Andries van Dam, Sascha Becker, and Rosemary Michelle Simpson three noted educators, offer a stimulating summary and suggestions for uses of advanced technologies in schools and other educational settings.
There have been some notable successes of innovative software … but we continue to teach—and students continue to learn—in ways that are virtually unchanged since the invention of the blackboard …
So, what is the appropriate role for IT in education, in the broadest sense?
… we must develop software that accommodates many different human-computer interactions, from single-user to massively collaborative multi-user. Genres must be equally diverse, from cognitive tutors such as CMU’s Pump Algebra Tutor, or Pump Algebra Tutor (PAT), to simulation- and rule-based interactive models (microworlds), massive multiplayer games, and robots constructed and programmed to carry out specified tasks.
Software developers and grant application writers will find this summary helpful in building a case for funding.