Derek's Blog

Educause referenced an article on the BBC News site today called Doubts about school computer use . The Educause newsletter states...

A recent study of the effects of computer use on teenage students suggests that increased computer use may result in lower academic performance. The authors of the study, Thomas Fuchs and Ludger Woessmann of the CESifo economic research organization in Munich, looked at data on many thousands of students in 31 countries. Initial results indicated a positive relationship between computers and academic achievement, specifically in math and reading. When the results were adjusted, however, to compensate for the higher levels of wealth and education in homes where computers are more likely to be present, the data showed that the more computers there are in the home, the lower the student's performance. In addition, despite showing higher test scores for increased time spent using computers at home, the study showed that the more time students spent using computers at school, the lower their test scores. According to the report, "the initial positive pattern on computer availability at school simply reflects that schools with better computer availability also feature other positive school characteristics."

Reports like this create concern for me. While I acknowledge the need for a critical review of computer use in schools, the underpinning assumptions being made in this research must also be critically looked at. In this case, there is an assumption that a direct link must exist between computer use and achievement (as determined by a conventional testing regime that has evolved to suit the existing pedagogy of face-to-face and book-based learning). What this report reinforce is that access to computers, along with books in libraries, science equipment and other educational facilities, will increase the likelihood of better learning outcomesfor students. On their own, however, without the thoughtful integration into carefully planned programmes of learning, such resources are unlikely to produce any benefit, and, in the case of computers, may result in a considerable amount of "non-productive" engagement, potentially culminating in lower achievement levels.
The main problem with this article, I feel, lies in the title - it doesn't, for me, raise doubts about school computer use, rather it confirms doubts about the claims made by some about school compuer use!
Intersting to note the following, also from the BBC News site...
Games deserve a place in class
Games help street teens learn
Computer exam even more popular

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lisa sent me this link this morning called Schools our kids would build.
The article describes the historical development of school design, then describes some of the findings that emerged from the "Schools I'd Like" competetion run in the UK, producing dozens of models, hundreds of plans, and thousands of implied designs of ideal sites for learning, all submitted by children and young people. The article reports...

These design ideas address more than the shape of building and the ordering of spaces; they tell of a vision of education that reaches beyond the strict mechanics of building science. The children seem to want schools not to resemble schools at all, but to resemble the adult world where individual privacy, comfort, and relaxation were permitted.

Perhaps we could do something like that in NZ to help inform the development of thought from our own secondary futures project, or the Ministry's NZ Schooling Strategy work, currently out for consultation.
Take a peek also at the photographs and information about Contemporary School Building Design in NZ on the MoE website - it would be useful to consider wher the alignment might be between what our students suggest and these examples??

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I've just arrived back from a visit to the West Coast of the South Island, working there with principals from the various secondary schools that are part of the WestNet cluster. Schools over there have had a bit of a pasting recently from ERO, but these guys are determined to bounce back and look for innovative ways of resolving some of the issues that have been identified.

I have to mention the facilitator of the WestNet cluster - Vicki Smith. This woman is amazing - not just because of the miles she clocks up travelling around all the schools in the region, but also because of her other online interest. Vicki is part of a small, international group of online artists known as Avitar Body Collision .

They use a product called UpStage , a new medium for online performance, theatre and storytelling. It is a web-based venue and tool for artists to compile different digital media for textual and audiovisual communication into a live performance, in real time, for online audiences.

Vicki and her team have organised events involving students from the West Coast schools using UpStage - read about these on the Avitar Body Collision Website.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a paper that has hit the lists this week - George Seimens and Stephen Downes both commenting on it!
Titled The use of computer and video games for learning - a review of the literature written by Alice Mitchell and Carol Savill-Smith, it provides a comprehensive review of the literature on computer gaming as it applies to education, with overviews of the learning impact, psychological impact, and more. The survey also covers the types of ways games can be used in learning and discusses design recommendations.
Check out what what Robin Good has to say about the article on his blog!

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm at the TUANZ Broadband Reloaded conference in Hastings at the moment, chairing the eLearning group discussions. We've had some challenging presentations to stimulate our thinking about how we might take advantage of the opportunities that Broadband will provide.

