Research and Partnerships

Since 1992, the Learning Technology Center, under the direction of Dr. Paul E. Resta, has received a number of grants to explore the use of technology to improve education and learning. The Learning Technology Center received a grant in 2005 from the National Endowment for the Humanities and worked with the Presidential Libraries to develop a Web-based “Presidential Timeline” that provides the public access to digitized presidential artifacts. Other projects, such as the Technology Leadership Academy and Project INSITE, promoted the integration of technology into teacher education or focused on computer-supported collaborative learning and the use of telecommunications and multimedia to enhance learning opportunities in rural areas.

The LTC has also been involved in a number of technology initiatives and activities with local and state agencies and has helped plan and present major conferences on technology in education. In 2009, the LTC partnered with the Promethean Foundation to host the invitational summit “Redefining Teacher Education for Digital Age Learners” that brought together policymakers in education to make recommendations on improving teacher education to meet the challenges of the future. In 2010, the report of the summit was released and presented to Congress.

As a leader in the implementation of technology in education, the LTC was charged with writing the College’s first Technology Vision Plan in 1992. In recent years, the COE Vision Plan Committee, which includes LTC Director Paul Resta and several LTC staff, is charged with developing the plan. The Technology Vision Plan has defined and prioritized the technology goals of the College and has been instrumental in obtaining the funding to achieve those goals.