Hoping to  showcase how teachers should use technology in their classrooms definitively, the Indiana University's education school has received $3.1 million in federal funding. Explains an article in the Indianapolis star, "Teachers who wondered whether iPods and laptops are worth it, school districts that debated over how to connect their computers and parents who pondered their children's Internet use should all get answers." The deadline for the study is April, 2009.

IU will work with the Granato Group, a Virginia-based information technology firm, to conduct the research. No national study has ever been undertaken to figure out how teachers use technology in lessons and how students learn from that technology, said Jonathan Plucker, director of the center. Added Plucker, "There have been some larger efforts, but it's mostly been a study here, a study there. It's a critical question that has never been answered."

"Having this particular project puts IU in the driver's seat for thinking about, evaluating and pushing ahead with educational technology," said Curt bonk, a professor of educational technology at IU. "There's just thousands of different tools and aids for learning that didn't exist a few years back." Bonk, who uses collaborative tools and other Internet-based techniques in his college classes, expects the report to detail what approaches to technology work best in the classroom -- including some that might be a major deviation from tradition.

Source: The Indianapolis Star, IU to study technology in schools