Technology's Impact on Learning

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:

 How Does Technology Enhance Student Achievement?

 Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT)
 Effects of Educational Technology
 Information Superhighway
 Multiple Intelligences and Multi-media
 Connecting Students to a Changing World
 Better Students Through Technology
 Is Technology Making an Impact?
 Research Showing Impact of Technology

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."
 

How Does Technology Enhance Student Achievement?

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
byApple 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.

Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT)

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

Visit the ACOT Homepage at ACOT http://www.info.apple.com/education

Or Call:

1.
1. 900-APPL (1775) (Apple education information)
2. 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.

Effects of Educational Technology

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.

Information Superhighway

"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.

Multiple Intelligences and Multi-media

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.

o Providing challenging visual/spatial tasks which develop
mathematical and logical thinking .
o 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.

Connecting Students to a Changing World

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)

Better Students Through Technology

Visit the site http://www.cast.org/stsstudy.html and learn more about the

following:

 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.

Is technology making an impact on education?

"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.

Research Showing Impact of Technology

Institute for the Transfer of Technology to Education

1680 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
(703) 838-6722
http://www.nsba.org/itte
Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)
c/o. Access ERIC
1600 Research Boulevard
Rockville, MD 20850
(800) 538-3742
http://www.aspensys.com/eric

Office of Educational Technology

U.S. Department of Education
600 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, D.C. 20202
(800) 872-5327
http://www.ed.gov/Technology

North Central Regional Technology Education Consortium

Educational Laboratory
1900 Spring Road
Suite 300
Oak Brook, IL 60521
(630) 218-1051
http://www.ncrel.org/ncrtec

International Society for Technology in Education

1787 Agate Street
Eugene, OR 97403-1923
(541) 346-4414
Effective Practice: Computer Technology in Education
Order at (800) 336-5191
Committee for Economic Development
477 Madison Ave.
New York, NY 10022
(212) 688-2063 ext. 212
Connecting Students to a Changing World: A Technology Strategy for Improving
Mathematics and Science Education

Software Publishers Association

1730 M. Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
(202) 452-1600
Analysis of research findings available in Report on the Effectiveness of Technology in
Schools ‘95-’96
http://www.spa.org

American School Board Journal March 1993

"Asking the Right Questions" Saul Rockman

Midcentral Educational Laboratory

Impact of Technology/Additional Resources
http://www.mcrel.org/connect/impact.html
Is technology making an impact on education?

"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.
Determine what the key challenges are that you face in the coming school year and what kinds of
technologies will help with these challenges as well as help students with their learning successes. Explore
Web 2.0 tools and identify resources you may wish to acquire or use as you address those needs in your
school library. Make this kind of information known to the learning community by writing and posting to
a blog, creating a blog that students will use, or utilize the various social networking tools students
communicate with in your school. Let teachers know how technology can enrich their good teaching
behaviors, or perhaps share with them some of the wonderful tools now readily available that are not
budget breakers.

Firstly, the digital landscape of the classroom has changed fundamentally over the
past decade. Now the majority of
English lessons in secondary schools are taught on Internet-enabled interactive
whiteboards (IWBs) supported by scanners, visualisers, and other digital peripherals
(Moss et al., 2007). This change marks a shift from “one defining apparatus to
another”, from print to digital technologies, which is accompanied by an
intensification of digital practice and changing communicational forms (Green, 2004,
p. 298). Understanding the effect of this shift (both positive and negative) is
fundamental for the future design of teaching, learning and curriculum: for instance,
how teachers and students use and interpret image, writing and moving image in the
classroom or how technological change mediates the curriculum

Secondly, shifts in classroom practice need to be located in a broader cultural and

technological frame. Students’ communicational resources have changed
significantly over the past decade, bringing music, image and video into their
everyday repertoire. Nearly all students in the UK now have home access to the
Internet (UK households with children with broadband connectivity has risen from
C. Jewitt, C. Bezemer, K. Jones & G. Kress Changing English?...
English Teaching: Practice and Critique 10
28% in 2000 to 83% in 2008) and routinely carry a mobile phone with digital camera,
video, MP3 player; as Harris and Rampton (2008) point out, in their study of urban
classrooms, new media are pervasive. These changes have expanded the multimodal
resources available to students, multiplied the reading paths to be navigated, and
introduced practices of re-mixing and redesign of communicational forms (Leander &
Frank, 2006).

Thirdly, cultural and technological change is inter-related with a government-driven

project of educational modernisation. The pace and impact of policies intended to
regulate teaching and learning have accelerated dramatically over the past decade. In
consequence, both the temporal and the spatial arrangements
of the classroom have been transformed: the use of time is subject to more explicit
management, for instance, and space has been reorganised so as to facilitate the
teacher’s panoptical gaze

The OpenCourseWare (OCW) movement in general aims to extend course

materials to learners regardless of their enrollment in a university. Amongst these
institutions, perhaps the single, most well-known program is Massachusetts Institute
of Technology’s OpenCourseWare, which provides open access to materials used to
teach over 1900 courses (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002–10). One can
find a growing list of higher education institutions participating in the creation of open
educational resources (OER) by visiting the OpenCourseWare Consortium (http://
www.ocwconsortium.org). As of November 2009, there were 196 members worldwide
(OpenCourseWare Consortium, 2009).
Some institutions, instead of offering full courses, offer small units of instruction
such as a class module, video file, or lesson plan. And universities are not the only
ones offering OER (Wiley & Gurrell, 2009). Individual teachers also upload video or
audio versions of lectures to YouTube or iTunes, post PowerPoint presentations to
SlideShare, and share OER in a variety of other ways (Gurrell, 2008).
Ketterl, Mertens, and Morisse (2006) have pointed out that lecturers can post
university lectures to iTunes University for students to access. This trend of making
educational resources available is extending to many areas. For example, several
publishers are finding ways to make electronic textbooks available free of charge
(Matkin, 2009).

Wiley also chose to avoid Blackboard because even

paying students who formally register for a course lose all access to course materials
and discussions when the semester ends.
The main tool Wiley used in creating the space for his course was Wordpress, a
free online tool that can be used to create blogs or websites. With Wordpress he was
able to create a course website that looked professional in 1 hour (see Figure 1)

He created a wiki to facilitate this student participation

and provided a link from the official Wordpress site to the wiki. Figure 2 is a
screenshot of this wiki.
Students used the wiki to enroll in the course, by inputting their name, email
Figure 2. Wiki site for Wiley’s class (http://opencontent.org/wiki/index.php?title=Introduction_to_Open_Education_2009).

address, and blog site. In addition, they could use it to suggest alternate assignments
and to organize themselves into groups. Students were responsible for creating their
own blog if they did not have one, as all student work was to be posted on blogs to
make it easier for others in the class to see and engage with their work.
Wiley used a software program called ProfCast (the only tool used that was not
free) to record his lectures and publish them to both blip.tv and iTunes (2005). Prof-
Cast allowed him to record his audio explanations as well as the slides to create an
audiovisual presentation (see Figures 3 and 4).
Thus, as ranked by the participants the most helpful activities were completing
course readings, writing and reading blog posts, and watching lectures on blip.tv. The
least used activities were communicating with the instructor and listening to lectures
via iTunes.