Running a testbed for new instructional technology in Western Pennsylvania schools

Summary form only given. No teacher today, and particularly those in technical fields, can ignore the impact of the information superhighway in bringing the real world into classrooms, dramatically changing the information resources offered to students. However for many teachers, the necessary infrastructure is still not in place while rapidly emerging technologies are making investments difficult and risky. It will take a number of years for these technologies to find their way into widespread classroom use in instruction and to become part of the mainstream. The authors' project is generating a testbed for four major groupings of new technologies that impact the classroom and explores, with teachers in Western Pennsylvania, USA, how they can effectively be applied in science and engineering education at both the high school and undergraduate level.