As students start to go back to school around about now, I came across a rather timely article recently in Education Week’s Digital Directions which examined the challenges that face schools when adopting new technology for education.
The article focuses on the Mooresville School District in North Carolina which rolled out an ambitious laptop initiative three years ago. The district gave over 5,000 laptops to students - everyone from 4th grade to high school. We are told that Superintendant Mark Edwards had braced himself in advance for the expected drop in grade scores as students and teachers adjusted to using the technology and the digital curricula.
Interestingly, just the opposite happened.
In just 3 years the district went from ranking 30th in the state in school performance to 4th place. There were changes in other areas of performance also, suspensions dropped by 65% at the high school and district-wide by 50%. In further reading about the programme I learned that drop-out rates deceased quite dramatically and graduation numbers increased.
Edwards tells us that the programme has been as success because students like using the relevant tools and materials, are more engaged and excited about school, and importantly, they are seeing the link between what they are doing in class and what they will do in the future.
Whilst Mooresville have fully committed to technology in schools, the article goes on to look at the challenge for schools just starting out on their journey and how they can balance introducing innovation whilst maintaining test scores.
Christopher Dede, a professor of educational technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education uses use the analogy of a hospital when he talks about achieving a balance. He proposes that if a hospital with a high death rate refused to try new, modern practices because they'd be unsure of the outcome or that there might be a learning curve, then people would be upset because they're maintaining a bad situation under the guise of being accountable.
Dede reminds us that schools are accountable to students in areas other than just test scores such as, providing high quality education and are accountable to parents and local business in producing students well prepared for college and work.
The Chappaqua Central School District, near New York City, has moved to create a model that reflects Dede's multi-dimensional accountability scale. We’re told that in 2007, the district's school board adopted a strategic question as an underlying philosophy of education. The question asks how the district can go beyond content knowledge and focus to ensuring that all students learn to think deeply, support their thinking, apply problem-solving skills and actively participate in their learning.
Darleen M. Nicolosi, the director of instructional technology for the district is quoted in the article saying, "We try to move beyond the test scores to more creative and critical thinking for our students."
Importantly, the district doesn't separate the use of new technology from that goal, as Nicolosi sets out;
"We're not focused on technology bells and whistles. We're focused on what improves teaching and learning."
I was particularly interested in this article because in developing tools for spoken language learning, Learnosity have always innovated with education goals in mind. Our solutions deliver real, measurable success for our customers and it’s not a case of technology for technology’s sake.
Similar to those examples in this article, we have seen how students improve language skills, confidence and motivation through using Learnosity Voice through computers, mobile phones, iPods etc.
To read more, check out our latest Case Studies.
