Highlights from NCER (Archive)

Innovation in Education Technology
Despite advances in education technology, many argue that the full potential of electronic media for educational purposes has yet to be reached. Typical products are not ones that students would naturally gravitate to outside of school — lacking high quality graphics and sounds, sophisticated user interface, a reward structure that cultivates a strong sense of motivation, and engaging activities that maintain the user's attention.

The Institute has established two new research and development centers on instructional technology to create innovative education technology that utilizes rich multimedia gaming environments as a context for learning academic content. The Center for Advanced Technology in Schools will focus on improving mathematics education and the Center on Instructional Technology on science learning. Both are applying current strengths of the technology-driven gaming environment to create products that hold the promise of engaging and supporting the achievement of underperforming middle and high school students.

The Center for Advanced Technology in Schools
The Center for Advanced Technology in Schools is developing a gaming environment to promote the mastery of pre-algebra and algebra concepts. The research team will combine principles in cognitive psychology (e.g., learning, metacognition, problem solving), assessment, and "serious games," to design an engaging and instructive video game to teach important math concepts.

Center for Children and Technology
The Center for Children and Technology is designing a science and literacy intervention that will be delivered on the Nintendo Dual-Screen (DS) portable gaming environment. The system includes multi-player communication capability and utilizes gaming techniques (such as a story framework, competition among players) that are designed to increase the engagement and persistence of students with the academic content.