SES Equity Update
Here is recent material we have added since writing the Primer.
Economists Robert W. Fairlie and Jonathan Robinson used an interesting "experimental" technique to investigate claims that academic accomplishments of children in lower income families were being hindered by the lack of technology in their homes. These researchers investigated access by placing donated used computers in the homes of randomly selected students (all students received a computer at the end of the one-year study). The approach addresses methodological concerns raised with much research addressing wealth in that key variables are seldom manipulated. In this case, eligible students from multiple classes were identified and then those to immediately receive a computer were randomly selected. After one year, those eligible students receiving and not receiving computers were compared on multiple variables. Students who received a computer did spend more total time working on a computer and spent more time on school-related and other computer activities - note that all had access in school and perhaps in other locations. There were no group differences in the total time spent doing home work and there were not differences in multiple measures of academic accomplishment. One other factor should be mentioned. The researchers made no effort to promote specific uses or prepare families to use the technology.
Think this study through and consider what you think happened. Perhaps the study does show that proposed benefits are not really there. Perhaps Ito (2010 - see analysis in the textbook) is right in explaining that the culture of wealth influences how technology will be used. Perhaps the time frame was too short. Perhaps parent development (much like staff development) would have made a difference.
Here is one factor I think was overlooked. In the effort to assure sound experimental control, the researchers may have overlooked a practical consequence of their method. I think teachers would have been reluctant to make assignments that would take advantage of technology. For example, you could not really propose that students use Internet search to investigate an assigned topic knowing for certain that some of your students would have no way to complete the assignment as home work. By randomly controlling access to technology, you have also limited the learning tasks that could be assigned. Perhaps while evaluating academic performance as a dependent variable, this was really an experiment investigating technology-enabled "informal learning" during the school year on school achievement.
This study has not been published at the time these comments were written, but you can read about the research at TechCrunch or by going to Dr. Fairlie's home page and downloading the paper.
In a study focusing on classroom rather than home differences, researchers Reich, Murnanem and Willett (2012) analyzed wikis create by K-12 students. Wikis were the focus because a wiki retains data that could be used to describe characteristics of how the wiki was developed. For example, it was possible to determine how many individuals participated in the creation of a given wiki page, which individual contributed which element appearing on a page, and the dates on which changes were made. These data are not actually there because of an interest in research. If you are familiar with wikis (e.g., wikipedia), you probably know that multiple authors of a page may disagree with what has been added to a page. For example, if you add something to a wiki page I created, I can "roll back" the page to my original version if I disagree with what was modified. I can do this because the wiki keeps track of changes and authorship.
So, the researchers proposed some interesting uses for these data. One focus was on the duration during which the wiki appeared to be active. So, the date of the last update could be compared with the date of the first update to define this variable. The researchers were also interested in what they defined as 21st century skills - e.g., collaborative production, use of multiple media to communicate. They examined individual wikis to score the frequency of multiple authors for individual pages and the use of multiple media. So, some interesting data were available. Here is what this study has to do with equity in the use of technology. After generating the data I have described, the researchers determined from public records whether the schools responsible for the wikis were Title One schools or not. Title One schools have a higher proportion of students from low income families. What they then determined was that the wikis in Title One schools were developed over a shorter period of time and contained fewer characteristics defined as evidence of 21st century skills.
It is very possible you might offer another explanation for the shorter development time and the different characteristics of the wikis, but the fact that these variables differed significantly is interesting. Why would this be the case? Were the teachers less experienced in the use of a wiki or did the teachers have different goals in mind? It is really not possible to know from the study, but the study does bear some similarity to the Wenlinsky ETS study we describe in the Primer. In the ETS study, teachers in schools with students from different home environments used math software in very different ways.
Finally, President Obama has announced a new program, ConnectED, to:
- Upgrade connectivity to assure that all schools with have "next-generation" broadband,
- Improve the schools of teachers so that educators are better prepared to apply new technologies in their classrooms, and
- Unleash the power of the private innovation to bring breakthrough technology into the schools - e.g., ebooks and better educational software, personalized approaches to learning and new tools for assessment.
The resources for these initiatives (details are unclear at this point) seem to come from better and different use of e-rate funds and Title II and Title VI funds.
Ito, M., Baumer, S., Bittanti, M., boyd, d., Cody, R., Herr-Stephenson, B., Horst, H.A., Lange, P.G., Mahendran, D. Martinez, K.Z., Pascoe, C.J., Perkel, D., Robinson, L., Sims, C., & Tripp, L. (2010). Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out: Living and learning with new media. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Mark Grabe and Cindy Grabe. GrabeGrabe6 (Kindle Locations 3896-3899).
Reich, J., Murnane, R.& Willett, J. (2012). The state of wiki usage in k-12 schools: Leveraging web 2.0 data warehouses to assess quality and equity in online learning environments. Educational Researcher, 41, 7-15.
Wenglinsky, H. (1998). Does it compute? The relationship between educational technology and student achievement in mathematics. Educational Testing Service Policy Information Center. Available: http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/PICTECHNOLOG.pdf.
ConnectEd outline (pdf)