Digital Transformation of Education Interdisciplinary Cluster

As one of the leading land-grant universities in the nation, North Carolina State University is proud to announce its Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program, a cluster hire program that marks the first major initiative of the University’s 2011-2020 strategic plan, The Pathway to the Future.  Starting in 2012, NC State will hire 38 faculty in 12 emerging research areas to promote interdisciplinary scholarship and the development of innovative undergraduate and graduate programs.   

 One of the selected research areas will expand the NC State Digital Transformation of Education research cluster, which brings together efforts across multiple colleges that address the potential of information and communication technologies to enhance learning in formal and informal education settings.  Our collective work addresses issues of foundational research, classroom practices, and district and state policies.  Some examples include the following:  

• The Digital Games Research Center, which focuses on the development of cognitive and computational models of game play, interactive narrative and adaptive game play in learning environments.  Additional work on educational applications of games takes place in the Mobile Gaming Research Lab and the Gains Through Gaming Lab.
• The IntelliMedia Group’s work on intelligent learning environments that utilize intelligent game-based learning environments, virtual humans, natural language processing, affective computing, and computational models of interactive narrative.
• The New Literacies Collaborative, which focuses on research and practice reflecting the changing requirements of literacy in the global, digital world.
• The North Carolina K-12 Cloud Computing Infrastructure, in which the Friday Institute is leading the effort to provide robust, cost-effective Internet access, resources, and services to all K-12 schools throughout the state.
• The North Carolina Learning Technology Collaborative, which supports school districts throughout the State in planning, implementing and evaluating technology-enabled educational innovations.
• The College of Education and Friday Institute’s projects evaluating technology-enabled educational innovations, including 1:1 technology programs, the North Carolina Virtual Public School, the State’s Race to the Top initiatives and many others.
• Research and development projects at the Friday Institute on the potential of technologies to enhance K-12 mathematics and science education.
• The Department of Psychology’s programs in Human Factors and Ergonomics and in Psychology in the Public Interest, which address issues of technology design and social impact.
• The Friday Institute’s work with the Governor’s eLearning Commission and the Governor’s Education Transformation Commission, through which we influence the use of research, data and analysis to inform State education policies.

The Digital Transformation of Education research cluster invites applications from nationally recognized researchers who are engaged in innovative and transformative scholarship that will further NC State’s position as a leader in research and development on educational innovation.  Four positions are available, with appointments to be made in Computer Science, Psychology and Education/Friday Institute.  The successful candidate for each position will be expected to collaborate with the other new faculty, established NC State faculty in relevant areas, and others across the University, through such venues as large-scale joint research and outreach projects, speaker series, and teaching initiatives.

The four available positions are:

Digital Learning. The College of Education is seeking a leading researcher whose work focuses on emerging approaches such as virtual learning, online communities of practice, online assessment, analytics of learning, or others related to digital learning for K-12 students. This individual should be engaged in research that addresses critical problems of K-12 education, such as the use of digital technologies to enhance the personalization of learning; the design of evidence-centered approaches to student assessment; the use of real-time data to inform instructional improvement; classroom implementations of technology-enhanced learning; and preparing teachers and administrators for the digital transformation of education.

This position will be a joint appointment in the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation and the Department of Curriculum and Instruction.   

Learner Modeling.  The Department of Psychology is seeking a leading scientist in the development of computational models of human behavior.  We are particularly interested in a researcher whose work can be applied to technology-intensive learning environments to build rich models of how individual differences in cognitive and affective functions interact with technology. The successful applicant will work in close collaboration with other NC State researchers involved in the Digital Transformation of Education research cluster. In addition, the individual will serve as core faculty in the one of the department’s five Ph.D.-granting specializations: lifespan developmental, human factors & ergonomics, industrial/organizational, school psychology, and psychology in the public interest.

 Intelligent Learning Environments. The Department of Computer Science seeks a senior faculty member in personalized learning technologies with a Ph.D. in computer science or closely related field and an established record of scholarship in areas such as intelligent tutoring systems, game-based learning environments, educational data mining, and natural language tutorial dialogue systems. He or she will have demonstrated a commitment to interdisciplinary collaborative research with colleagues in areas such as the learning sciences, educational psychology, curriculum and instruction, and STEM education.

 Adaptive Game Technologies.  The Department of Computer Science seeks a senior faculty member  with a Ph.D. in computer science or closely related field who will establish a vigorous research and teaching program in the science of computer games, emphasizing applications relevant to the generation or analysis of game play supporting human learning across entertainment and/or serious games contexts.