Our research focuses on developing and testing technology-facilitated frameworks for student-centered learning environments, especially those that are web-based and open-ended in nature. The lab’s research focuses on three core impact areas related to technology in teaching and learning: 1) teacher education and school reform, 2) emerging learning environments, and 3) evaluation and assessment.

Technology's role in education needs to become transformative in nature. We need a mass of researchers whose perspectives complement, and occasionally contradict one another, to discover new approaches that re-define the nature of teaching and learning. And, we must be especially sensitive to the everyday, practical constraints that influence transformation. We cannot simply add layers of cost and effort to existing approaches; we need to exploit technology's potential to define new ways to view what education is, how it occurs, where it occurs, and how it is managed. My research, and the collective efforts of Learning and Performance Support Laboratory researchers, attempts to guide and to some extent chart this transformation, that is, to study approaches wherein schools, students, and teachers re-invent education through innovative uses of technology.

The Learning and Performance Support Laboratory studies the potential of a range of technologies at the intersection of contemporary psychological, pedagogical and information technology research and theory. Several funded initiatives are underway, focusing on learning in elementary school through university students, such as Exploring Mathematics and CoSTAR. In addition, several initiatives focusing on technology in teacher professional development and school reform, including Does it Work, E-TEACH and several partnerships with Georgia schools.  In our assessment initiatives, we developed and utilize Video Analysis Tools to capture, code and analyze actual performance in areas as diverse as teacher preparation, classroom teaching practices, and student interactions during scientific inquiry.

We are presently pursuing two new initiatives:

1) Refining our innovative technology designed to capture, in real time, temporally-linked “live” events that subsequently can be coded, shared and analyzed
2) Developing research methodologies that are consistent with federal reporting requirements while addressing the standards of national science and math organizations

Georgia offers the opportunity to build a deep and substantial program of research related to the shifting roles of technology in teaching and learning. Georgia develop a reputation for investing in technology infrastructure and for raising the performance standards of its schools, teachers, and students. I was impressed by the thoughtfulness and insight reflected in Georgia's economic development plan and the participation by the business, university, K-12 schools and government communities. I was especially impressed by the recognition that education and quality of life were essential to the economic future of the state, and the commitment to attract both scholars and industries in support of its initiative. Many states have recognized these simple truths, but few have planned or acted accordingly.