects, should the required level of needed funding become available. And it is urgent that it does.

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