Peer Review

Digital Promise

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Mar 11, 2019 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

The Digital Promise Research Map helps education leaders, policymakers, and technology developers quickly access education and learning science research findings that can inform their work. The map was built using data from over 100,000 articles published between 2007 and 2016, and found in 184 academic journals from the Web of Science database.

Type of Material:

Collection

Recommended Uses:

This material is ideally used by educators and administrators to easily further their research in a variety of education topics.

Technical Requirements:

Materials are accessed through a browser.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Digital Promise is an independent, bipartisan nonprofit, authorized by Congress in 2008 as the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies

Digital Promise was created with the mission to accelerate innovation in education to improve opportunities to learn.

Their vision is "that all people at every stage of their lives have access to learning experiences that help them acquire the knowledge and skills they need to thrive and continuously learn in an ever-changing world."

To achieve this vision, they believe we "must work together to close the Digital Learning Gap. Because when all learners have equitable access to learning technology, when everyone participates, and when everyone learns, we all benefit from a more engaged, informed and just society."

The map helps education specialists and policymakers in addition to technology developers to rapidly access education and science research findings that can support their work.

Target Student Population:

College Upper Division, Graduate School, Professional

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

No prerequisite knowledge or skills are required. An interest in education innovation and research will be helpful to the user.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

The quality of the research is excellent. This digital map allows the user to make immediate connections between a wide variety of educational topics including:

Autism
Cognition & Memory
Family Engagement
Identity, Behavior, and Relationships
Instruction & Teacher Learning
Language Learning
Literacy
Math Learning
Online Learning
Project-Based Learning
Special Education Practices
STEM Learning Practices
Student Motivation
Trauma

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: The Digital Promise Research Map can be easily integrated into any teach education program as a path to achieve teaching and learning goals. Current teachers and teachers-to-be will find a plethora of resources including articles, videos, and access to a community of users, as well as the ability to Ask a Researcher a question. Users have the opportunity to get involved in the activities of the projects available on the site.
Concerns:: Some content is laden with terminology that may be difficult to understand for some users.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

The website is very well organized with a variety of filters available to the user for narrowing search results. The Research Map Tutorial includes a video which provides just enough information to get started with the tool. The creators have provided two initial views of the map from which to choose, one Network view provides topic circles and the other primarily shows connections between topics.

The content can be accessed easily. There are three ways to navigate the reseach map:

Visit the interactive views, which show research topics and subtopics, and how they connect to one another. Click on a topic to see research articles and more in-depth information.
Select “Topics” in the top toolbar to jump directly to one of the 11 topic pages. Each topic page includes a summary of relevant research, blog posts, and related links.
Use the “List View” in the “About” tab to see data for each topic in a list format.

Concerns:

High speed internet is required to view videos.

Other Issues and Comments:: The Research Map discussed in this review is part of the larger Digital Promise that also includes these areas for exploration: Challenge Map, Micro-credentials, Edtech Pilot Framework, Digital Promise Journey. There is an online form for questions and comments available for users.
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