Technology's Impact on Learning
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From a Department of Education 1995 forum, some
panelists contended that rather than debating the connections between
technology-based instruction and test scores, schools should focus on the most
obvious and compelling reason form implementing technology-namely, that
students need strong technology skills to succeed in the world of work. This
section will provide you with the impact technology has on learning.
You can find the following in this
section:
ED Report The Costs and
Effectiveness of Educational Technology
"Through the use of advanced
computing and telecommunications technology, learning can also be
qualitatively different. The process of learning in the classroom can become
significantly richer as students have access to new and different types of
information, can manipulate it on the computer through graphic displays or
controlled experiments in ways never before possible, and can communicate
their results and conclusions in a variety of media to their teacher,
students in the next classroom, or students around the world. For example,
using technology, students can collect and graph real-time weather,
environmental, and populations data from their community, use that data to
create color maps and graphs, and then compare these maps to others created
by students in other communities. Similarly, instead of reading about the
human circulatory system and seeing textbook pictures depicting bloodflow,
students can use technology to see blood moving through veins and arteries,
watch the process of oxygen entering the bloodstream, and experiment to
understand the effects of increased pulse or cholesterol-filled arteries on
blood flow." (page 16)
"We know now - based on
decades of use in schools, on findings of hundreds of research studies, and
on the everyday experiences of educators, students, and their families -
that, properly used, technology can enhance the achievement of all students,
increase families’ involvement in their children’s schooling, improve
teachers’ skills and knowledge, and improve school administration and
management."
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How Does Technology Enhance
Student Achievement?
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Basic Skills Instruction
- Computer
assisted instruction to drill
- Multi-media
software - teach to a variety of learning styles
- Videodiscs
- strengthen basic skills
- Video
and audio technologies - bring material to life
- Distance
learning - at least as effective as traditional methods of instruction
- All
forms - develop new skills related to use of technology itself, necessary
in workplace
Advanced Skills Instruction
- Interactive
educational technologies, including:
·
- Computer-generated simulations
- Videodiscs
- Internet
- CD-ROM
- Students
learn to: organize complex information, recognize patterns, draw
inferences, communicate findings
- Learn
better organizational and problem-solving skills
Assessment of Student Progress
- More
comprehensive with multimedia
- Assessments
which require student’s active participation
- Electronic
portfolios
Student Motivation
- They
like it better
- Increased
family involvement
- Improved
teachers’ skills
- Improved
School Administration and Management
"We know that successful technology-rich schools
generate impressive results for students, including improved achievement;
higher test scores; improved student attitude, enthusiasm, and engagement;
richer classroom content; and improved student retention and job placement
rates. Of the hundreds of studies that show positive benefits from the use of
technology, two are worth noting for their comprehensiveness. The first, a U.S.
Department of Education-funded study
of nine technology-rich schools, concluded that the use of technology resulted
in educational gains for all students regardless of age, race, parental income,
or other characteristics. [GET THIS] The second, a 10-year study supported by Apple Computer, Inc., concluded that student
provided with technology-rich learning environments ‘continued to perform well
on standardized tests but were also developing a variety of competencies not
usually measured. Students explored and represented information dynamically and
in many forms; became socially aware and more confident; communicated
effectively about complex processes; became independent learners and
self-starters; knew their areas of expertise and shared that expertise
spontaneously.’" (ACOT)
Success Seen in ED Study:
- Rising
scores on state tests
- Improved
student attendance
- Increased
student comprehension
- Motivation
- Attitude
- Strong
study
- Parent
and teacher support
- Improved
student retention
- Improved
placement in jobs.
ACOT as summarized by Howard
Mehlinger:
"In 1986 Apple Computer, Inc.
launched a project call Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow
(ACOT). The project began with seven classrooms representing what was intended
to be a cross section of K-12 schools. Each participating student and teacher
received two computers: one for home and one for school. The goal of the
project was to see how the routing use of computers would affect how students
learn and how teacher teach."
One issue the project hoped to
confront was the possibility of any negative effects from prolonged exposure to
computers. Some critics have worried that students who use computers
extensively will become ‘brain-dead’ or less social from looking at the
computer screen all day. At the end of two years, the investigators learned
that some of their worst fears had been groundless.
