Lenovo’s education research initiative aims to discover how schools can harness the power of technology

What is the best way to harness the power of educational technology in the classroom? Lenovo, in partnership with Intel and Microsoft, intends to answer that question through our global Education Research Initiative. ERI’s mission is to gain a complete view of technology’s impact on the learning environment. Its goals are to:

• Measure the effect of technology on educational experiences from first grade through college, using proprietary metrics designed for Lenovo by the RAND Corp.
• Produce research-based prescriptions for improvement.
• Provide outreach and educational programs at ERI’s core sites.
• Improve learning outcomes.
• Increase operational efficiency.

Areas of Research

ERI’s quantitative and qualitative research will help show what works and, equally important, what doesn’t work in technology-assisted education. Critical research areas include:

• 1:1 Computing
• Professional Development
• Leadership Development
• Vocational Education
• Authentic and Academically Rigorous eLearning
• Multilingual Collaboration
• After-School Programs

Participating Institutions

ERI has core research programs at four global educational institutions:

• The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Center for Faculty Excellence in Chapel Hill, N.C., aims to provide holistic support to educators across the entire spectrum of professional development: instruction, research and leadership skills. Its resources are focused on professional development principles such as collaboration, mentoring and assessment.
• The Student Global Leadership Institute at the Punahou School in Honolulu aspires to develop a community of international youth leaders to promote understanding and action related to global challenges. The institute launched in summer 2010 with 30 students — half from U.S. schools, half from Chinese schools — who met at Punahou for two weeks of intensive study. Students will track their progress through an online community. Punahou plans to add students from Japan, Costa Rica and Africa to the program.
• The Bastow Institute of Educational Leadership in North Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria was founded to help fulfill the government’s commitment to developing educators’ leadership capabilities. The institute is intended to respond to workforce capacity demands by fostering innovation, leading-edge skills and educational strategies that enable the advancement of children of all ages.
• The Tiger Woods Learning Center in Anaheim, Calif., aims to improve the quality of education and the quality of life for young people in underserved communities, readying them for a globally competitive workforce. TWLC invests in research-based assessments of innovative learning methodologies and programs for students in grades five through 12. It also provides professional development for the educators who teach these students.

Ultimately, ERI will connect hundreds of thousands of students, teachers and researchers from schools around the world to evaluate and quantify the use of technology to improve education.