Informational Videos
O. Roger Anderson
Science Education
Program Video
Mathematics Education
Charles Kinzer
CCTE
For more videos about the programs, visit the program sites."
Website: http://www.tc.columbia.edu/ctsc
The Center for Technology and School Change helps schools integrate technology into their curricula and daily lives, by planning with schools for the use of technology, educating teachers how to use it, planning curriculum projects that include technology, helping teachers to implement projects, and assessing the effect of technology on schools. The Center is based on the idea that technology will have a large impact on the structure of schooling, as it has in the past, and that schools must plan for the kinds of change they want it to have. We believe that technology should be integrated with curriculum in ways that emphasize active student learning, collaboration, interdisciplinary learning and problem-solving in areas that are meaningful to schools, and conducts site-based research.
Website: http://www.tc.edu/centers/gamesresearchlab/
Through an understanding of play, the Games Research Lab seeks to gain knowledge of human cognition, collaboration, media effects, modern culture, creativity, improvisation and other factors within games that have implications for education. Faculty and students involved with the Games Research Lab have broad-ranging interests, and the lab has resources allowing the study of video games, traditional board and card games, role-playing games, games for teaching and learning, "serious" games, media literacy, the psychology of games, and related topics.Website: http://www.tc.edu/academic/mst/ccte/iDesign
As innovators in the fields of both education and technology, students in CCTE adopt the role of reflective practitioner in their research. As such, the body of research available to and being developed by students in Computing, Communications and Educational Technology is often a hybrid between emprical projects and more traditional forms of published knowledge.
When developing projects, students generally are responding to important ideas or beliefs held by colleagues implicitly in their work. They also accumulate knowledge in their design or implementation to build upon knowledge in their field. In an effort to
CCTE students and affiliates have developed a Web presentation of their own intelligent, innovative, and thought-provoking projects.
Website: http://www.ilt.columbia.edu
The Institute for Learning Technologies (ILT), uses digital communications technologies to advance innovation in education and society. Rapid change in information technology is reconfiguring social, cultural and intellectual possibilities. University research, K-12 and post-secondary education, the arts, community and political activities, and social exchange are all in transition. ILT is a major element of Columbia University's effort to shape these transitions-transitions that are central to the University's mission and practice.Website: http://www.tc.edu/centers/ijhmt/
Website: http://www.tc.edu/centers/life
Website: http://www.tc.edu/centers/urbanscience/
MissionAll urban students ought to have equitable and just opportunities to develop the kinds of literacies (knowledges, skills, ways of knowing, and discursive practices) necessary to make informed decisions about the science, mathematics, and technology related matters that they encounter in their daily lives.
The Center will pursue four areas of research and development and the interconnections among them.
Goals
Developing deep understandings of empowering practices in K-12 SMT education, especially for students from linguistic and racial/ethnic minority backgrounds and students living in poverty.
This research and development is needed to answer key questions such as, How might our current understandings of best practice be challenged by what we know about the lived experiences of urban learners? What kinds of curricular and pedagogies strategies best serve urban learners? How can we improve the school-based achievement of all students in science? The Center use two lines of strategies for developing these key understandings: research on teaching and learning in school-based settings, and research on youth and family lives in school and community-based settings.
Preservice teacher education and the preparation and on-going professional development of SMT teachers in urban school systems.
How can we better prepare our preservice teachers to productively confront the needs of urban students and to navigate the complex urban school system? How can scientists and educators better work together to prepare outstanding K-12 SMT teachers? How might preservice and inservice teacher educators work together more closely such that teacher professional growth and development over time is enhanced?
Understanding and actualizing relationships between urban communities, schools, and universities.
Urban communities are diverse and deal with multiple and complex challenges. With the current reform initiative's thrust of science for all, building links between communities and schools is of particular importance in terms of parental involvement, understanding and preparing families to better respond to the growing demands of an increasingly scientific and technological society (especially when such knowledge and resources are often distributed in inequitable ways).
Equity and policy.
Driving all of our efforts in urban science education should be a commitment to provide a just and equitable education for all students. The equity issues surrounding science education in urban settings are urgent and varied. Urban schools that serve poor populations are understaffed, have few certified math and science teachers and offer few math and science resources. Urban students take longer to graduate, generally score lower on high stakes exams, and drop out of schools at high rates. The solutions to the challenges are not to implement even more high stakes exams and hold students accountable for the failings of society as many cities and states have attempted to do. Rather the solutions reside in documenting, critically analyzing, and acting upon-indeed, changing-the discriminatory practices supported by urban schooling and society.