No laptop left behind

A story in today's New York Times examines the debate over whether a project to distribute dirt-cheap laptops in the developing world will revolutionize education in those nations. One of the questions the Times examines is whether technology can erase the numerous other deficits faced by educational systems in the Third World, including poorly trained teachers and a lack of other curricular materials.

One problem may be that we don't know as much as we should about the impact that technology has on learning in general, a situation that Carnegie Mellon researchers are working hard to address. Recently, researchers in the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and the Office of Technology for Education completed a study of laptop use by sophomores in the School of Design. The results were decidedly mixed, and you can read about them here or download a copy of the full report here.

Several Carnegie Mellon departments are engaged in K-12 education research as well. A good one-stop shop for all our education research programs can be found at the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center, a federally funded research center dedicated to bringing scientific rigor and real-world applicability to education research.

Jonathan Potts