Among these was Bill St Arnaud , Senior Director, Advanced Networks for CANARIE Inc in Canada, who provided us with a detailed insight into how, in various areas of Canada, the provision of Broadband to the Universities, and from there to the regions around them, has enabled educational institutions and schools to access a wide range of learning opportunities not previously within their reach.

Examples of these include:

• ALTA, an online project where students can conduct fundamental research into the nature of high energy cosmic rays (and related topics).
  
• Neptune a virtual aquarium project situated off the West Coast of Canada, enabling students to take control of a submersable camera from their desktop!
  

These sorts of projects illustrate very well the creative and constructive ways in which broadband technologies can enable high quality learning experiences for students regardless of location etc. During the conference I have spoken to several people who are looking at ways of involving NZ students in some of these (and other) broadband enabled projects.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An article in today's Guardian newspaper reports that schools are being told to stop students taking time off school to revise for exams after research showed that keeping them in supervised lessons led to dramatically higher grades. It seems that computer gaming is seen as the culprit here...

The move reflects fears that a 'PlaySation generation' of boys in particular is using the traditional few weeks of home leave before their GCSEs to play computer games and hang out with friends rather than study. A third of the boys picked up in government 'truancy sweeps' claim to be on study leave

What is being suggested is that schools retain their students for organised revision at the school. Within the body of the article it was heartening to see some innovative and alternative solutions being suggested, including:

Students at specialist schools will also get 'e-mentoring' next year, with students given an email address for a teacher or sixth former available to answer questions about revision.

The move is seen as benefitting boys primarily, with boys now comprehensively outstripped at both GCSE and A-level by girls.
Would be interesting to know the extent of this problem in NZ?? If so - what are some other, innovative solutions
Also raises the question for me again about how well our current school and exam system is catering for these digital natives?

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Earlier this week I was enthusing with a colleague about the potential use of the iPod in education, especially with the announcement of the picture-capable iPodsrecently. The I come across this site called the EduPodder . It's a work in progress - no content there yet, but a useful description of what to expect...

If you know how a desktop aggregator like NetNewsWire works, you know you subscribe to a set of RSS feeds. Using the aggregator you easily view the new stuff from all the feeds you have subscribed to together, or can see each feed separately. The format used is RSS 2.0 which supports enclosures.

Podcasting works in a similar way. Except, instead of having to read the new content on a computer screen, you can listen to the new audio content on a portable device like an iPod as well as your computer.

The site's creator, Steve Sloan has also got a EduPodder Weblog going to discuss the possibilities of "PodCasting"!
I'll certainly be going back to this site to see what develops.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An article in Saturday's Auckland Herald titled Counting the Costs of Technology in Schools drew my attention and got me thinking about the wave of concern being expressed about the benefits of technology in schools. As someone who holds an 'optomistic view' about the use of ICT in education, I am also aware that there needs to be a balance in the debate about exactly why and how ICTs are being integrated and used in our school classrooms. American journalist Todd Oppenheimer, whose book The Flickering Mind and article The Computer Delusion has contributed significantly to this discussion, as has Larry Cuban from Stanford University with his Computers, oversold and underused .

The Herald article focuses on a "value for money" argument, and quotes Massey University's Dr Mark Brown who states; "There isn't really evidence that is convincing enough to show that the money is being spent with returns that would match expectations."

Along similar lines, an October 1 report published in eSchool News Online reports on the Alliance for Childhood's recent report called Tech Tonic: Towards a New Literacy of Technology challenges education standards and industry assertions that all teachers and children, from preschool up, should use computers in the classroom to develop technology literacy. The report asserts this expensive agenda ignores evidence that high-tech classrooms have done little if anything to improve student achievement. It notes that children's lives are increasingly filled with "screen time" rather than real time with nature, caring adults, the arts, and hands-on work and play--activities that are far more important for the social development and well-being of children, it says.

The two arguments that feature strongly in the papers and articles referred to above are:

1. the unfulfilled promise of increasing student achievement through the use of computers, and
   
2. the notion that children are spending too much time in front of computers to develop 'technology literacy', at the expense of more 'healthy' pursuits.

Personally, I feel the debate needs to look more deeply than these two arguments.

For each Oppenheimer article there's a counter reponse , similarly with Larry Cuban as recorded in the noted Pea and Cuban debate

If such reports can prompt a greater level of intellectual rigor and self reflection among the educational community then I'm all for it - problem is that too often they are used to support a pre-determined position.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 9:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)