Toward a learning technologies knowledge network

The National Science Foundation-funded Center for Innovative Learning Techn ologies (CILT) is designed to be a national resource for stimulating resear ch and development of technology-enabled solutions to critical problems in K-14 science, math, engineering and technology learning. The Center, launch ed at the end of 1997, is organized around four themes identified as areas where research is likely to result in major gains in teaching and learning, and sponsors research across disciplines and institutions in its four them e areas. CILT brings together experts in the fields of cognitive science, e ducational technologies, computer science, subject matter learning, and eng ineering. It engages business through an Industry Alliance Program and is a lso training postdoctoral students. CILT's founding organizations are SRI I nternational's Center for Technology in Learning, University of California at Berkeley (School of Education and Department of Computer Science), Vande rbilt University's Learning Technology Center, and the Concord Consortium. Through its programs, CILT seeks to reach beyond these organizations to cre ate a web of organisations, individuals, industries, schools,foundations, g overnment agencies, and labs, that is devoted to the production, sharing an d use of new knowledge about how learning technologies can dramatically imp rove the processes and outcomes of learning and teaching. This paper descri bes the rationale and operations of the Center, and first-year progress in defining a set of CILT partnership projects with many other institutions th at came out of our national theme-team workshops.