SRI International to Launch Center for Innovative Research in Cyberlearning in Cooperation with the National Science Foundation

MENLO PARK, Calif., April 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- SRI International has signed a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to launch and manage a new Center for Innovative Research in Cyberlearning (CIRCL). SRI will manage CIRCL, which will be located at SRI's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, in collaboration with Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) and NORC at the University of Chicago.

"This is a timely, important opportunity to connect high-quality research with the rapidly growing market for digital learning, an area of intense need and investment in Silicon Valley and throughout the country," said Jeremy Roschelle, Ph.D., director of CIRCL and co-director of SRI's Center for Technology in Learning. "We see tremendous opportunities to accelerate progress in cyberlearning by bringing together the perspectives and insights needed to make a difference in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning."

CIRCL will maximize the potential of NSF-funded projects in cyberlearning, an emerging field that integrates technology and learning sciences insights to improve education. Meetings and online working groups for leaders of NSF-funded research and innovation projects will be organized to identify synergies among different approaches. A CIRCL website, to be launched in June 2013, will support online learning and collaboration among cyberlearning researchers.

CIRCL will also provide NSF program officers with recommendations about promising new directions for research and investment in cyberlearning.

Janet Kolodner, Ph.D., leader of NSF's new Cyberlearning: Transforming Education program, emphasized the importance of multidisciplinary teams that will collaborate on CIRCL projects. "We need to integrate what computer scientists, scientists and mathematicians, learning researchers, and educational leaders know in order to make significant and lasting improvements to learning."

In its first year, CIRCL expects to build upon last year's successful CyberLearning Summit, which was organized by SRI and held at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. The CyberLearning Summit featured short talks on the big ideas behind some of today's most compelling innovations in learning (videos: http://cyberlearning.sri.com).

CIRCL will host its first meeting of researchers and key stakeholders in June 2013 in Washington D.C., which will be followed by a meeting in Silicon Valley in the fall.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. IIS-1233722. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

About SRI International
Innovations from SRI International have created new industries, billions of dollars of marketplace value, and lasting benefits to society—touching our lives every day. SRI, a nonprofit research and development institute based in Silicon Valley, brings its innovations to the marketplace through technology licensing, new products, and spin-off ventures. Government and business clients come to SRI for pioneering R&D and solutions in computing and communications, chemistry and materials, education, energy, health and pharmaceuticals, national defense, robotics, sensing, and more.  

SOURCE SRI International

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