Educational Technology at Digitel 2010

Tiltfactor reps are in Taiwan listening to a panel at The 3rd IEEE International Conference on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning, Digitel 2010 conference, where a panel discussion ensues on Research Policies on Technology Enhanced Learning. This panel is moderated by Ovid Tseng (Taiwan), with panelists: John Cherniavsky (USA), Chee-Kit Looi (Singapore), Roy Pea (USA), Chih-Wei Hue (Taiwan), and Beverly Woolf (USA).

The definition of Education by Dr. Beverly Park Woolf, University of Massachusetts Amherst was offered as “any environment in where learning happens.” This, along with other issues, were debated by the audience. Presentations by Hue and Looi emphasized interesting questions about cultural identity and education. There was a buzz in this audience as education policies from Taiwan, Singapore, and the US were presented. Further discussed by US participants was the recent National Educational Technology Plan (NETP) has offered some troubling facts about U.S. Education: “Twenty-four percent of young people in the United States drop out of high school (OECD, 2007). That number jumps to almost 50% of Latino and African American students (Orfield, Losen, Wald, & Swanson, 2004).” and “Today, just 39% of young people earn a two-year or four-year college degree (National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2008). Enrollment rates are unequal: 69% of qualified White high school graduates enter four-year colleges compared with just 58% of comparable Latino graduates and 56% of African American graduates (National Center for Education Statistics, 2007).”

We were pleasantly surprised to hear a program officer from the National Science Foundation discuss new the NSF and other national support for research in home schooling efficacy.

Tiltfactor’s Director, Mary Flanagan, is speaking tomorrow on Insights in Games and Learning, incorporating results from a collaboration with the Games and Learning Institute.