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Title:
Do Electronic Technologies Increase or Narrow Differences in Higher Education Quality Between Low- and High-Income Countries?
by Norman Clark Capshaw
In developing the list, U.S. News also compiles statistics on the computer and Internet availability to students at the universities chronicled in its annual list. One of the data listed is the number of library volumes available at each institution. In addition, the list includes the number of computers available to students at the schools. It might be expected that, as the number of library volumes and the number of computers available to students increases, the ranking of the school would also climb. One would therefore expect a negative correlation1 between these variables and the institution’s rank.
This is indeed the case with the number of library volumes and volumes per student. The strong negative correlations indicate that there is some relationship between the number of library holdings and an institution’s place on the list. An even stronger correlation with volumes per student indicates that small-enrollment institutions with large library holdings are even more likely to be listed among the top schools (see Table 1). However, a counterintuitive result is obtained when analyzing the correlation of the number of computers available to students and an institution’s ranking (see Table 2). Alhough the correlation is small, its direction is counterintuitive and puzzling. It suggests that an institution suffers a penalty in its ranking when the number of computers it provides to students is large.
PEABODY JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, 83: 117–132, 2008
p. 119
That is puzzling.
I wonder what they found out about SMART Boards.
25 comments:
I just read today how technology mania will lead to the banning of books. I still like textbooks better than haphazard internet searches. Textbooks present organized knowledge written for a particular level. Internet searches can be all over the place and are not a substitute for a coherent curriculum.
Textbooks face ban under e-learning finance bill
Books would be banned from computer curricula
Mary Jo Pitzl
The Arizona Republic
May. 23, 2008 12:00 AM
Textbooks would have to be eliminated from classrooms that move to a digital curriculum under legislation that would provide a new way for schools to pay for computers necessary for "e-learning."
"The modern world has moved beyond textbooks," said Sen. Barbara Leff, R-Paradise Valley.
Computer-based learning is becoming the norm, she said, and can provide a variety of viewpoints, instead of those in just one textbook.
IN 1922 Thomas Edison predicted that "the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system and ... in a few years it will supplant largely, if not entirely, the use of textbooks."
The Computer Delusion
You have to appreciate the words "book banning" used in relationship to schools by state legislators.
Yes, please, Representative Leff.
I would like my taxes raised so our schools can burn their books and buy (more) computers.
Also SMART Boards.
No child should have to learn in a classroom without SMART Boards.
It's time for someone to address the SMART Board gap.
What is the Smart Board gap?
I feel very fortunate to have a smart board in my classroom. It enables me to do things that I couldn't do with a white board. Here are a few examples:
I can save the notes, where we've worked through steps in various colors, into a word document and email it to students who are absent.
I can work on a particular step of a math problem in large handwriting, then reduce it, safe it off to the side while we complete the solution, and refer back to it as needed.
It's great for sketching geometric figures (or importing them from the web) and manipulating them by rotating or reflecting, etc. You can clone objects, then reduce or expand them as needed in solutions. Or even to show a variety of solutions.
I'm able to collaborative with colleagues in other buildings or districts by sharing smartboard files.
It's been very helpful. If my district hadn't purchased it, I would have eventually.
pay no attention to me re: SMART Boards
I am a bitter crank on the subject of SMART Boards
You can have the textbook on the computer. Theoretically, it should be better than a paper textbook if you have a program that allows students to progress at their own speed. You could have a program that guides the student and provides intelligent support and formative assessment. You could have a program that doesn't allow students to proceed unless they they show timed mastery of the material. I can't say that I've seen such a thing, and there is nothing stopping schools from providing this sort of education with paper and pencil.
However, It has the potential (since schools love technology) to provide a way for kids of all abilitites to be in one classroom and still allow them to progress at their own speed. Perhaps this is the sort of disruptive innovation that would end up being not so disruptive, especially if kids can get an education in spite of what the teachers do (or not do). So, the question is whether a computer program can replace a teacher. A good teacher? No. But in many cases, I would say the answer is yes. The program could allow full individual acceleration.
I'm not talking about Google education. I'm talking about programs that are designed to do specific teaching jobs. EnVision Math by Scott-Foresman looks like it is computer-based and has individualized formative assessment, but it seems to have the aura and expectations of reform math. However, some rate it well.
I've mentioned before that in our schools, full-inclusion reigns supreme. Enrichment comes before acceleration. Perhaps if there are good individual learning programs, schools can continue to track kids by age, but allow them real individual acceleration of material. And, if it is individual, schools might give more curriculum choice to parents. If a child gets done with their normal work, then why shouldn't they be allowed access to an online Great Books Core Knowledge-style course?
My impression is that the current educational establishment doesn't really care about a lot of things as long as they are still in charge and certain assumptions are met. In our schools, there has to be a certain amount of time for mixed-ability work, but once that is met, I don't think they would see anything wrong with allowing kids to do their own individual work.
