Introducing the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center
Speaker
Ken Koedinger
Associate Professor, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
When
-
Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305 (Michael Mauldin Auditorium)
Description
The new Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC) will address the widely recognized problem that education research has not yet produced research results that unquestionably work to produce robust student learning. The PSLC officially starts on October 1, 2004 with initial funding of $25 million for five years and a possible renewal for five more. It is a multi-disciplinary collaboration among researchers from ten different departments at Carnegie Mellon, University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Learning and in partnership with Pittsburgh-area schools.
Like a super computing center or a research hospital, the PSLC will provide researchers with technological and social resources to facilitate experimentation that is not feasible today. The PSLC’s LearnLab will support a new paradigm for learning research, called “in vivo learning experimentation”, designed to produce medical-quality educational research results that survive rigorous experimentation in real classroom settings. This research will focus on what we call “robust learning”, that is, learning that is retained over long durations, transfers to novel situations, and accelerates future learning.
The LearnLab combines classroom testbeds, advanced technology, and a vast, detailed database of learner interactions. The LearnLab testbed will include seven highly instrumented courses enhanced with intelligent tutoring systems: Algebra, Geometry, Physics, Chemistry, French, Chinese, and English as a second language. Researchers from around the world will perform technology-enhanced studies in these courses, perform data mining on logs of learner interactions, and develop computational models of robust learning. They will investigate the role of a wide variety of approaches to achieving robust learning including co-training with multiple strategies, supporting meta-cognition, human and computer dialogs, peer collaboration, feedback and knowledge refinement, fluency development, authentic and isolated practice.
Speaker's Bio
My background includes a BS in Mathematics, a MS in Computer Science, a PhD in Cognitive Psychology, and experience teaching in an urban high school. This multi-disciplinary preparation has been critical to my research goal of creating educational technologies that dramatically increase student achievement. Toward this goal, I create “cognitive models”, computer simulations of student thinking and learning, that are used to guide the design of educational materials, practices and technologies. These cognitive models provide the basis for an approach to educational technology called “Cognitive Tutors” in which we create rich problem solving environments for students to work in and provide just-in-time learning assistance much like a good human tutor does. I have developed Cognitive Tutors for mathematics and science and have tested them in the laboratory and the classroom. In a whole-year classroom study with our Algebra Cognitive Tutor, I have shown that students in our experimental classrooms outperformed students in control classes by 50-100% on targeted real world problem solving skills and by 10–25% on standardized tests. My research has contributed new principles and techniques for the design of educational software and has produced basic cognitive science research results on the nature of mathematical thinking and learning. I have authored 67 peer-reviewed publications, 2 textbooks, 6 book chapters, and 41 other papers and have been a Project Investigator on 15 major grants. I currently codirect the Pittsburgh Advanced Cognitive Tutor Center and am managing teams of cognitive scientists, programmers, and teachers to create integrated learning solutions that include text materials, teacher training and Cognitive Tutors. I am a co-founder of Carnegie Learning Inc., a company marketing these technology-enhanced learning solutions to schools and colleges across the country.
Speaker's Website
http://pact.cs.cmu.edu/koedinger.html