Thinking About Learning

Finally! 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.

My friend, John Geanangel, shared this original quote yesterday:
“Give a child an answer – you have solved their immediate problem.
Teach a child to Google – you‘ve taught them to solve their own problems.”

I think this phrase beautifully sums up the necessary shift in pedagogy that needs to take place in our thinking, in our planning, and in our classrooms.  When I was a child, the focus of education was simply memorizing math facts, memorizing sight words, or memorizing important dates in history. Now, there is simply too much information available to memorize it all.

George Siemens reports in elearnspace:

IDC offered a report in 2007 on information growth, and now provides 2008 edition (.pdf): “In this companion to last year’s EMC-sponsored white paper, IDC again calibrates the size (bigger than first thought) and the growth (faster than expected) of the digital universe through 2011″. The main website also allows people to calculate their digital footprint.
The field of informatics (i.e. study of information) is not very developed. We are all impacted by information growth and development – in fact this is one of the areas that most impacts us – and yet we have at best a rudimentary understanding of the nature of information. Sure, we have people telling us information is exploding…that it’s overwhelming…and so on. But that’s a bit like saying the patient has a fever. I’d like to know more. I’m surprised at how little we actually understand of information itself, especially when considering the tremendous impact on our lives.

The study, The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe, predicts that between 2006 and 2011, digital information will grow ten-fold in five years, from under 200 exabytes to 1800 exabytes. So what does this mean for educators?  There’s already so much information available that I can’t take it all in, and neither can our students.  Our focus as educators must strongly shift to teaching our students how to research, explore, and find the informational resources they need.  We need a greater emphasis on conceptual learning and application of learning strategies.

All of the second graders in my school learned the definition of the word research this year, and they have continued to learn throughout the year through research projects. They understand that research is finding needed information and that sometimes they have to search again and again to find what they need.  They have made connections to see that finding the location and time of the movie they want to see is research.  One little girl came up to me in the hall one morning and proudly told me that she had done “research” at home last night to find out about her baby sister’s rash. She has begun her journey to become information literate.

Yes, John has it right…“Teach a child to Google – you‘ve taught them to solve their own problems.”