Page 87 - Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century

Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11338.html

70 EDUCATING THE ENGINEER OF 2020

In a National Academy of Engineering workshop, Information
Technology (IT)-Based Educational Materials, this future vision was
translated into the framework of teaching and learning. In the work-
shop report, the current state of the use of IT in support of learning was
described (NAE, 2003):

Many STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathemat-
ics] educational programs and institutions have been involved in
projects to improve teaching and learning through the application of
IT. The resulting IT-based learning materials have proven to be adapt-
able and dynamic, and in many cases they have enhanced the educa-
tional process. A growing number of people are involved in the devel-
opment of IT-based educational materials. The landscape of STEM
education is now dotted with islands of innovation—isolated areas
where IT-based materials are being used effectively. However, not all
innovations have led to more effective learning because these materi-
als are often used by limited numbers of users. Thus, opportunities
for synergy, discourse, and exchange—steps that often lead to im-
provements in next-generation products—have also been limited.
Impediments to realizing a desirable environment for IT-based edu-
cational materials are complex. . . . [T]echnology and tools, infra-
structure, content and pedagogy, and human, cultural, and organiza-
tional issues . . . are inextricably intertwined.

Based on the workshop discussions, the participants developed a
vision of an IT-transformed educational environment summarized in
three broad categories: technology and tools infrastructure; content and
pedagogy; and human, cultural, and organizational frameworks. The
discussions were summarized in the following vision of the future (NAE,
2003):

A robust suite of modular, IT-based resources supports a dy-
namic, distributed, and flexible learning environment. Built on open
system architectures and machine-understandable semantic models,
these resources are interoperable, sharable, easy to use, easy to modify,
and widely disseminated; they underpin a vibrant teaching and learn-
ing community and enable a sustainable ecology for continuous im-
provements in educational practice. A rich array of technologies and

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