Research Center Targets Today's Learners
CET Thu Jun 23 2004
What if your child asked you—no, begged you—for more science and mathematics in his or her life? You’d probably be floored, but a new focus at the Center for Educational Technologies® at Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling, WV, might make such a scenario possible.
The center is aggressively expanding its market presence by transforming into a university-industry research center. This concept connects two players with different focuses but similar interests. Universities do research. Industries need research. With less government financial support available each year for universities and with private sector firms cutting back on their own research and development, the partnership makes sense. The university research then becomes market-driven, focused by the industry partner. The end result is marketable products that address formal and informal learning for K-12 students thanks to the expertise that a place like the Center for Educational Technologies offers.
And that’s where a child more interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—the so-called STEM careers—enters. Since its founding in 1990, the Center for Educational Technologies has specialized in cutting-edge learning research and curriculum supplements that help students learn more and teachers teach better. As a university-industry research center, the Center for Educational Technologies can target its educational expertise on the kinds of skills industry demands today. And those skills are science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
“Our goal is to help kids once again be passionate about math and science,” said Greg Meier, who recently became chief executive officer of the center. “We want them to pursue the STEM careers with passion.”
Already the longtime home of the NASA-sponsored Classroom of the Future program, the center is well positioned to meet the needs of the new workforce. Meier said the Center for Educational Technologies’ mission is to drive the convergence of science and learning.
The center’s projects will focus on three main areas:
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Advanced educational gaming.
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Electronic missions, that is, role-playing simulations in which learners handle unstructured, real-world problems and come up with solutions.
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Career development, which involves getting learners to explore the skills the future workforce requires.
The research center model also relies heavily on the knowledge resources of Wheeling Jesuit University. Faculty and students, both undergraduate and graduate, lend their expertise with the research center. In return, they further refine their knowledge as well as better align themselves with the needs of industry and business.
A further benefit of the research center approach is the possibility of spinoff enterprises. “We expect that some of our research projects will eventually create entities of their own,” Meier said. For example, a project team might develop an electronic mission to meet the needs of a certain industry. That team can spin off its product and its learning sciences expertise into its own business, incubated through the business accelerator program at the National Technology Transfer Center, also located on the Wheeling Jesuit University campus.
Meier added that biotechnology and nanotechnology are a couple of in-demand disciplines that will continue to grow. By involving young learners now in the sciences through the research and products the center develops, the research center will help to fulfill that demand.
“We’re truly here to build the scientists of tomorrow,” Meier said.
To make that vision work, Meier said the Center for Educational Technologies must be aware of what industry needs, be timely with its research, and strengthen its ties to the scientific community through its work with NASA, the National Science Foundation, and other leaders.
Many industry partners are already on board, including Lockheed Martin, Accenture, Manpower, according to James Holub, assistant to the president for sponsored programs at the university. Industry partners will fall mainly in the telecommunications, electronic gaming (not casinos, but computer games), and professional services. Other partners might be publishing houses, federal agencies such as the Homeland Security Department and the National Institutes of Health.
“We want to help our kids become the greatest scientists on earth!”
Meier said.
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