Technology is not intrinsically bad, although technology in the hands of educators usually goes very wrong, like our schools using kids' blogs for developing their "voice".
So, the question is whether there are any real (good?), individualized computerized math curicula. Maybe technology is the vehicle to achieve both full-inclusion and acceleration. As it is now with full-inclusion, teachers can't really teach anymore, they are just cruise directors.
The biggest problem with 'technology' isn't the technology, it's the lack of an infrastructure designed to take advantage of it.
At the risk of overusing (and being thrashed for) my Ferarri analogy...
You don't run such a vehicle on a dirt track!
Here's how it usually works. Somebody gets a technology grant, let's say smartboards are in. Your school gets two or three and the super gets kudos for bringing in technology. The problem is that if you are a classroom teacher that is really capable of exploiting this thing (like Concerned) there's no way you're going to build a delivery system around this thing for your classroom unless you can be guaranteed to have it in your room (working would also be nice) every single day! I don't want to build a lesson around it only to find out when I walk in the door that someone has signed it out to play internet games on Friday afternoon.
I buy my own laser printer, toner, and supplies because it's the only way I can be assured that I'll have the stuff I need, when I need it, every time, no exceptions. If I go back into a classroom, I'll be buying my own projector and sound system so that I can hook it to MY laptop and be prepared, always.
Buy the way, I live in New England so even if I could afford it, I wouldn't own a Ferarri. Our paved roads are very close to that dirt track. That does not however, prevent me from lusting after one.
"The biggest problem with 'technology' isn't the technology, it's the lack of an infrastructure designed to take advantage of it."
Our school has a computer lab in the library that is shared by four grades, so we're far from having the basics for supporting proper individualized computer-based education, even if you could find a good program.
This school year our PTO spent a fortune putting together a New Literacy event for parents. The takeaway theme was "forget the books". The speaker painted books as some archaic thing that will go the way of the Dodo. His prediction (and hope) was that our children would read everything on computer. Book were over.
Perhaps this explains why our multi-million dollar reno to the HS includes a library with almost no books at all. They were so excited about the technology they forgot to budget for books. Small problem with that, though. The state (being its archaic self) has requirements for a minimum number of books to attain certification. Whoops!
What WAS the Ferrari analogy?
I'm a little behind.
concerned if you're around - I talked to a veteran teacher the other day who thinks SMART Boards are a crock.
back story: I'm bitter about SMART Boards because my district is buying SMART Boards for every single classroom in the district, after having bought computer projectors for every single classroom in the new middle school building. Teachers are using the SMART Boards exclusively to project PowerPoints. Nothing else.
Basically, we're buying $4000 SMART Boards to do the job of the $400 projectors we already bought.
I'm told, as well, that a teacher at the high school "got in trouble" for not using his or her SMART Board. If that story is true - and I'm willing to believe it given the state of affairs around here - I find it appalling.
Moreover, the district has declined to offer any evidence whatsoever that SMART Boards will raise student achievement. When Ed cited the dismal history of technology in K-12 education (basically: no results ever) the answer was that all prior technology investments have failed because teachers didn't use them. It's the teachers' fault. SMART Boards will work, Ed was told, because teachers will use them.
In fact, teachers aren't using them. I don't know whether any teachers in the district are using them as SMART Boards rather than $4000 projector systems. Perhaps there are a few, but not one of my own kid's teachers is using them this way -- and I don't blame them.
Now we're all going to pony up money for "professional development opportunities" so teachers can be taught how to use them.
This will no doubt require release time from classes, which is also to be implemented next year.
Lots and lots of release time for professional development and interdisciplinary teaming.
Release time means an entire school day wasted because they shorten each class period to 20 minutes or thereabouts & nothing gets done.
boy
I am bitter.
I think I'll put my question in a separate comment.
OK, here's my question.
This teacher told me that it's not good for teachers to hand students the class notes or PowerPoints.
I hadn't thought of that; I had assumed it was obviously a good thing to have class hand-outs.
He said no. Kids need to take notes in class. Taking notes is practice in....processing what is being said, summarizing it, etc.
That made a huge amount of sense to me.
My one question is whether there's some way to create a "hybrid" -- in fact it's pretty hard to take notes as fast as you need to. (And, btw, I recently saw research saying that the MORE notes you take the better! Hope I can still find that. In other words, the common belief that you shouldn't write everything down was not supported in this study. The more you copied down, the better -- which is the way I've always taken notes myself.)
Anyway, there's a mechanical limit on note-taking.
C. says his social studies teacher gives them "fill in the blank" note-taking forms. (I haven't seen them; I may be mis-describing.)
That sounds like a terrific idea for 8th graders -- especially 8th graders who were never taught handwriting to mastery; they listen and fill in the word or phrase that fits.
I wonder whether those PowerPoint pages with the lines for notetaking would work as the "hybrid" I'm thinking of.
