History of CTTL

Purpose

In 1995, Rice University established the Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning (CTTL) to address the ways in which information technology can expand and enrich education on the Rice campus as well as in other settings. The mission of CTTL is threefold:

•       envision the "system after next"
•       engage faculty, students, and community in testing models of the
        "system after next"
•       educate others about the results of research and experimentation

The "system after next" refers to a way of looking at technology, people, and processes in anticipation of the future. The results can be used to plan from the future back to the present. Through a constant cycle of imagining, using, and evaluating, collaborators will discover innovative applications of technology, which enhance educational outcomes.

Technology

CTTL has developed a sophisticated technology infrastructure funded with grants from the Texas Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund. Components include six media capture facilities, teleconferencing facilities, a RAID array for digital media storage fronted by streaming servers for media delivery, and a scalable collaborative environment for hosting networked communities. A peering site called the EduPop connects individuals to the area educational institutions, providing high speed, low latency access broadband instructional resources. These resources will continue to serve as the technology centerpiece of CTTL.

Research Areas

CTTL is currently engaged in four primary areas of research:

•      Science/Medicine/Web-based learning – Problem-based learning and the World Wide Web environment have been combined to create science materials with high interest and demonstrated learning impact for middle school students. With previous funding, CTTL has created and field-tested several innovative web adventure series, titled “THE RECONSTRUCTORS”; and “MedMyst”, targeted for middle school students.   We believe that this successful approach can be expanded to cover other components of the prescribed middle school curriculum while incorporating the National Science Standards (National Research Council, 1996) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science Benchmarks for Science Literacy (AAAS, 1993).  CTTL hopes to expand this concept to additional content for web adventures.  Research on the efficacy of learning in the gaming environment will also continue.
  
•      Integration of multimedia technologies into the educational setting – explorations of the use of high speed internet connectivity, digital video, teleconferencing, and streaming media to enhance teaching and learning.  Building upon recently developed technology infrastructure, CTTL plans to collaborate with educators who will use the infrastructure to create new approaches to teaching and learning.  Key areas of concern include – growth of Rice’s digital multimedia collections, management of and access to these collections, user experience when accessing digital resources, barriers to usability of resources, and new approaches to integrating resources.
  
•      Electronic Communities – forming, nurturing, and understanding the role of electronic communities in professional development.  For the past four years, CTTL has hosted the Electronic Community of Teachers, gaining insight into why teachers participate in such a community, what they find useful, and when they use it.  We have yet to understand the complexity of roles within the community, what interventions could increase participation, and how a model of this community could be applied to other professions.
  
•      Participation of under-represented groups in information technology – From the beginning, CTTL has been concerned with the participation of under-represented groups.  Early work included exploration of gender differences in computer use, resulting in a study titled “Girls' Preferences in Software Design: Insights from a Focus Group”.  Another effort involved design and deployment of electronic learning communities in predominantly Hispanic schools as a means of bridging the digital divide.  Currently, CTTL is involved in research into the factors affecting Latino participation in the information technology economy.  As CTTL moves forward, this will continue to be a research interest, particularly in K-12 education, where technology has the potential to both bridge gender and digital divides and attract underrepresented groups to the technology professions.

Affiliations

CTTL reports directly to the Provost of Rice University and is a Center in the Computer and Information Technology Institute.  CTTL works closely with the several organizations within the University, including the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, Educational Technology and Networking Infrastructure Division of the Information Technology Department, and the University-wide Digital Library Initiative. External collaborators include Houston Independent School District, Spring Branch School District, Aldine Independent School District, The University of Texas Health Science Center, Texas A & M University Health Science Center Houston, Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Houston, and the University of St. Thomas.