- Teachers
were not hopeless illiterates where technology was concerned; they could
use computers to accomplish their work.
- Children
did not become social isolates. ACOT classes showed more evidence of
spontaneous cooperative learning than did traditional classes.
- Children
did not become bored by the technology over time. Instead, their desire to
use it for their own purposes increased with use.
- Even
very young children had no problem becoming adept users of the keyboard.
With very little training, second- and third- graders were some typing 25
to 30 words per minute with 95% accuracy - more than twice as fast as
children of that age can usually write.
- Software
was not a major problem. Teacher found programs - including productivity
tools - to use in their classes.
Standardized test scores showed that
student were performing as well as they might have been expected to do without
the computers; some were doing better. The studies showed that ACOT students
wrote better and were able to complete unites of study more rapidly than their
peers in non-ACOT classrooms. In one case, students finished the year’s study
of mathematics by the beginning of April. In short, academic productivity did
not suffer and in some cases even improved.
Most interesting, however, is that
classroom observers noticed changes in the behavior of teachers and students.
Students were taking more responsibility for their own learning, and teachers
were working more as mentors and less as presenters of information.
By the end of the fourth year, ACOT
classrooms had change; teachers were teaching differently, though they did not
all teach alike. Each teacher seemed to have adjusted his or her own style to
the computer-rich environment, but all the teachers were aware of the changes
that had occurred in their own professional outlooks.
The students had also changed,
especially the ACOT students at West High School, a school serving urban,
blue-collar families in Columbus, Ohio. Twenty-one freshmen were selected at
random from the student body to participate in a study of ACOT. They stayed
with the program until their graduation four years later. Al 21 graduated,
whereas the student body as a whole had a 30% dropout rate. Nineteen of the ACOT
students (90%) went on to college, while only 15% of non-ACOT student sought
higher education. Seven of the ACOT students were offered full college
scholarships, and several businesses offered to hire those who did not intend
to go on to college. ACOT students had half the absentee rate, and they had
accumulated more than their share of academic honors. But perhaps the most
important finding was the difference exhibited by these students in how they
did their work. The ACOT students routinely and without prompting employed
inquiry, collaboration, and technological and problem-solving skills of the
kind promoted by the school reform movement.
Learning More About ACOT
Or Call:
-
- 900-APPL (1775) (Apple education information)
- 825-2145 for ACOT research reports and video
The ACOT Research Portfolio - 1990
includes the following reports:
- ACOT
Evaluation Study: First- and Second-Year Findings
- Teacher
Beliefs and Practices Part I: Patterns of Change
- Teacher
Beliefs and Practices Part II: Support for Change
- Teaching
in High-tech Environments: Classroom Management Revisited
- Development
of Teacher Knowledge and Implementation of a Problem-based Mathematics
Curriculum
The ACOT Research Portfolio - 1992
includes the following reports:
- Computer
Acquisition: A longitudinal Study of the Influence of High Computer Access
on Students’ Thinking, Learning, and Interactions
- The
Negotiations of Group Authorship Among Second-Graders Using Multimedia
Composing Software
- Partnerships
for Change
- The
Relationship Between Technological Innovation and Collegial Interaction
- Trading
Places: When Teacher Utilize Student Expertise in Technology-Intensive
Classrooms
The ACOT Research Portfolio - 1994
includes the following reports:
- Creating
an Alternative Context for Teacher Development: ACOT’s Two-year Pilot
Project
- Creating
an Alternative Context for Teacher Development: The ACOT Teacher
Development Centers
- Environments
that Support New Mode4s of Learning: The Results of Two Interactive Design
Workshops
- MediFusion:
A Tool That Supports Learning Through Experience, Reflection, and
Collaboration
- Student
Engagement Revisited: Views from Technology-Rick Classrooms
Two-page summaries of many of the
research reports are available free, either by fax of electronically. To order
by fax, call Apple Education at (800) 800-APPL (2775)
ACOT of Impact on Students
The following information summarize
ACOT's impact on students:
- Explored
and represented information dynamically and in many forms.
- Became
socially aware and more confident.
- Communicated
effectively about complex processes.
- Used
technology routinely and appropriately.
- Became
independent learners and self-starters.
