Technology Enhanced Learning and Research Projects
IDEAL (Integrated Data to Enhance Arizona's Learning)
ASU Information Technology, in partnership with the Arizona Department of Education, is establishing an integrated learning environment—a single point of entry to instructional resources and services for all Arizona K12 teachers and students. With an initial investment from ADE of five million dollars, Phase I of IDEAL establishes, over a two year period, a much needed infrastructure for the integration of data throughout the Arizona educational system. It provides a pathway for lifelong learning—establishing a point of access for all students and teachers. The environment will facilitate transition from K12 to higher education, as well as re-entry of students to the University system for career development.
The IDEAL environment is constructed as an open-source environment (not tied to a specific commercial product or business). This aspect distinguishes the IDEAL portal from other educational portals in that it provides a resource that is not beholden to a specific product, but rather enables applications and resources to be included within the portal. A way to conceptualize this environment is to think in terms of the my.asu.edu environment—the "single sign-on" environment that we currently use to access our courses and information resources. Depending on our role within the University, we are able to access, through one userid and password, our courses if we are a student, our instructional design applications as an instructor, or our administrative resources as a staff member. Just as my.asu.edu serves as the point of entry, providing single sign-on to our courses, resources, information, and services, the IDEAL portal extends this integrated resource to the entire Arizona preK-12 community; every Arizona school student (approximately one million) and every certified teacher (approximately 58,000).
Responding to needs expressed by the Arizona Department of Education, and to the research and teaching goals and objectives of ASU's faculty and researchers, ASU UTO worked in close collaboration over the past year with ADE data administration, teacher certification, and technology support administrators to design and develop an innovative yet robust learning and communication environment.
From an institutional perspective, the implications and opportunities provided through ASU's role in this partnership are extensive. Our ability to enable the acquisition of grants and contracts, leveraging this environment, will provide researchers and educators throughout the University with an opportunity not currently available at any other University, or in any state. Direct contact with every student and teacher in the state, virtually forever, provides an opportunity for establishing and fostering an innovative and effective "bridge" to higher education. An ongoing challenge within K12 education, and a growing concern as Universities strive to meet the growing needs of an extended student population through lifelong learning, is the integration of existing data sets. Presently, Arizona educators, and University researchers, are faced with a daunting, and costly, challenge when attempting to collect school-based data. The process often requires educators to enter, the same student information into multiple systems. One system does not necessarily communicate with the other. A component of IDEAL provides the mechanism for integration of existing, and future, datasets. Under IDEAL, an administrator or a researcher may access information across the various State datasets, reducing or eliminating the need to collect redundant information. This seemingly common-sense functionality represents a significant advance in our data procedures—and provides us with the ability to leverage this capability when competing with other institutions toward research funding.
Additional Projects
All TELR projects meet the design imperatives and the ABOR pressures of social embeddedness, collaboration with on-campus and off-campus groups, and the provision of various levels of support for increasing/improving UTO infrastructure.
Distance Education for Neonatal Practitioner/Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (NNP/PNPS) in Underserved Rural Arizona
alt^I Partner: Dr. Jacqueline McGrath, College of Nursing
$1,200,000/3yr
Graduate Distance Education for Nursing Students
alt^I Partner: Dr. Evelyn Cessorotti
$600,000/2yr
Meeting Demands for 21st Century Nurse Educators
alt^I Partners: Dr. Pauline Komnenich, Dr. David Hrabe
$1,000,000+/3yr
Conexiones: Enhancing Communication Through Technology
An ambitious and innovative community-outreach program, Conexiones is helping the children of migrant workers gain a high-quality education.
alt^I Partners: ADE/Migrant Education and Sanford Cohn, College of Education
1,500,000+/10yrs
GK12:Down to Earth Science
"Down to Earth Science" is a collaborative project that brings together Arizona State University scientists, engineers, graduate and undergraduate students to enrich learning experiences for the K12 community. The main goals of this project are to improve communication and teaching-related skills for graduate and undergraduate fellows, to strengthen partnerships between ASU and the K12 community, and to provide new opportunities for K12 students and teachers to work with practicing scientists and engineers.
alt^I Partners: BL Ramakrishna, College of Liberal Art & Sciences.
1,200,000+/3yrs
ABI
The Arizona Behavioral Initiative (ABI) was developed to address the issue of safe schools by establishing a comprehensive and focused statewide effort to improve the capacity of educators, administrators and education professionals to address their specific school discipline needs and enable the development of positive teaching and learning environments.
New Media Consortium
We are pleased to announced that Applied Learning Technologies Institute has been chosen as a New Media Center by the New Media Consortium (NMC). The NMC is an international 501(c)3 not-for-profit consortium of nearly 200 leading colleges, universities, museums, corporations, and other learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies.
Microcomputers in Education Conference
MEC began 25 years ago with a simple mission: To provide a forum for educators to learn, discuss and exchange ideas about applications for new technologies in the classroom. Today, MEC is a premier conference of its kind in the Southwest. In 2005, the conference proudly celebrated its silver anniversary.