University of Oklahoma Receives $4 Million Grant

The Norman Transcript

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded the University of Oklahoma's K20 Center a $4.24 million grant over three years for eighth- and ninth-grade technology-based math and literacy programs.

The K20 Center will work with students and teachers from the Shawnee and Putnam City school districts during the initial stage. In the second and third years of the grant, the program will be replicated in schools across Oklahoma."

The grant funding will be used to implement innovative math and literacy programs in Oklahoma schools using advanced computer gaming and simulations, student and teacher hand-held computers, and the 'lesson study' process credited with Japan's high achievement in math and science," said Mary John O'Hair, director of the K20 Center and Professor of Educational Leadership.

"What is exciting about this grant," she added," is that it capitalizes on students' natural interest in technology. Research-based learning strategies associated with high achievement in math and reading will be meaningfully embedded in an engaging video gaming format."

The new program, called K20 Networks of Emerging Technologies, will partner with SRI International (formerly the Stanford Research Institute) and the University of Michigan. SRI will conduct research on the curriculum's effectiveness, simulations, and student and teacher use of the hand-held computing devices.

Elliot Soloway, director of the Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education at the University of Michigan, and a leading proponent of computer use in schools, will lead the development of computer games and simulations.

The use of hand-held computing devices, coupled with powerful computer simulations and innovative curriculum, is expected to increase student interest, which will lead to improved student academic performance in math and reading.

The K20 Center is one of only six other institutions receiving a grant through this highly competitive federal program. The first year of the project is funded through an award of $2,083,810 from federal sources and $694,617 from funds and in-kind services provided through the K-20 Center and OU, amounting to a 75-25 cost sharing percentage arrangement.

The K20 Center is a consortium of school-university-community partnerships that aim to boost student learning through technology integration and 10 research-based practices of high-achieving schools. Its Web site is www.k20center.org.