Reported by Jim Rosso

According to Technology in the Schools: What the Research Says – A 2009 Update, from Cisco and the Metiri group, the global economic crisis has highlighted the important role education can play in achieving economic competitiveness. Schools expect that technology will improve education in general by improving teaching and making education more efficient. Schools also expect technology will be involved in improving student achievement by:

• Increasing student engagement in learning;
• Improving learning as tested by standardized tests;
• Improving the economic viability of students;
• Increasing the relevance of school;
• Closing the digital divide by increasing digital literacy;
• Building 21st century skills.

After three decades of technology in the schools, some people are expressing concern about the lack of transformative change that has resulted. As the report states, "The reality is that advocates have over-promised the ability of educators to extract a learning return on technology investments in school. The research studies now suggest that the error was not in citing the potential of technology to augment learning – for research now indicates that the effective use of technology can result in high levels of learning. The error was in underestimating the critical need for the system changes required to use technologies effectively in learning."

The report looked at over 50 educational software products and evaluated them in terms of classroom effectiveness. It also looked at research that found five miscalculations made by educators in anticipation of what technology could provide schools:

1. In being overly confident that they could easily accomplish the depth of school change required to realize the potential technology holds for learning – not an easy task.

2. In their lack of effort in documenting the effect on student learning, teacher practices, and system efficiencies.

3. In underestimating the time it would take to reach a sufficiency point for technology access.

4. In not tapping into the participatory culture of Web 2.0 (e.g., engage students in collaborative, authentic work with outside persons globally and locally).

5. In underestimating the rate of change in technology, and the impact of such rapid, continuous change on staff time, budgeting, professional development, software upgrades, and curricular and lesson redesign.

Because of these five miscalculations, the school system has not experienced the potential of technology. Extracting the full learning return from technology requires triangulation of: (1) content; (2) sound principles of learning; (3) high-quality teaching, aligned with assessment and accommodation.

Conclusions

The challenges for schools wanting a full return on their technology investment include:

• For each product's learning potential to be fully realized, the product needs to be implemented accordingly.


• Each school needs to identify the technology that will work particularly well in their individual setting.


• Success of technology is not a product of how much access is provided, but rather the quality and nature of access; the "fidelity" of use.

The fidelity of implementation is related to at least seven factors: (1) leadership in the school; (2) teacher proficiency; (3) professional development dedicated to the product; (4) fit with the curriculum; (5) the school culture; (6) pedagogical style; and (7) infrastructure (level, speed, type of technology, Web 2.0 access). As the report states, "Innovative leadership is needed to ensure progressive school policies on technology and Web 2.0, and other emerging technologies and to facilitate strong links between the formal and informal learning enabled through the Web."

This report ends by stating that the real potential of technology still has not been realized in the schools. "Overall," the authors state, "across all uses in all content areas, technology does provide a small, but significant, increase in learning when implemented with fidelity and accompanied by appropriate pedagogical shifts. While this is generally encouraging, the real value lies in the identification of those technology interventions that get significant positive results that warrant investment.

SOURCE: Technology in Schools: What the Research Says – A 2009 Update Cheryl Lemke, Ed Coughlin, Daren Reitsneider