The second day started off with Doug Snow talking about expectations and define the broad path the projects are to take. The first year should evolve around four main categories - define, design, deploy and reflect. David Silvernail, one of the researchers, presents the multi-year research and evaluation strategies - a mixed methods approach. Shortly as below:
1. Longitudinal survey studies with teachers, students, principals and others.
2. Selected visits and observation.
3. Interviews with stratified samples of school personell.
4. Analysis of documents.
5. Controlled experimental and quasi-experimental studies.
The core research has been focusing on three major general questions:
-> How are the laptops beeing used by teachers and students?
-> What are the benefits and impacts of the laptops on instruction and learning?
-> What are the costs of the middle school laptop program?
I'm just gonna throw some numbers out for reflection:
Frequent usage of the computer (>few times per week):
1. Curriculum:
"Use your laptop to develop instructional material" - 83%
"Use the laptops for formative assessment" - 53%
2. Communication:
"Use your laptop to record student grades" - 76%
"Use your laptop to communicate with parents and students" - 75%
3. Over time usage curriculum:
"Use laptop to develop instructional material" - 57% in 2003 up to 83% in 2010.
4. Over time communication:
"Use your laptop to communicate with parents and students" - 40% 2003 up to 75% in 2010.
5. Student reported laptop use in classes:
"Mathematics" 46% of the teachers never use computers. Only 15% use it more than 4 hours per week.
"Arts and music" 51% of the teachers never use computers. Only 10% use it more than 4 hours per week. (To me, really strange).
6. Pretty equal usage of the computers when related to age.
7. Teachers self-reported competency in integrating the laptops into the lessons
9% not at all competent. 21% slightly competent.
8. Many teachers feel that they are being more student centered than teacher centered with the computers. A clear shift.
I shall probably just leave all this data for later. If someone wants more data just get back to me.
One thing that stands out for me, in a good way, is the question "The laptops have become such an important tool in my teaching that I cannot image teaching without them" - 51% strongly agrees and 23% somewhat agrees. I think this is a main question in a Swedish context too. I find a lot of teachers saying that they could not go back to a non-computer savvy environment or even stating that they possibly could not go back to a non 1-to-1 environment. There are a number of reasons for that of course, but the main reason seem to be that it is so much easier to communicate, structure the daily work and beeing a lot more transparent towards colleagues and students. But that's not an easy task and I think that is one of the main reasons some teachers just don't like or see the value in technology.
torsdag 5 maj 2011
onsdag 4 maj 2011
Back to Maine
And back to the blog. It's been quite some time since I last updated this blog. Except for a few short updates I haven't really written at all. The reason for the blog was to cover Maine 2010, which I think I did pretty well. Yeay! You can read them below. However, Twitter has given me a couple of new followers and I thought it would be a good idea to refer to some of discussions taking place over here, 2011.
Most of us here seem to have had a great experience at the difference school visits this morning. I had the opportunity to visit Yarmouth High School and meet a couple of teachers and students, also visiting some classrooms. Oh, and they are starting to use Google Apps. I actually asked them last year why they didn't. The answer was that they already had an application for the same things that Google Apps could do. Perhaps not.
What stroke most of us was the students awareness of the implication that technology can have on their individual development, specifically when we discussed creativity and innovation. There have also been a lot of discussions regarding game based learning. There are some definite signs that game based learning will have a great impact on schools and learning.
There are two question that I try to figure out and understand regarding school development right now - why, how and where will game based learning impact day-to-day work in schools. It's obviously a nobrainer that it's attractive for the students, but then there are teachers, curriculums and other questions that needs to be adressed and put into a context.
The second question is how to build a sustainable learning environment. With and without technology. I've been working with 1-to-1-schools since the beginning of 2008. It still is the most important question. And I don't mean that in a general way or as a theoretical question, what I mean is - for example, why do some schools never have a teacher quitting, students skypeing with nobel prize winners and serve, despite being 550 students, only vegetarian food made locally? Why does a newly started school attract 350 students the first year and 800 students year two, while located in one of Swedens best school communes - and still delivering on so many different levels? Or companies calling the CEO to hear if they are going to start a school in the same commune as they, and if they are, they rather choose to not compete. I've been trying to speak as much as possible to the teachers and principals to understand the context in why, what and how they've made it work. There are some things in common but for now I'll keep them to myself. I need to get a deeper understanding and try my theories out.
Most of us here seem to have had a great experience at the difference school visits this morning. I had the opportunity to visit Yarmouth High School and meet a couple of teachers and students, also visiting some classrooms. Oh, and they are starting to use Google Apps. I actually asked them last year why they didn't. The answer was that they already had an application for the same things that Google Apps could do. Perhaps not.
What stroke most of us was the students awareness of the implication that technology can have on their individual development, specifically when we discussed creativity and innovation. There have also been a lot of discussions regarding game based learning. There are some definite signs that game based learning will have a great impact on schools and learning.
There are two question that I try to figure out and understand regarding school development right now - why, how and where will game based learning impact day-to-day work in schools. It's obviously a nobrainer that it's attractive for the students, but then there are teachers, curriculums and other questions that needs to be adressed and put into a context.
The second question is how to build a sustainable learning environment. With and without technology. I've been working with 1-to-1-schools since the beginning of 2008. It still is the most important question. And I don't mean that in a general way or as a theoretical question, what I mean is - for example, why do some schools never have a teacher quitting, students skypeing with nobel prize winners and serve, despite being 550 students, only vegetarian food made locally? Why does a newly started school attract 350 students the first year and 800 students year two, while located in one of Swedens best school communes - and still delivering on so many different levels? Or companies calling the CEO to hear if they are going to start a school in the same commune as they, and if they are, they rather choose to not compete. I've been trying to speak as much as possible to the teachers and principals to understand the context in why, what and how they've made it work. There are some things in common but for now I'll keep them to myself. I need to get a deeper understanding and try my theories out.
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