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This appears to be a dump of randomly selected research papers, many of which don't measure anything remotely connected to outcomes. The standard practice seems

This appears to be a dump of randomly selected research papers, many of which don't measure anything remotely connected to outcomes. The standard practice seems to be to do a bunch of surveys afterwards to measure how awesome everyone thought everything had been. However, I did appreciate this bit from the ed.gov one: "An unexpected finding was the small number of rigorous published studies contrasting online and face-to-face learning conditions for K–12 students." No shit.

guptaneil 16y ago
The data set is too small to achieve a conclusive outcome yet. As more classrooms experiment with these technologies, we'll get more insights. Until then, surveys are the best way to get an idea of how something is working for students. As for the random dump of research papers, I tried originally offering a more succinct argument with an anecdote, but you wanted more evidence so I obliged.
- onan_barbarian 16y ago
  From what I've seen, so far, when actual outcomes are measured for the whole 'computers in schools', rigorous studies tend to show negative or inconclusive effects. I'm sure that surveys asking questions like "Was everything MOAR AWESUM in class today?" would have similarly suggested that everyone is more 'engaged' by the computers, but we don't go to school to be engaged, we go to school to learn. If we are 'engaged' by something irrelevant - for example, spending an hour dicking around with the fonts on a presentation - we might report wonderful levels of engagement while achieving zero outcomes.
  - guptaneil 16y ago
    Do you have any studies that show these negative effects you keep mentioning? I'm curious to see why they failed. Obviously just tossing technology into a classroom won't do anything, which is what most schools with iPad programs are doing. It has to be adopted by the instructor and actually integrated into the learning process, which is a difficult thing to do. I agree that surveys are not the most reliable or valid measure of success, but combined with the anecdotal evidence seen by the various experiments, there is a strong case to be made that technology has the potential to provide major positive changes once implemented properly. We have to start the search for the proper implementation somewhere.

guptaneil 16y ago

The data set is too small to achieve a conclusive outcome yet. As more classrooms experiment with these technologies, we'll get more insights. Until then, surveys are the best way to get an idea of how something is working for students. As for the random dump of research papers, I tried originally offering a more succinct argument with an anecdote, but you wanted more evidence so I obliged.

onan_barbarian 16y ago
From what I've seen, so far, when actual outcomes are measured for the whole 'computers in schools', rigorous studies tend to show negative or inconclusive effects. I'm sure that surveys asking questions like "Was everything MOAR AWESUM in class today?" would have similarly suggested that everyone is more 'engaged' by the computers, but we don't go to school to be engaged, we go to school to learn. If we are 'engaged' by something irrelevant - for example, spending an hour dicking around with the fonts on a presentation - we might report wonderful levels of engagement while achieving zero outcomes.
- guptaneil 16y ago
  Do you have any studies that show these negative effects you keep mentioning? I'm curious to see why they failed. Obviously just tossing technology into a classroom won't do anything, which is what most schools with iPad programs are doing. It has to be adopted by the instructor and actually integrated into the learning process, which is a difficult thing to do. I agree that surveys are not the most reliable or valid measure of success, but combined with the anecdotal evidence seen by the various experiments, there is a strong case to be made that technology has the potential to provide major positive changes once implemented properly. We have to start the search for the proper implementation somewhere.