Study Links Lower Grades to Computer Use
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Before you jump to invalid conclusions, read the second last
paragraph
"Perhaps not surprisingly ....."
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By Jay Mathews Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, September 30,
1998; Page A3
The nation's largest study examining the use of computers in schools
has concluded that the $5 billion being spent each year on
educational technology is actually hurting children in many cases
because the computers aren't being put to good use.
The study of nearly 14,000 fourth and eighth graders released
yesterday showed that students who spent more time on computers in
school actually scored worse on math tests than students who spent
less time with computers. The students' lower scores appeared to be
caused by the ineffective but widespread use of computers for
repetitive math drills, instead of simulations and real-life
applications of math concepts, computer uses that seem to improve
math scores.
The research by New Jersey-based Educational Testing Service offers
the first solid evidence of what works and what doesn't when
computers are used in the nation's classrooms. While educators have
known for some time that having PCs in the classroom was useful in
teaching computer use itself, several earlier studies have provided
no conclusive evidence that the new technology was any better as a
tool than pencils and paper in teaching children to read, write and
do mathematics.
Overall, the new study found, computers can be an important learning
tool, but only in certain circumstances and when teachers are
well-skilled in their use.
The study's author, Harold Wenglinsky, also identified a troubling
racial element in the varying use of computers. His work indicated
that black children use computers to learn mathematics somewhat more
often than white children, but that blacks are far more likely than
whites to engage in the less useful drill and practice exercises.
The new study "is a step in the right direction," but "I wish we did
not have to have tens of billions of dollars go down the drain to
reach this point," said William L. Rukeyser, whose Woodland,
Calif.-based organization Learning in the Real World is devoted to
the study of educational technology.
The research was paid for by ETS and published by the Bethesda-based
newspaper Education Week with funding from the Milken Family
Foundation. The foundation's best-known executive, financier Michael
Milken, has been investing heavily in new technology for classrooms.
Wenglinsky used the test scores from a nationally representative
sample of about 6,600 fourth graders and 7,100 eighth graders who
took the mathematics section of the 1996 National Assessment of
Educational Progress, the most extensive study of student
achievement in the country. In 1996 the test for the first time
asked teachers how they used computers, allowing Wenglinsky to focus
on how different uses affected test scores.
Wenglinsky said that after applying statistical techniques to
eliminate the influence of factors such as family income, class size
and teacher qualifications, he found a strong connection between
certain kinds of technology use, higher scores and improved school
climate.
Eighth graders whose teachers used computers for simulations of such
concepts as velocity, by showing the up and down movements of an
elevator alongside a graph of its changing speed, for example,
scored higher by two-fifths of a grade level than students using
computers in other ways. Eighth graders who used computers primarily
for drill and practice - for such exercises as dividing fractions,
for example - scored more than half a grade lower than students who
used the computers in other ways.
MaryJo Watson, an instructional technology specialist for the
Fairfax County schools, said the study's negative view of drill and
practice fits her observations. "When you take the same material
that was on paper, there is not much more to it when you put it on
the computer," she said. "It still does not engage the student."
The research showed no discernible difference in scores of fourth
graders whose teachers used simulations and applications. Wenglinsky
suggested this might be due to the scarcity of teachers who use
those methods with such young students.
Fourth graders whose teachers had them do mathematical learning
games on computers, however, scored about 15 percent of a grade
level better than those who did not.
Perhaps not surprisingly, students whose teachers had been trained
in teaching with computers did better than students whose teachers
lacked such training. Low-income and black students were the least
likely to have teachers who exploited all of the computers' possible
uses.
In an interview, Wenglinsky said he could not reach definite
conclusions about the impact of other kinds of computer use. The
fact that students who use computers more in school have lower
scores may reflect that "above a certain level of use they are doing
things that are more entertainment-oriented."
-- Teaching consists of causing people to get into situations from which they cannot escape except by thinking. -- Howard CampionRegards brd
Bernard Robertson-Dunn Canberra Australia brd@dynamite.com.au