After reading all three articles concerning different factors that played a role in ensuring positive results when integrating technology in the classroom, a few main themes seemed to emerge under which most of the individual factors would fall.
The first theme was access to computers at school. In one study conducted in 2005 by O'Dwyer, Russell, Bebell and Tucker-Seeley, it was found that fourth grade students were likely to have higher language arts and writing test scores on state measured assessment tests after the students reported that they had greater frequency of using technology at school in order to help them accomplish such things as editing papers. In yet another school example, students in seventh and eighth grades saw significant increases by about 10 to 30 percentage points in state administered assessment tests, after being given access to wireless laptop computers at school. According to the Learning form Case Studies of Technology Integration article, "Without access to computers when students are engaged in a related project, technology cannot be considered integrated into the curriculum and instructional context." Lastly, teachers need to have reliable equipment and Internet access at school and adequate technical support in order to ensure that every student has computer access at school.
A second theme that emerged from reading the articles was the inclusion of all students in computer usage including students who speak English as a second language, special education students and students in schools in lower socioeconomic areas. One article included a study that was done in which the researchers measured the computer usage in public schools where there were more higher-income families and schools that included more lower-income students. The study found that 61% of teachers in public schools with higher-income students used computers in their classrooms versus 50% of the teachers in the lower-income schools.
The use of computers in helping English language students and special education students, enables these students to now learn by writing e-mail, conducting on-line research and adjusting the text styles and fonts. With the addition of these items, students are better able to understand the subject material and be tested in a manner easier for them to comprehend.
A final theme that emerged was the idea of the teacher's background and training with computers. These included such things as a teacher's demographics, his or her beliefs and attitudes and a teacher's training on educational technology and how to incorporate it in his or her classroom. In an article entitled Factors affecting technology integration in K-12 classrooms: a path model, the researchers found that a teacher's readiness, his or her beliefs and computer availability were the three most important factors with a significant positive effect on technology integration in a classroom.
Although the above listed themes did not encompass every factor influencing the success of computers in helping children achieve better learning results, they managed to address quite a few of the obstacles that teachers face when trying to incorporate an educational technology component into part of a unit lesson. With that being said, there are a few things that teachers can do to address some of the above issues.
In the case of access to computer usage at school, a teacher can request to have access to computers at the school even if they are not provided in the individual classrooms. This might require some adjustments to the teacher's own teaching schedule, to allow for adequate computer usage but certainly should take precedence into the lesson planning stages if this is considered a vital component to the overall unit lesson. In addition, teachers can assign students to groups to ensure adequate computer usage and might also contribute to the time factor. Often times students can learn from other students and the slower students would not negatively affect the overall time constraint given on the teacher in planning computer access time.
Another factor that the teacher can have direct control over is his or her own attitude and belief and in some cases training on computers. Certainly a teacher is able to control his or her own attitude and beliefs about computers simply by making a commitment to do so, or if necessary, attending a seminar or researching on line some of the benefits and ways to use technology in helping students. A teacher can also request to his or her school district to allow him or her to attend additional training either in person or on line as a way to help with training and exposing himself or herself to the different programs and methods that exist in helping to educate students. In the ever changing world of computers, it is important that everyone in their career keep up on new technology as a way to help them.
Once a teacher makes the decision to integrate technology into his or her classroom and is able to ensure access to all the students in the classroom, the next step is to incorporate the use of this computer technology into a lesson plan or unit. There are a couple of ways that I would go about evaluating the success of a unit or lesson plan that involved the integration of new technology. The first thing that I would do would be to present my lesson plan in a format that did not include technology. For example, if presenting a lesson plan on American Indians, I would teach the information without the use of computers and then give the students an oral or written assessment to see what information they retained. Then I would plan another lesson plan on American Indians and within that lesson plan I would either require the students to use the computer themselves in researching information or pictures or I would use the computer in presenting the information to them. At the end of this I would then assess them orally or with a written test. Lastly, I would present a lesson plan on American Indians and I would teach with some educational technology and some oral or hands on approach and I would assess them using educational technology. This way I could try to determine in which way did the use of computer technology seem to affect their learning.
I am a firm believer in helping others in their quest to be successful. Often times it is easier for a person to learn from several different people than to simply learn from just one person. This enables a person to compile different types of information and apply them in their own way. In disseminating my success and failures to my colleagues and others I would present them with the information from above that I was able to compile. Meaning that I would share with them the three different approaches to the lesson plans that I explained from above, and I would also share with them my results that I found in using the different methods. I would also try the same tactic on a different subject such as the study of the human body in science. This way the results would be less likely to be attributable to the subject material itself versus the medium.
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