The Role of Technology in Learning in the 21st Century
05-438 (undergraduate) or 05-838 (graduate)
Offered in Spring 2012
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:00 - 1:20 p.m.
Gates Center 4301

Instructor: Matthew Kam, Human Computer Interaction Institute
Units: 12

Computing is increasingly harnessed to address pressing educational challenges of the 21st century: under-performing inner-city schools, integrating immigrants into the school system, irregular school attendance in rural developing regions, and women empowerment in the developing world. For educational technology solutions to be effective, however, their designs will in turn have to be informed by theories and prior research on how people learn. In this course, we will cover theory and practical applications of the Learning Sciences, Educational Technology and Human-Computer Interaction. These concepts will be framed around the above authentic problems, so as to help students fully appreciate the real-world relevance of the major theories behind how people learn. 

This course is open to all undergrads and grad students, with technical or non-technical backgrounds. It aims to prepare students to become leaders who can effectively spearhead innovations on classroom, workplace and/or lifelong learning in their future careers. By the end of the course, students will (i) have acquired a broad overview of the major learning theories, (ii) learn how to apply these theories to design and evaluate systems that target pressing educational challenges in today's world, and (iii) be sufficiently informed about how state-of-the-art educational technologies are impacting learning in the 21st century.

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