[TIPS] study to determine if technology helps students learn

Here’s another article that was included in a recent ASCD brief. http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071124/LOCAL/711240506/1196/LOCAL11 Indiana University will receive a $3.1 million grant to study how effective technology is in helping students learn. This will be one of the most watched studies in recent years, I’m sure, as districts around the nation –the WORLD – are asking if the money spent on technology is worth it.

Now, I don’t want to come off sounding like I’m making excuses before the facts are known, but I would like to ask a question of my own before the study starts. What is the alternative?

I hope that the study doesn’t just look at test scores, for example. I know that test scores can make or break a district in these days of NCLB, but I wonder if Vicki Davis’ and Julie Lindsey’s students are scoring higher on their tests. And if not, I wonder how anyone could possibly say that this project isn’t worth EVERY OUNCE of effort and EVERY second of lost sleep in terms of what it did for these students to connect them to the world like that? Will that experience show up on a test score? Probably not. Will it change how they look at their world? Most definitely.