Evaluating Technology

Pamela Wilson
Blog
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As I was reading chapter five in Johnston and Cooley (2001), I was struck by the statement that even though many teachers are excited about using technology in the classroom, there is not much to support the assumption that “technology investments yield a return in terms of student achievement” according to Bartles in2000 (p.79). This was interesting to me because as a teacher I am encouraged to become acquainted with the available technology and use it as much as possible in my classroom. I assumed that studies existed which supported this view. I tried to look up some of the websites that were listed in the reference section of our book which were related to technology in the classrooms. Since our text is over eight years old, I found that none of the sites that I attempted to open were still supported and updated. I searched Carlson library for evaluations and found an article by Greg Farr, the principal at Shannon Learning Center, a high school for at-risk students in Texas.

Farr’s article (2009) was in favor of the complete use of technologies because “to allow anything less is to inexcusably ignore the most valuable educational tools available to us (n.p.). Farr believes that students have access to technology outside of the school, so we should let them use it in school with proper supervision and parameters. He thinks that all technology including cell phones, iPods, PDAs, iPhones, laptops, and social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook can be used for educational purposes. Farr (2009) likens prohibiting technology in the school to “going back to the 1950s-1960s-1970s formats of standup, teacher-led lectures, accompanied by worksheets and textbooks” (n.p.).

The Instructional Technologist at Farr’s school talked with students about their views on the use of technology in school. The students were provided with a video camera and instructed to go around and videotape other student’s views on the use of technology in school. The result is a six minute video which can be viewed on YouTube at BISD What If…. I viewed the video and some of the students have very creative ideas for the use of technology in the classroom. There is one caveat to the use of cell phones, however. That is the fact that students can videotape with them. In a former class I read an article about students deliberately provoking teachers as a class and then videotaping their anger and posting the video on YouTube. I searched YouTube under angry teacher and viewed some of them. It isn’t professional for a teacher to lose control, but it wasn’t nice of the students either. A teacher would have to be aware that if cell phones are allowed in the classroom, the possibility of being videotaped exists.

Farr’s article is informative, but it includes no concrete evaluations to show that technology does enhance student’s learning. I performed an internet search and found numerous books and articles on evaluating educational technology, but they were all ranging in the mid-nineties. These would be obsolete. I am interested in researching the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow cited in Johnston and Cooley (2001) but that also dates back to 1998 (pg. 88). My personal opinion is that technology can be a valuable tool to use to engage students in learning. When I create projects in my classroom using technology, the students respond enthusiastically. I think that like any tool, it is only valuable if used efficiently.

Reference

Farr, G. (2009). “Mad” Magazine to Facebook: what have we learned? Teacher Librarian 36(5), 30-32.

Johnston, M. & Cooley, N. (2001). What we know about: supporting new models of teaching and learning through technology. Arlington, Virginia: Educational Research Service.