New technology has been increasingly incorporated into the classroom.

In view of this trend, a new center to examine the role of technology in teaching and learning at Iowa State University’s College of Education will be officially unveiled Monday, Sept. 22.

“Computers, the Internet and other technologies pose many challenges and opportunities for teachers currently in the classroom and their students, as well as teacher-education students in our universities,” E. Ann Thompson, center director, said.

“The Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching will be an important resource for faculty, staff, students and Iowa educators who are interested in examining the impact and role of technology in education.”

The new center will be located in N108 Lagomarcino Hall.

In honor of the center, there will be a day-long program, called “”Iowa Collaboratives: Advancing Technology in Learning and Teaching.” Included in the program is an opening ceremony for the new center at 5:30 p.m. in the courtyard of Lagomarcino Hall.

President Martin Jischke and Iowa Lieutenant Governor Joy Corning will speak at the ceremony.

John Bransford, centennial professor and co-director of the Learning Technology Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., will deliver a keynote address at 7 p.m. in 117 MacKay Hall.

Cathy Curtis, alumni officer for education administration, said the center actually had its foundations in 1968 as the Instructional Resources Center.

“At that point it was founded to provided Iowa State University students with state of the art instructional technology skills and equipment,” she said, “which at that time meant overhead projectors.”

Last February, however, the Board of Regents approved a proposal to expand the focus of the center to include more research and evaluation of technology, she said.

The Instructional Resources Center will continue as a “service arm” of the expanded center and will continue to provide state-of-the-art equipment to prepare educational programs, Curtis said.

The center is primarily for students planning to become teachers “to try new technologies and use them to build their own lessons and improve how they teach,” Curtis said.

The new center will focus on instructional teaching, on “what works and what doesn’t and what can be done to improve the way we teach and to improve the way people learn,” Curtis said.

Such things as interactive CD-Rom programs and virtual reality as a teaching tool will be explored by the center.

One professor, Joseph Chen, is working on a project to use virtual reality to allow manufacturing technology students to experience what it is like at factory facilities from around the world.

Curtis said he just started working on the project and hopes to eventually deliver the program over the world wide web so people who can’t go to Japan to personally tour a factory there can still experience it.

Curtis said several groups are already conducting research, although the center is not formally open. She said with professors like Thompson and Gary Downs, who already have a strong reputation in the area of education technology, the center is promising.

Another strength, Curtis said, is the recent addition of Jerry Willis, former director of a similar center at the University of Houston, who has written many books related to teaching through technology and preparing teachers to teach with technology.

The center will be working with education students, K-12 students throughout the state and community college and university faculty members.

Curtis said, “It’s rare that a group works with the K-16 concept,” extending across the educational spectrum into the realm of higher education.

“The center is eager to work with K through 16 preparation teachers to make the learning experience better through technology,” Curtis said.

The program on Monday is designed for K-16 educators, although it is free and open to everyone. Space is limited, however, and people can make reservations by calling 294-3147.