News of evaluating commercial educational software in the US

[Rory McGreal]

Bob,
Economists are still arguing about the cost-effectiveness and/or social
impact of introducing railroads to the US in the 19th Century. Was the
horseless carriage really better than the horse and carriage? I believe the
point is that if the whole world is using technology, why would we allow our
schools to remain as technology-deprived anachronistic havens that our
children have to escape from in order to experience the modern world.
All the best.
Rory  

-----Original Message-----
From: discussion-bounces at g1to1.org [mailto:discussion-bounces at g1to1.org] On
Behalf Of Robert Kozma
Sent: Saturday, April 07, 2007 10:02 AM
To: 'Sherry Hsi'; 'Tak-Wai Chan'; discussion at g1to1.org
Subject: RE: News of evaluating commercial educational software in the US

Sherry,

A somewhat different tack is that it is not just the introduction of
technology but the institution of other significant structural changes that
use technology in order for there to be a significant impact of ICT.  In
economic analyses, there was a five-year lag between the widespread
introduction of ICT in the US economy and its impact on productivity.
Despite the widespread use of ICT in the US in the early 90's, it was not
until the late 90's when technology was used to restructure businesses, such
as the retail sector (in what is sometimes unfortunately called "the
Wal-Mart Effect"), that US productivity dramatically increased.   

Clearly the IES study looked at the use of ICT that was merely pasted on
existing education practices.  It will take significant ICT-based structural
reform in education (and probably more than the 5-year lag in business)
before we see significant results.

Bob

 
____________________
 
Robert B. Kozma, Ph.D.
Emeritus Director and Principal Scientist
Center for Technology in Learning
SRI International
2151 Filbert St.
San Francisco, CA 94123
USA
 
CTL Website: http://ctl.sri.com
Personal Website: http://robertkozma.com
 
Phone +1 415 292 2471
Mobile +1 415 623 4340
-----Original Message-----
From: discussion-bounces at g1to1.org [mailto:discussion-bounces at g1to1.org] On
Behalf Of Sherry Hsi
Sent: Saturday, April 07, 2007 6:21 AM
To: Tak-Wai Chan; discussion at g1to1.org
Subject: Re: News of evaluating commercial educational software in the US

Hi Tak-wai,

Maybe we could write another response letter and post on our website.
(I am afraid to suggest this because I can't take the lead on this.)

Here are some things to note:
--the length of the study was 1 year...pretty short if you expect 
teachers to integrate and make into effective practices.
--the software they selected to evaluate were 
practice-oriented/drill-kill packages with little to no immediate 
student feedback nor student assessment (with exception to the 
Andersonian cognitive tutor-one of the five packages in the study.)
--The teacher training was given by the developers in how to use the 
software, not how to use the software effectively for pedagogy or 
content learning. (But then again, you can't do much with limited 
software.)
--The length of the intervention was on average 17 hours in one 
year--not a big allocation of time.

One could use this study as evidence to show that large-scale 
adoption of poorly designed/shallow software with little professional 
development to teachers shows no impact, thus better kinds of 
designed software (e.g., like WISE, Molecular Workbench, GenScope, 
SimCalc, Geometer's Sketchpad,...), more investment into research on 
online assessment and  meaningful feedback for learners, more 
effective teacher professional development, and more allocation of 
time in the curriculum are all needed to make real improvements.

Or, one could also use this study as ammunition to say all computer 
software and education technology in the classroom is evil and school 
districts are better off investing in more textbooks.

Who wants to take the pen?

-Sherry

>  Hi,
>
>A colleague sent me this:
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR200704040
2
>715.html
>
>In the article, Elliot expressed his worry.
>
>Do you think G1:1 community can help something?
>
>
>Regards,
>Tak-Wai
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>connect with G1:1 community -> discussion at g1to1.org
>subscribe/unsubscribe G1:1 discussion mailing list -> 
>http://mail.g1to1.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion

_______________________________________________
connect with G1:1 community -> discussion at g1to1.org
subscribe/unsubscribe G1:1 discussion mailing list ->
http://mail.g1to1.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion

_______________________________________________
connect with G1:1 community -> discussion at g1to1.org
subscribe/unsubscribe G1:1 discussion mailing list ->
http://mail.g1to1.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion


__ 
    This communication is intended for the use of the recipient to whom it
    is addressed, and may contain confidential, personal, and or privileged
    information. Please contact us immediately if you are not the intended
    recipient of this communication, and do not copy, distribute, or take
    action relying on it. Any communications received in error, or
    subsequent reply, should be deleted or destroyed.
---