Better Learning With Technology - school use of computers

School Administrator, April, 2000 by Steven C. Kozlowski

If the goal is improved achievement, you need to surmount four challenges in the way your schools use computers

Like many school districts, the Prairie-Hills Elementary School District 144 in Hazel Crest, Ill., jumped onto the educational technology bandwagon with best intentions, enthusiasm and commitment from school board members, staff and community.

Five years ago the school district wired all classrooms, installed networks in each of the seven schools, invested heavily in curriculum-based software and began an extensive staff development program for teachers.

All of the promises of increased student achievement, improved technological literacy of staff and students and linkages to the outside world sparked wide support in the Prairie-Hills community. Yet two years after a substantial monetary investment of nearly $1.8 million from the school board, the vision of the high-tech classroom looked more like a showroom at an electronics superstore than that of an engaging and successful learning environment. What really consumed our attention was counting the number of workstations, cable drops and servers. We largely ignored what really mattered: Does the use of educational technology help students learn any better?

This is not an easy question to address. In fact, a district must overcome a series of challenges before trying to answer it. The challenges include how to:

* change the classroom/school environment in light of increased use of technology;

* work within this new high-tech environment;

* apply the right tools to assist in the effective use of educational technology in classrooms/schools; and

* make the connection between student achievement and the use of educational technology.

An Applicable Framework

Fortunately, the debates pitting Windows versus Macintosh computers and classroom deployment versus computer lab deployment are things of the past for most school districts. Now we are focusing on which software seems most effective in raising student achievement. To an extent, even this discussion is inappropriate because research is, at best, inconclusive in finding a direct link between the use of computer-based instructional software and student achievement.

One of the best strands of research on this issue has been conducted by the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. The federally supported lab, in its report "Plugging In: Choosing and Using Educational Technology, provided an excellent summary of what is known to date about effective and ineffective uses of educational technology.

NCREL introduces the term engaged learning" as a framework in which educational technology resources are used to promote positive student achievement results. (See related story, page 26.) The framework addresses the need for balance between improvements in the use of traditional pedagogy and the increased use of technology resources.

Prairie-Hills Elementary School District 144 followed a path common to other districts when the euphoria surrounding the implementation of technology led to the initial technology deployment in 1995.

While access to technology-related equipment, software and staff development was increased over the next three years, little or no emphasis was placed on other pedagogical factors that are affected by the increased use of technology in schools. As a result, little movement was made toward the indicators of effective use of technology as described in NCREL's "Plugging In."

Environmental Change

In 1998, the focus of technology implementation throughout the school district changed from a capacity-building effort to a results-based effort.

Adding networked computers to classrooms alone does not ensure improvement of student achievement. Changes in the environment of classrooms and schools, changes in attitudes of staff, selection of appropriate technology resources and development of data collection systems need to be accomplished before technology can have an impact on student learning.

Accomplishing these challenges is at the heart of a successful implementation of educational technology in schools. A description of these challenges follows.

* Challenge No. 1: How to change the classroom/school environment.

It's an awesome task to decide where to place computers in the classroom, what type of computer furniture to use or what software to select. Just ask any district's technology coordinator how many hours he or she devotes to these tasks. Unfortunately, the placement of new technology alone does nothing to change the environment in classrooms that has an impact on student achievement.

First, the debate about whether to deploy computers in classrooms or in computer labs should be settled once and for all. Access to computers and other technology should be ubiquitous for students and staff. Technology must be available to students in their classrooms.

Computer labs might be more convenient, less costly and easier to gain the support of staff. Unfortunately, 45 to 90 minutes a week in the computer lab does not foster the type of learning that will improve student achievement. Students need to interact with technology everywhere and at anytime.