- Knew
their areas of expertise and shared that expertise spontaneously.
- Worked
well collaboratively.
- Developed
a positive orientation to the future.
Other ACOT Findings After 10 Years
- Technology
acts as a catalyst for fundamental change in the way students learn and
teacher teach.
- Technology
revolutionizes the traditional methods teachers use.
- Students
become re-energized and much more excited about learning - resulting in
significantly improved grades - while dropout and absentee rates decrease
dramatically.
- For
high school students in the program, drop-out rates fell from 30 percent
to near zero, while absenteeism was reduced from 8 percent to 4 percent.
- Teachers
can and will embrace technology, if they are given the kind of
professional development and support they need.
In a 1994 Software Publisher's
Association (SPA) study, research found that:
- Educational
technology has a significant positive impact on achievement in all subject
areas, across all levels of school, and in regular classrooms as well as
those for special-needs students.
- Educational
technology has positive effects on student attitudes.
- The
degree of effectiveness is influenced by the student population, the
instructional design, the teacher’s role, how students are grouped, and
the levels of student access to technology.
- Technology
makes instruction more student-centered, encourages cooperative learning,
and stimulated increased teacher/student interaction.
- Positive
changes in the learning environment evolve over time and do not occur
quickly.
"America’s Children and the
Information Superhighway: A Briefing Book and National Action Agenda"
Wendy Lazarus and Laurie Lipper, Directors, The Children’s Partnership, 1994
- A
five-year report (1987-1992) by the Sacramento School District in
California found that students using multimedia and telecommunications
showed improved attitudes toward reading, social studies and science, and
became more active and independent in learning. Some also showed improved
reading scores.
- A
survey of 550 teachers who use telecommunications technology in the
classroom reported that "inquiry-based analytical skills - like
critical thinking, data analysis, problem solving, and independent
thinking - develop when students use a technology that supports research,
communication, and analysis. However, telecommunications does not directly
help their performances on state- or city- mandated tests.
Howard Gardner, Professor of Harvard
University and author of Frames of Mind (New York: Basic Books, 1983)
from Multimedia Book, ITTE wrote that:
- Seven
or more "multiple intelligences" that are of equal importance in
human beings and develop at different times and in different ways in
different individuals.
- Multi-media
can go along way to addressing these intelligences, much more than
traditional teaching methods.
- Below
is a list of the intelligences and the technology tools that can be used
to teach to them
Verbal/Linguistic intelligence:
The ability to think, communicate, and create through words both in speech and
in writing.
·
Computer software which allows young
children to write and illustrate their own stories before their fine motor
skills are developed enough to allow them to do so by hand.
·
Word processing software stimulates
learners to interact more closely with their work.
·
Audio and video recording can give
students instant feedback on their story-telling skills and can help them
develop them further.
·
Multimedia software helps students
produce multimedia reports.
·
Telecommunications programs link
students who correspond in writing.
Logical/mathematical intelligences:
Memorize and perform mathematical operations, ability to think mathematically,
logically, and analytically and to apply that understanding to problem solving.
- Multimedia
products that graphically illustrate physics concepts.
- Providing challenging visual/spatial tasks which
develop mathematical and logical thinking .
- Develop higher-order mathematical thinking by making
abstract ideas concrete.
Visual/spatial intelligence:
The ability to understand the world through what we see and imagine and to
express ideas through the graphic arts.
- "Paint"
programs that allow students who are unskilled with paper and brush create
art on computer screens.
- Databases
of art work.
- Desktop
publishing.
- Camcorders
to create documentaries.
- Internet
links to museums and virtual tours.
Bodily/kinesthetic intelligence:
The ability to learn through physical coordination and dexterity and the
ability to express oneself through physical activities.
- Educational
games which challenge fine motor coordination while developing logical
thinking skills and mastery over abstractions.
- Construction
of lego robots and program their movement through the computer.
- Electronic
fieldtrips - programs that allow students to interact electronically with
a scientist who is exploring the depths of the Mediterranean or the inside
of a volcano.
Musical intelligence:
The ability to understand, appreciate, perform, and create music by voice or
instruments or dance.
- Students
can hum into a synthesizer and make it sound like any instrument they
want.
- Musical
Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) makes it possible to make music on an
electronic keyboard, which can be made to sound like any instrument and
then can be orchestrated electronically.
