As part of its $25m five-year grant programme intended to help improve US elementary and secondary education, IBM has made three awards for projects designed to stimulate innovative uses for computer technology in the classroom: as a result of a $1.2m grant to the University of Michigan, high school foreign language students will get the opportunity to interact in simulated environments with native speakers – using computers, interactive video and audio systems; at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, a $1.4m grant to the Institute for Learning Sciences will enable researchers to try to apply artificial intelligence and cognitive science to teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools – using computers, the Institute hopes to change what people learn and the way in which they learn it, based on research on human understanding and learning – determining the times at which pupils will be most receptive to particular approaches; and Orangeburg School District Five in South Carolina gets a $1.8m grant for a computer project to restructure teaching and learning.
