FORUM

Issues in Science and Technology, Fall 2005

During the next decade, three complementary interfaces to information technology will shape how people learn.

* The familiar "world-to-the-desktop" interface, providing access to distant experts and archives, enabling collaborations, mentoring relationships, and virtual communities of practice. This interface is evolving through initiatives such as Internet2.

* "Alice-in-Wonderland" multiuser virtual environment (MUVE) interfaces, in which participants' avatars interact with computer-based agents and digital artifacts in virtual contexts. The initial stages of studies on shared virtual environments are characterized by advances in Internet games and work in virtual reality.

Interfaces for "ubiquitous computing," in which mobile wireless devices infuse virtual resources as we move through the real world. The early stages of "augmented reality" interfaces are characterized by research on the role of "smart objects" and "intelligent contexts" in learning and doing.

The growing prevalence of interfaces with virtual environments and ubiquitous computing is beginning to foster neomillennial learning styles. These include (1) fluency in multiple media, valuing each for the types of communication, activities, experiences, and expressions it empowers; (2) learning based on collectively seeking, sieving, and synthesizing experiences; (3) active learning based on experience (real and simulated) that includes frequent opportunities for reflection by communities of practice; and (4) expression through nonlinear associational webs of representations rather than linear "stories" (such as authoring a simulation and a Web page to express understanding, rather than a paper).

All these shifts in learning styles have a variety of implications for instructional design, using media that engage students' interests and build on strengths from their leisure activities outside of classrooms.

CHRIS DEDE

Wirth Professor of Learning Technologies

Harvard University Graduate School of Education

Cambridge, MA 02138

Chris_Dede@harvard.edu

HENRY KELLY'S ARTICLE PROVIDES readers with a timely and comprehensive look at what is needed to address glaring shortfalls in the U.S. education system. The article underscores the lack of investment in R&D on new educational techniques that would use the upto-date technology currently available. By conveying how increased investment in educational R&D can improve teaching and learning, Kelly is making an excellent case for the adoption of the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust (DO IT) legislation.

Although the article notes the low rankings of U.S. students as compared to international students in recent studies, not enough emphasis is placed on the fact that our students are performing alarmingly poorly in the fields of math and science. A study conducted in 2004 found that U.S. students ranked 24th in math literacy and 26th in problem-solving among 41 participating nations and concluded that U.S. students "did not measure up to the international average in mathematics literacy and problem-solving skills" (Program for International Student Assessment at www.pisa.oecd.org). Additionally, U.S. students are becoming less interested in math and science. There has been a steady decrease in bachelor degrees earned in mathematics and engineering in U.S. universities during the past decade.