למידה, אינטרנט ... ומה שביניהם

Fryer’s research found that the tutoring – pairing one tutor with two students – was extremely effective, equating to between five and nine extra months in school.

If computer-based tutoring could get anywhere CLOSE to the effect of human tutoring, of course we’d propose computer tutoring! Much, much cheaper. And computer tutoring [is] so durned hot right now.

Houston created a natural experiment. Only 6th and 9th graders got MATCH-style human tutoring, and that’s where scores rose. Kids in every other grade got computer tutoring, along with a longer day and different teachers, yet test scores didn’t move that much.

Computers are great for helping people learn what they want to learn. They’re not particularly good at getting someone to learn something they do not want to learn. For that, you need very skilled people (teachers and tutors) who can build relationships, use that to generate order and effort from kids, and then turn that effort into learning. A computer needs to start on “third base” — take effort and flip that into learning.

Fryer reported that over 7,000 students were enrolled in nine schools, and that all results were based on the sample of students who remained in school long enough to take the spring tests. He did not reveal how many students took those tests. Or if Fryer did, I could not find it.

תוויות: בלוגים, למידה, שימוש בבתי ספר

77 percent of students say technology improved grades

The survey showed that the positive results were strongly tied to proper use of the technology.

to hear the collective voice of American students and provides invaluable data on students’ needs, desires and dreams and how technology can help them achieve these goals.

Key findings in the report reflect students' desire for reliable, effective technology that is used consistently by instructors:

• Colleges should not implement technology for the sake of technology;
• When technology is deployed, make sure that it works; and
• Faculty members need to know how to use the technology and they should actually use it.

תוויות: טכנולוגיה, שימוש בבתי ספר, תשתיות

None of this has surprised those of us who, over the years, have pointed out the lack of cause-and-effect between technology use and student test scores. What did surprise me, however, were the responses of journalists, academics, teachers, CEOs, vendors, and others who read the New York Times piece last month.

So my 1985 prediction on teacher and student use of computers for classroom instruction was inaccurate and died a quiet death. Compassionate readers seldom remind me that I flopped in peeking into the future. The facts are clear that students and teachers use high-tech devices for instruction more than I had foreseen.

Moreover, a quarter-century ago I ended the book by urging a moratorium on buying more computers. Whoa, was that a loser of a recommendation! Worse yet, I even repeated the call for a moratorium on deploying computers in schools—for largely the same reasons—in 2001. Of course, these calls were ignored then as they would be now.

תוויות: טכנולוגיה, מבחנים, שינוי

Finally, while SB 547 attempts to improve the API, it relies on the same quantitative and standardized paradigm at the heart of the current system. The criticism of the API is that it has led schools to focus too narrowly on tested subjects and ignore other subjects and matters that are vital to a well-rounded education. SB 547 certainly would add more things to measure, but it is doubtful that it would actually improve our schools. Adding more speedometers to a broken car won’t turn it into a high-performance machine.

Instead of recognizing that perhaps we have reached testing nirvana, editorialists and academics alike call for ever more measurement “visions and revisions.”

A sign hung in Albert Einstein’s office read “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”

SB 547 nowhere mentions good character or love of learning. It does allude to student excitement and creativity, but does not take these qualities seriously because they can’t be placed in a data stream. Lost in the bill’s turgid mandates is any recognition that quality is fundamentally different from quantity.

תוויות: הערכה, מבחנים, סטנדרטים

If students want to learn in isolation; if they want to sit at a desk and work on their own stuff, occasionally checking in with an "expert," they have no reason to come to school. They can do a lot better at home, or at their local coffee shop or even the public library, where both the coffee and the WiFi connection will be better.

תוויות: תכנית התקשוב

I have begun to think it is dangerous to consider the digital, the online, the technological, as separate from the whole.

It’s not that I don’t acknowledge differences between the relationships, work tasks, and communication we engage in online and those we engage in face-to-face. But I also acknowledge differences between relationships, work tasks, and communication in various face-to-face settings, and it has always been that way. If we say “online community” instead of just “community”, we imply a separate reality that may or may not be the case.

A class is a class to me, whether it’s taught under a tree, or in a circle, or over the internet, or by hand-written snail mail.

תוויות: דיגיטאליות, למידה, סביבה לימודית

... it’s more like Groundhog Day where we are constantly stuck in act 1 of our determined effort to integrate the use of computers and networks into the practice of classroom teachers. Year after year fighting the same battles of not enough access for kids and too many administrators and teachers saying it’s important while still treating technology use as an optional nice-to-have extra.

this fall we will be seriously implementing a program to allow students to bring their own computing devices (BYOD) to school and use them in class. A few schools have been experimenting with this idea for a few years but now the concept has the blessing of the school board and the announced support of the top administrators, potentially making it harder for principals and teachers, especially in high schools, to avoid using technology for more than just standardized testing.

From the point of view of some of us, there is another strategy, one that is a little more disruptive one that goes beyond simply shifting from analog materials to digital ones.

Teachers still need to manage much of the process of learning in school. Manage but not control, a distinction that may be a difficult transition. Also tough, will be the realization that large parts of the curriculum are irrelevant when you have a room full of devices that can easily retrieve basic facts as well as communicate with anyone to develop the meaning of those facts.

תוויות: הטמעה, כלים אישיים, פני החינוך, שימוש בבתי ספר