Penn State's College of Education will welcome one of the leading scholars in the field of learning sciences as the next guest lecturer in this spring's Waterbury Lecture Series. Allan Collins is scheduled to deliver the lecture "Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology" at 11:30 a.m. on April 19, in room 113 of the IST Building on Penn State's University Park campus.
"Allan Collins is in some respects the 'Father' of the Learning Sciences," said Richard Duschl, Waterbury chaired professor in secondary education in Penn State's College of Education.
In "Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology," Collins and co-author Richard Halverson argue that our schools are a 19th century invention that verges on being obsolete in the 21st century. To keep pace with a globalized technological culture, we must rethink how we educate the next generation, or America will be left behind. They offer a vision of American education that goes beyond the walls of the classroom to include online social networks, distance learning with "anytime, anywhere" access, digital home schooling models, videogame learning environments, and more."
"In a word, he is a pioneer," Duschl said. "For several decades Allan Collins has looked carefully at learning both in context and in scaffolding by computer supported technologies. The focus on context and scaffolding has developed richer perspectives on the types of knowledge and reasoning that are needed to develop expertise. We are so very pleased to have Allan speak to our emerging learning sciences group here at Penn State."
Collins is professor emeritus of education and social policy at Northwestern University. He is a member of the National Academy of Education, and a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, the Cognitive Science Society, the American Educational Research Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The Waterbury Lecture is held twice a semester featuring prominent speakers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. The Waterbury Lecture Series is sponsored by an endowment from Kenneth Waterbury to the Penn State College of Education to create the Kenneth B. Waterbury Chair in Secondary Education, held by Duschl since he joined Penn State in 2008. Duschl's research focuses on advancing teacher education programs and on the design of learning environments that seek and promote collaborations among STEM education.