CTT > Center for Teaching & Technology

Projects

The Center for Teaching and Technology staff is affiliated with the following projects:

American Educational Research Journal (AERJ): has, as its purpose, to publish original empirical and theoretical studies and analyses in education. The editors seek to publish articles from a wide variety of academic disciplines and substantive fields. They are looking for contributions that are significant to the understanding and/or improvement of educational processes and outcomes.

COATT: awards the Michigan Certificate for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching with Technology (MCOATT) to recognize educators who have achieved a high standard of performance in integrating technology into the classroom. Michigan State was one of the original founders of the COATT consortium. Contact Dr. Yong Zhao for more information.

edtech.connect: default.asp is an outreach service of the College of Education at Michigan State University. Providing research based consulting and services, <edtech.connect> is active in many areas of technology integration in education. Contact Cindy Kendal for more information.

Educational Evaluation and Policy Anallysis (EEPA): publishes scholarly articles concerned with important issues in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of education policy. EEPA is open to all of the diverse methodologies and theoretical orientations represented in AERA published work. We welcome submissions focused on international and comparative policy issues in education as well as domestic issues. Manuscripts should be written in a way that appeals to the broad and diverse interests of the EEPA readership, who work in a variety of institutional settings.

E-Language Learning System (ELLS): proposes a joint international partnership to develop and apply modern web-based language instruction technology to teach English and Chinese as second languages in a first phase, followed by Spanish and other languages. New web-based technologies offer unprecedented opportunities to make high quality language instruction widely accessible at low cost to millions of children who do not now have access to such instruction. This paper describes current thinking about key project purposes, implementation features, and roles and responsibilities of different participating economies. These ideas are set out to advance joint discussions on project planning and to reach a mutually beneficial project design.

Kids Learning in Computer Klubhouses (KLICK): a partnership between Michigan State University and 20 Michigan middle schools, gives children experience with computers and technology through after-school Klubhouses. Each school has its own unique Klubhouse which runs a variety of programs. Projects that students have worked on include; 3D animation, video productions, web page building, and claymation. KLICK! was founded and is directed by Dr. Yong Zhao and is currently coordinated by Blaine Morrow.

Michigan Rural Systemic Initiative (MiRSI): supports the state and national educational reform agendas to improve student learning and achievement while developing an educated workforce who is mathematically, scientifically, and technologically literate and able to meet the on-going challenges of the twenty-first Century. MiRSI is funded by the National Science Foundation.

The Michigan Technology Implementation Project (MTIP): provides statewide leadership for improving school technology implementation and integration through the coordinated efforts and expertise of many Michigan educational organizations. Dr. Yong Zhao directs it's center for information development.

Stepping Stones: proposes to evaluate the efficacy of a technology-rich after school program known as Kids Learning in Computer Clubhouses (KLICK). KLICK emphasizes a community spirit in which middle school youth (grades 6-8) are free to learn various computer or digital technologies, engage in the production of meaningful 'works', and collaborate with others in the use of technologies to construct artifacts and multimedia projects. Of specific interest in the project is the nature of learning in the KLICK clubhouses by students with special needs, and the effects of their participation on their academic and social identities. Thus, the focus is on the nature of students' participation, identity formation, and learning in an after-school clubhouse environment.

Technology Enhanced Learning Environment-Web (TELE-Web): is a curricular approach to support the literacy performance of emergent readers and writers, including students with mild disabilities, that can be distributed to other teachers. Through this approach, students can generate solutions to problems that they identify as they address the larger problem identified in the assignment. Students use the TELE software to create and read texts that are in a collective project database on the Internet. TELE students can search the database for information, organize notes into informational structures, publish their notes, comment on other students' notes, and publish reports and stories. Dr. Carrol Sue Englert and Dr. Yong Zhao have been co-directing this project.

Prepairing Tomorrow's Teachers to use Technology (PT3): works to develop a design community--an environment where students, teachers, educational technology experts and content area experts work together to examine the ways that technology can support teaching. To this end, the MSU chapter of PT3 has employed the use of four design teams, each of whom are researching a specific problem. Drs Yong Zhao and Punya Mishra are co-directors of this project.

Distance/Online Education & Research: This is a product of the distance/online education research and evaluation program of The Center for Teaching and Technology (CTT) at the College of Education, Michigan State University. The first phase of this initiative was a large comprehensive literature review of distance/online education to identify factors that affect the effectiveness of distance/online education. This searchable data-base contains over 400 articles that have been selected out of over 8000 publications. These studies are considered empirical studies. Each study was coded by the research group using an analytical framework, which is included in this database. An accompanying instrument data-base is also available.