Too Much Ed Tech Too Frequently?

The following is an RSS Feed Reader snip from the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning (http://www.educatorstechnology.com/) site encompassing but the past six days.

Your school just might be well enough funded to have implemented 1 to 1 classrooms or maybe just a legacy computer lab or two, or maybe tablet carts or four or five static tablets assigned to each classroom. Many might still be saddled with ancient slow and cumbersome desktops. (Aside note: I remember a time [the late 80's] when I lugged my "portable" 30-pound computer with two 5-1/4" floppy disk drives back and forth to work daily using a luggage carrier.) Surely whatever devices on campus, all have access to the Internet and every faculty member has a laptop, notebook or tablet device. No? Whatever the case someone or someones has the explicit, or worse, the implicit task of vetting new educational apps, websites, browser add-ons, templates, ed tech tools, hardware, and all  stuff ed tech. Considering that these 60 some educational technology "things" above are from only one website, we can be assured that every six days produces many, many more, probably thousands. Who vets, recommends, budgets and buys ed tech stuff at your institution? Is it the administrators, the teachers, the IT guys, the education-technology integrator/coordinator, the cleaning crew? Who or what group would ever even have the time to visit each website and blog then look up and read a summary about each new thing. Does anyone even care that new and fabulous ed tech stuff, eminently capable of propelling students forward by at least two grades, goes on the market every day? What criteria is used? Do the teacher-users and student-user have input to decisions?ed tech tools, hardware, and all stuff ed tech. Considering that these 60 some educational technology "things" above are from only one website, we can be assured that every six days produces many, many more, probably thousands. Who vets, recommends, budgets and buys ed tech stuff at your institution? Is it the administrators, the teachers, the IT guys, the education-technology integrator/coordinator, the cleaning crew? Who or what group would ever even have the time to visit each website and blog then look up and read a summary about each new thing. Does anyone even care that new and fabulous ed tech stuff, eminently capable of propelling students forward by at least two grades, goes on the market every day? What criteria is used? Do the teacher-users and student-user have input to decisions?

OECD Report on Computers and Learning - Nothing New

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released a report titled "Students, Computers,\ and Learning: Making Connections". The conclusions are not surprising.

At the international level:

Over the past 10 years, there has been no appreciable improvement in student achievement in reading, mathematics or science, on average, in countries that have invested heavily in information and communication technologies for education. In 2012, in the vast majority of countries, students who used computers moderately at school had somewhat better learning outcomes than students who used computers rarely; but students who used computers very frequently at school did a lot worse, even after accounting for the students’ socio-economic status.

“School systems need to find more effective ways to integrate | technology into teaching and learning  to provide educators with learning environments that support 21st century pedagogies and provide children with the 21st century skills they need to succeed in tomorrow’s world,” said Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills. “Technology is the only way to dramatically expand access to knowledge. To deliver on the promises technology holds, countries need to invest more effectively and ensure that teachers are at the forefront of designing and implementing this change.”

The United States:

The socio-economic divide in Internet access in the United States has not yet closed. In 2012, about one in five (20.2%) disadvantaged students – those among the bottom 25% in socio-economic status – did not yet have a link to the Internet at home. In the same year, 97% of the remaining students (those among the more advantaged 75% in socio-economic status) had access to the Internet at home.

Fifteen-year-olds in the United States perform above the OECD average in the PISA tests of digital reading (511 points on the PISA digital reading scale). They are also better than average in evaluating which links can lead them to relevant pages as they read on line. When looking for information on the web, only 11% of students navigate in an unfocused way, if at all – compared to 15% of students, on average, across OECD countries.

In 2012, schools in the United States serving 15-year-olds had about five school computers available for every nine students. The students-per-computer ratio of 1.8-to-1 is one of the lowest among the 34 OECD countries.

A particularly obvious and significant finding:

The report found that the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students in digital reading was very similar to the differences in performance in the traditional PISA reading test, despite the vast majority of students using computers whatever their background. This suggests that to reduce inequalities in digital skills, countries need to improve equity in education first.

1:1 Lessons Learned from LAUSD Continue

We've all heard of the LAUSD 1:1 debacle but as the title states, "The saga continues: Report finds ongoing iPad problems at LAUSD". At a cost of $340,000, the Washington, D.C.-based American Institutes for Research conducted a review of the current 1:1 situation. They released their report on September 2. What they discovered is that little has changed and that the district continues to fail at proper planning, testing, preparation, and execution. Something I could have told them for far fewer dollars. Back in October of 2013 a guest blogger at K12 News Network published a chart that details the difference between a successful implementation and the LAUSD failure. Very telling. The questions that continue to go unanswered is, Why did LAUSD officials mess up so badly and why do they continue to do so? What is wrong at the district level?                          

 

iPads in the Classroom

There's an interesting article at EmergingEdTech pitching the advantages of tablets (especially iPads) in the classroom. Some notable impacts (the validity of the studies are not verified):

At the University of California Irvine’s iMedEd program, each of the 104 medical students in the class of 2014 received an iPad from the school when they started in 2010. Towards the end of their programs, this class scored an average of 23% higher on national exams than previous classes (even though their incoming GPA and MCAT scores were comparable). The iPads provided contained a full suite of electronic textbooks, as well as podcasts of lectures and other resources.

A study of kindergarteners in Auburn, Maine showed that students who use iPads scored better in every literacy test than those who don’t. The study focused on 266 children whose instruction featured the iPad. Those who used the device scored higher on the literacy tests, were more interested in learning and excited to be there.

The Franklin Academy High School in North Carolina initiated a 1:1 iPad program at the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year. In April, 2014, the Academy released results of a study that shed light on the impact that the use of the iPad had on academic achievement and the development of the vital non-cognitive skills that their program is founded upon. Study results indicated that these students exhibit the following positive student behaviors:

Increased motivation in students
High confidence level with the use of technology
Opportunities for collaboration
Organizational benefits
Efficiency in completing tasks
Self-directed and extended learning opportunities
Increased independence towards becoming a continuous learner
Developing skills of a problem solver

Obviously, these are just a few examples of such studies. This article from Secure Edge Networks, 8 Studies Show iPads in the Classroom Improve Education, offers more. Here's another study covered on EmergingEdTech back in 2012. Just Google “iPad study” or similar phrases to find more – there are plenty of them out there. 

More meaningful than the studies is the paragraph on professional development:

Successful implementation of any large technology initiative requires effective planning and well-designed professional development. It’s really just that simple. Not that it is easy to do, but the bottom line is that any large initiative and expenditure such as this requires quality planning and proper PD and support. One popular avenue for professional development in the world of education technology that doesn’t require school districts to figure it out all by themselves is the conference setting. Back in 2011, the Franklin Academy in North Carolina ran the first national Teaching and Learning with the iPad Conference in the U.S. Attendance at the annual conference has grown every year, and attendees have come from all across the world. Over the years, numerous other such conferences have sprung up as well, and educators can take advantage of professional development opportunities like this throughout the year, at locations all across the world.

A Tool for 1:1 Classrooms

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