Research on Technology in the Classroom
Posted by: friedafoxworth in Educational Technology, Issues in Education, SMART Board, pd, tags: assessment, edtech, research, smartboardFinally! Scientific research from a reliable, respected source about the effect of technology on student achievement! I have been heavily engaged with educational technology for more than 6 years. For 4 years I taught fifth grade in a technology-infused classroom, and I’ve been a technology integration specialist for the past 2 years. I knew from the beginning that the use of technology had a positive impact on student learning, but most of the benefits I observed were non-measurable with a test: higher motivation, increased engagement, improved student focus, development of problem-solving skills, more collaborative learning, improved student behavior with fewer office referrals, growth in digital literacy, and increased student efficacy. While all of these effects are significant gains for 21st Century learners, the bottom line comes down to student achievement, and up until this time, I knew of no data-rich research that documented the impact of technology on student achievement.
Dr. Robert Marzano, one of our nation’s leading scholars in the field of educational research, has begun studying this issue and recently presented his findings in the keynote speech at CUE. Using 85 teachers across the nation who taught one class using an interactive whiteboard and another “control” class without the technology, he examined the effect of the use of an interactive whiteboard on student achievement. He discovered 4 variables that affected results: overall years of teaching experience, length of time in months of experience in using a whiteboard, percentage of time the whiteboard is used in the classroom, and teacher’s confidence level in ability to use the technology effectively. The research showed that optimal student achievement gains (the “sweet spot” according to Marzano) are possible with these conditions: a very experienced teacher who has at least 2 years of experience using an interactive whiteboard, uses it about 75% of the time, and is confident in his/her ability to effectively use the technology. According to Marzano, such a teacher may expect up to 30 percentile point gains in student achievement. Marzano admitted that all research is equivocal, and that ultimately the most significant factor in student achievement, with or without technology, is teacher quality.
His suggestion for effective use of technology was to focus on content, not the bells and whistles. He also gave a reminder of the importance of keeping track of which students are getting it and which are not. That point led Marzano into commentary about formative assessment and the use of technology for record-keeping. He asserted that assessment should be an instructional technique, not a labeling technique. It’s important to examine lots of data over time to get the best picture of a student’s progress. The most significant acievement gains came from tracking student progress over time using a rigorous rubric-based model. The implications are that teachers need professional development in both effective teaching and the effective use of technology to maximize growth in student achievement.
Entries (RSS)
March 30th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
This is a very interesting blog for future teachers or current teachers to read. It is interesting to hear that there was no data-rich research supporting that there is actual achievement gain by using technology, but this study proves that technology and good teacher quality can really make a different in a students achievement. I am impressed that there are people out there trying to find research and are doing experiments to try and prove there is achievement gain by using technology in the classroom. I thought it was interesting that from the study of using an interactive whiteboard in the classroom, there was student achievement under these three conditions, a very experienced teacher that has at least 2 years of experience with a interactive whiteboard, uses the whiteboard 75% of the time and is confident in his/her ability to effectively use technology. Also it is amazing to me that a teacher may expect up to 30 percentile point gains in a student achievement under these circumstances. I think a lot of times people overlook technology in the classroom if it is not effective right away. But this study states that it is important to have effective teaching to go along with the effective use of technology to maximize growth in student achievement.
March 31st, 2009 at 8:06 am
I watched the video and Dr. Marzano presented a very interesting study. As we have known for some time, good teachers are really the deciding factor. The evidence seems to show large gains for the use of Promethean Boards and using the same teacher as the control for another class is about as good as it gets in educational research. Interesting that while using the boards 75-80% of the time in class resulted in large gains, beyond this time the gains decreased dramatically! Still 23% of teachers did better without the technology than with the technology so training is the key. Teachers still must keep track of which students are “getting it” and which are not. It will be interesting to see the results of the use of student response systems in the classroom.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Very interesting; I would like my seasoned teachers to see the percentages of use in class and the experience of the teacher. I was expecting higher gains in the teachers with less experience.
Thanks for sharing!
April 6th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
I definitely agree that technology has a positive impact on student learning. I do feel technology does create student achievement. Like you mentioned there are many benefits such as higher motivation, increased engagement, improvement of student focus, development of problem-solving skills, more collaborative learning, improved student behavior, and increase in student/self efficacy. I will take into consideration that the effective use of technology is to focus on content. In this century we need to have both effective teaching and the effective use of technology to help our students grow. Thanks for the blog!