Carnegie Mellon University has launched the Simon Initiative, a program that will focus on technology and its impact on learning, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
The initiative, named after late CMU faculty member and nobel laureate Herbert Simon, will seek to harness the university's vast technology-enhanced "educational ecosystem" to further enhance student's learning.
"Rapid developments in technology offer the potential to improve education and learning outcomes through new ways of strengthening CMU's unique role in research, innovation and global engagement," university president Subra Suresh said in an email to the campus community. "The Simon initiative and its different components aim to tap into this opportunity to benefit not only the CMU community, but also learners everywhere."
The goal of the initiative is to share data globally, help teachers teach, and to improve the campus-based learning experience
As part of the initiative, the university will provide open access to "the world's largest bank of educational technology data," which will provide detailed data about how people learn and how effective learning software can be designed and deployed, according to a press release.
CMU researchers have been studying student's interaction with learning software to understand how students learn for decades, that data will now be shared more broadly. Additionally, CMU will be providing seed funding to support the work of the Simon Initiative on campus.
"The Simon Initiative arrive at a critical time for educators and students alike," Suresh said in a statement. "The world is experiencing an educational revolution, but there has not been sufficient effort to date to address the fundamental question: are students using these technology platforms really learning successfully? Carnegie Mellon has been studying how people learn with technology since the 1950s; working together with our council colleagues, our goal is to create guidelines and best practices that ensure academic rigor and successful learning for students worldwide."
The Simon Initiative will focus on several areas where technology impacts education, ranging from data-rich research solutions to improving the residential experience of students at CMU campuses.
