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Are Technology Initiatives in Schools Paying Off?
While some districts are using technology to pair Shakespeare with Kanye West, critics point out that the data supporting many tech programs is thin.
As more and more money is spent on technology in schools, some are beginning to wonder if additional technology is having a positive effect on student achievement. A recent article in the New York Times, and reviewed by Joanne Jacobs, describes a high-tech classroom in one of Arizona’s Kyrene School District schools where students are studying Shakespeare’s As You Like It by using laptops and utilizing Internet technologies such as Facebook and the music of Kanye West.
Classrooms in Kyrene boast top of the line technology funded by a ballot initiative passed in 2005. However, Jacobs writes that the laptops and Internet-enabled desks are having no measurable impact on the district’s math and reading scores. Since 2005, Kyrene has shown no improvement in standardized test results, while Arizona, as a whole, has seen some gains.
Schools around the country are investing money in outfitting schools with technology, an effort further encouraged by last year’s White House initiative called the National Education Technology Plan. The plan was designed to bring “state-of-the art technology into learning to enable, motivate and inspire all students.”
But what benefit students derive from having access to all that technology hasn’t yet been determined. Most studies that focus on the topic look at a muddy metric called “student engagement.” However, Jacobs quotes Randy Yerrick, the associate dean of educational technology at the University of Buffalo, who calls it a “fluffy” term which hasn’t been shown to lead to better student performance. This view is also echoed by Larry Cuban, Professor of Education at Stanford University.
At The Educated Reporter, Emily Richmond asked an elementary school teacher for his reaction to the Times piece. The teacher, whose classroom is fully fitted with what he calls “electronic bells and whistles,” said that he found all that technology distracting. His fellow teacher, from the classroom next door, however, said that not only were all the gadgets useful to the students, she found them to be a powerful aid in composing assignments and creative lesson plans.
However, the actual research supporting the link between digital classrooms and improved educational outcomes is thin. Former executive director for education at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which provides grants for such efforts to schools across the country, conceded that the data supporting technology’s impact on student learning “is pretty weak.”
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September 10th, 2011
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Comments
Technology cannot fix the issues we face as educators. It can be used as a tool, or part of the process. If technology is implemented correctly good results will happen. If only there were data to back up that statement….
That is bad for Bill Gates and Michael Dell because their entire efforts in education reform has been based on selling more technology.
Great read. I love progression in all aspects of teaching and life.
Interesting article, but many of the issues are apparent throughout the piece that leave one with questions about the nature of investment and the ways that investment has been tied to specific performance outcomes.
It’s not clear whether the goal of investment was to address the nebulous metric of engagement, but if it were, what kind of changes to engagement were shown.
The article leaves me with more unanswered questions than a strong opinion on whether technology has supported or does not support teaching in the k-12 classroom. Some of these questions include:
* What are the measurements used to indicate impact of technology?
* Is there a control group?
* Does/Can performance on standardized tests show impact — is there a correlation or causal relationship? If standardized exams are appropriate to use as this measurement, have the curriculum or technology-enhanced classrooms been designed to address the types of questions on those exams?
* What other measures of impact of teaching with technology could be applied?
* Are there differences between classrooms (indicating that the technology does not support/reinforce teacher or subject matter)?
It seems to me that two simultaneous equations need to be solved here: addressing the kinds of teaching and curriculum that we need to encourage what our children will need to compete in the 21st century (e.g., systems thinking, thinking creatively/innovatively, problem analysis, logic, communicating effectively, etc) and designing technology to support and augment the development of these capabilities.
The question worth repeating is “what is the measurement stick” that is being used to ‘judge’ the impact on learning–regardless of the tool used. What essential skills are we measuring? There is no one silver bullet for measuring the complexity of learning. Technology, just as the paper and pencil, can be ineffective if the art of teaching–or as I prefer to call it, “masterfully modeling the learning process” through inquiry, discovery, and authentic purpose is poor or mediocre at best. Technology needs good pedagogy just like any other methods in the learning process. What better place to develop good technology pedagogy than in schools?
“[The] art of teaching–or as I prefer to call it, “masterfully modeling the learning process” through inquiry, discovery, and authentic purpose is poor or mediocre at best.”
This is the sort of disgustingly insipid gibberish that has destroyed education. The stunning mindlessness of phrases such as “masterfully modeling the learning process through inquiry, discovery, and authentic purpose” is evident to any mind, educated or not. To the educated, it’s painful. The only way someone could employ such tortured, mutilated phraseology is through the deliberate MISeducation that the schools provide.
My apologies if this was a deliberate parody.
[...] This article would seem to state that’s not the case. http://www.educationnews.org/technology/are-technology-initiatives-in-schools-paying-off/ [...]
[...] Education News, September 10, 2011 Comment [...]
[...] Are Technology Initiatives in Schools Paying Off? [...]
[...] Read More… [...]
[...] Are Technology Initiatives in Schools Paying Off? | Education News While some districts are using technology to pair Shakespeare with Kanye West, critics point out that the data supporting many tech programs is thin.http://www.educationnews.org/t .. [...]
[...] Are technology initiatives in schools paying off? (Educationnews.org) [...]
[...] Are technology initiatives in schools paying off? (Educationnews.org) [...]
[...] Are technology initiatives in schools paying off? (Educationnews.org) [...]
[...] Are technology initiatives in schools paying off? (Educationnews.org) [...]
Assessment of technology for teaching is definitely a difficult issue to address. It’s not as black and white as we want it to be.
The thing is… we really can’t assess the impact of technology to its full extend. Are we looking for the impact on students’ learning? Or are we looking for the impact on a teacher’s performance?
I mean, has anyone measured the impact of the blackboard, for example, on students’ learning? It is a type of technology used in the classroom all the time. There isn’t really any strong data suggesting that the blackboard has a positive influence on learning. How about the way a teacher writes on the blackboard? Use of colourful chalk? How about getting students to write on it?
We use so many tools in the classroom that we think enhance the experience for both students and teachers. How do we know what their impact is? I think the real measurement is not a test or a numerical representation. It’s the students’ engagement and reaction to teaching. If our students are excited about learning, exploring, and they are can’t wait to share in class what they have found out about a topic on the Internet or by collaborating on a Wiki with other students… that’s what the real measurement is.
[...] Are Technology Initiatives in Schools Paying Off? | Education News. [...]
Most of the technology USE in schools and universities is creating a new peasant class of button pushers subjugated to the instructions and processes of a machine. And we’re doing it willingly.
In theory it could offer so much more, in practice it doesn’t.
[...] Online education in public schools is expanding with each year, and in some places it’s even become mandatory. In other schools, educators are integrating technology and pop culture to help kids make sense of tough concepts (think Kanye West and Shakespeare). [...]