Anyway, do you have thoughts on the value of students taking the notes themselves as opposed to reading a teacher's notes?
All of the things concerned mentions sound great to me, btw -- "great" meaning very useful and a bona fide aide to teaching.
Here's the
Ferarri reference and it's on the same topic as this thread.
Paul - where's your blog?
I wonder whether those PowerPoint pages with the lines for notetaking would work as the "hybrid" I'm thinking of.
I agree that giving kids a complete verbatim copy of everything the teacher said is counterproductive, but I love having a copy of the ppt slides or an outline to take notes on. That is exactly what my gov't prof in college did; he had all his ppt files online, and suggested we print them out 3 slides to a page, with lines to the side of each slide for notetaking. I loved it, and I took the best notes in that class.
If the teachers are using PowerPoint correctly - just the main points on the slide, with the teacher filling in the details verbally - then I don't see the harm in letting the kids have a copy of PP slides ahead of time, and they can take notes on the handout, filling in whatever the teacher says that isn't on the page.
I'm hesitant, however, about fill-in-the-blank forms, unless they are *very* detailed (something to write down every 30-60 sec, at least), because IME it is too easy to blank out the rest, and miss important details.
The technology (Powerpoint) debate has been going on in our department for the last five or six years. I'm the chief luddite -- I pull out the laptop 2-3 times per year in General Chemistry and other than that I use the board. It helps me not go too fast, frankly, and I do believe there is something really useful about seeing, hearing, and writing a lecture all at once. It also lets me follow the students' lead when I ask them how we start a problem -- if I'm using powerpoint, I have to go with my plan even if they suggest another perfectly reasonable route.
On the other extreme is our organic professor, who has all of his lectures on powerpoint, and who has students buy a copy of all his slides. The problem (to my mind) is that students never get adept at drawing organic structures, because they don't need to. Some later faculty also complain that they get pressure to hand out all of their notes, even though they don't think that's best for the students.
I actually think that, in chemistry at least, there is a backlash against overuse of classroom technology. We just hired a new organic professor. During the interviews, each of our three candidates gave a mock lecture and a research talk. All three used powerpoint for the research talk, but none of the three used it for their mock lecture. Two of them used the board exclusively, and argued the chalkboard was better for keeping students engaged. Similarly, when I served on the math search committee, all of the sample lectures used the board. Interestingly, in my department, the older faculty generally use more technology than the younger ones.
Catherine:
My blog is When Galaxies Collide or click on Ferarri in my previous post to go directly to my technology post where I started the dreaded Ferarri analogy.
Here are some terrific places to feast upon when considering PowerPoint.
The first is a terrific book which I highly recommend called Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson.
The second is a website aimed specifically at presentation techniques called Presentation Zen.
The third is a blog by Dan Meyer called Dy/Dan. Dan is a passionate advocate of projecting media in his math classes.
Bottom line for all of these sources is DON'T USE POWER POINT to display text.
Lastly if you are still standing read my take on communication in the classroom.
As a parent, I am not convinced SMART boards are the best place to spend limited educational dollars. My son attends a high school that installed SMART boards in every math classroom. Terrific you say. Well, it might be but they do not have enough text books for every kid in class. Students are not allowed to take them home, even to study for tests. The official line was that the books were so old the district was unable to purchase replacement copies, nor did they want to since they were supposed to be replaced next year. I went online and purchased a used (but unused) copy for $4.00, something the school district should have done for the 20 or so copies they were short for less than $150.
When I attended his fall conference, his newbie teacher just gushed about how great it was to have a SMART board (as she fiddled around to project her on-line gradebook entries for my son on the board). When I told her I would have been more impressed with a textbook for each student, she just thought I was being cranky. Good grief, if students don't take meticulous notes (or if the teacher's explanation was less than thorough) how were the students supposed to learn the material?
As a relatively new teacher myself, I do not have the time in my day to pull together the material to effectively exploit the technology. In the 40 minutes a day I officially have to prep for 4 different classes, I need to focus on other things (timely grading, responding to parent emails, etc.) Do I see potential for the technology? Perhaps, but in all honesty, if my district had the funds for SMART boards I would rather the money be spent on printed books for a classroom resource library.
Paul,
Bad link for Dy/Dan - take out an extra "mr" for the correct one.
Link fixed to dy/dan
Thx for the heads up Wordsmith.
BTW: His site has been really, really slow for me for about a week now. It's worth the wait!
My favorite notes model from college was the prof who had a single handout sheet each lecture, with around half a dozen bulleted phrases for the agenda, and covered the rest of the page with period photographs, cartoons, maps, and other images for our reference.
The one I particularly remember -- 15 years later! -- is the one from the 1920s labor movement that had two Elvis Costello titles in the contents: "Accidents Will Happen" and "Watching the Detectives" (in this case, the Pinkertons). :-)
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