- Interactive
presentations of renowned classical music let students understand music on
many different levels; listening to it, seeing the score as it is played,
hearing individual instruments played alone, reviewing biographical
material about the composer and learning about the music’s historical and
cultural backgrounds.
Interpersonal intelligence:
The ability to work cooperatively with other people and to apply a variety of
skills to communicate with and understand others.
- Clusters
of students working together on computers learn more than individual
students working alone.
- Electronic
networks linking students with their peers within the community and around
the world.
- Lumaphones
allow students to see a picture of the person with whom they are speaking.
Intrapersonal intelligence:
The ability to understand, bring to consciousness, and express one’s own inner
world of thoughts and emotions.
- Multimedia
gives teachers the tools to turn the classroom into centers of
student-directed inquiry.
- Technology
offers tools for thinking more deeply, pursuing curiosity, and exploring
and expanding intelligence as students build "mental models"
with which they can visualize connections between ideas on any topic.
- Individual
growth plans, developed jointly by the student, parents and teacher can
encourage the development of intrapersonal intelligence. Technology
supports such plans with electronic records, videotaped interviews, and
multimedia portfolios of student work.
The following quotes were taken from
Connecting Students to a Changing World: A Technology Strategy for Improving
Mathematics and Science Education. A Statement by the Research and Policy
Committee of the Committee for Economic Development 1995:
"Fortunately, the same rapid
technological changes that have made these new workplace competencies so
important and greater knowledge of mathematics and science so critical also
provide new and effective tools to help raise the knowledge and skills of
teachers and the achievement of students."
(page 4)
"Currently available technologies,
the most important of which are computers, communications systems (including
Internet connections), and interactive videodisk and CD-ROM systems, provide a
learning environment in which problem solving and intellectual inquiry can
flourish." (page 4)
"The technology also allows
students to work at their own pace and encourages them to take initiative and
learn independently." (page 4)
- The
Role of Online Communications in Schools: A National Study" is a
report of a study conducted by CAST (Center for Applied Special
Technology), and independent research and development organization, and
sponsored by the Scholastic Network and Council of the Great City Schools.
The study compared the work of 500
students in fourth-grade and sixth-grade classes in seven urban school
districts (Chicago, Dayton, Detroit, Memphis, Miami, Oakland, and Washington,
DC) with and without online access. Results show significantly higher scores on
measurements of information management, communication, and presentation of
ideas for experimental groups with online access than for control groups with
no online access.
"Technology is making a
significant, positive impact on education. Important findings in these studies
include:
- Educational
technology as demonstrated a significant positive effect on achievement.
Positive effects have been found for all major subject areas, in preschool
through higher education, and for both regular education and special needs
students. Evidence suggests that interactive video is especially effective
when the skills and concepts to be learned have a visual component and
when the software incorporates a research-based instructional design. Use
of online telecommunications for collaboration across classrooms in
different geographic locations has also been show to improve academic
skills.
- Education
technology has been found to have positive effects on student attitudes
toward learning and on student self-concept. Students felt more successful
in school, were more motivated to learn and have increased self-confidence
and self-esteem when using computer-based instruction. This was particularly
true when the technology allowed learners to control their own learning.
- The
level of effectiveness of educational technology is influenced by the
specific student population, the software design, the teacher’s role, how
the students are grouped, and the level of student access to the
technology.
- Students
trained in collaborative learning, had higher self esteem and student
achievement.
- Introducing
technology into the learning environment has been shown to make learning
more student-centered, to encourage cooperative learning, and to stimulate
increased teacher/student interaction.
- Positive
changes in the learning environment brought about by technology are more
evolutionary than revolutionary. These changes occur over a period of
years, as teachers become more experienced with technology.
- Courses
for which computer-based networks were use increased student-student and
student-teacher interaction, increased student-teacher interaction with
lower-performing students, and did not decrease the traditional forms of
communication used. Many student who seldom participate in face-to-face
class discussion become more active participants online.
- Greater
student cooperation and sharing and helping behaviors occurred when
students used computer-based learning that had students compete against
the computer rather than against each other.
- Small
group collaboration on computer is especially effective when student have
received training in the collaborative process.
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