Gathering empirical evidence supporting the positive results that education technologies can help to deliver.

I’ve decided to try putting together an online collection of reports and studies that examine the use of education and instructional technologies, and how effectively they have been used to improve learning outcomes. I’ve had this thought from time to time, and last week I came across a couple articles that reminded me of the idea, and I’m ready to get started.

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First I looked more closely at the reports I saw mention of last week - these are the first two studies cited below. I then searched out others, and while I found a good number of them, most were older than I desired. With the constant evolution of technology in mind, I wanted to stick with studies that were published in the last 5 years, as anything older is inevitably looking at technologies as they existed in years prior, making it somewhat out of date, considering the pace of technological change.

With the growing availablity of high speed bandwidth, the advent of Web 2.0, and other technology improvements, the Education Technology landscape in the last 5 years is markedly different, and more ripe with possibilities, than that of the years prior to that. With this in mind, I chose to draw a line in terms of the the age of the reports - I’m excluding anything from prior to 2005 (admittedly a somewhat arbitrary line, but a line nonetheless).

Following are the first few reports I’ve found that meet my criteria. As I continue to gather studies, I will set up a page on this site where I will list them. I’ll want to group these reports into some logical categories, probably along the lines of “Studies focused on specific technologies”, “Studies focused on Education Technology in general”, and “Studies focused on Online Education” (the later is clearly a topic that has warranted it’s own growing body of research). I hope readers find these reports insightful, and will appreciate a repository of them once it is put together.

“Educators, Technology and 21st Century Skills: Dispelling Five Myths” from The Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership at Walden University (2010).

This report can currently be found online at: http://www.waldenu.edu/Documents/Degree-Programs/Full_Report_-_Dispelling_Five_Myths.pdf ^[2]. As the title indicates, the reports examines 5 “myths” about education technology. These myths include “Given that students today are comfortable with technology, teachers’ use of technology is less important to student learning” and “Only high-achieving student benefit from using technology.”

Among the conclusions reached in this study was the following, specific to Myth 3 (the first one noted above): “Teachers’ use of technology matters a great deal. Teachers who use technology frequently to support learning in their classrooms report greater benefits to student learning, engagement and skills from technology than teachers who spend less time using technology to support learning. Teachers who are frequent technology users also put more emphasis on 21st century skills - and report more pronounced effects on student learning of these skills.”

“Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning (A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies)” from the U.S. Department of Education (2009).

This report is currently available here: http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf ^[3]. The report is a meta-analysis, combining the results of multiple previous studies. The analysis examined many studies (most from 2004 and beyond), and ultimately incorporated results from 46 of them.

The study’s conclusion was that, based on the research that it examined, blended learning (combining face-to-face and online learning) was more effective than conventional face-to-face learning. Additionally, online learning alone was also shown to offer a slight advantage over conventional classroom learning. It is important to note that much of the research examined in the report focused on adult learners.

“Effectiveness of Reading and Mathematics Software Products: Findings from the First Student Cohort”, a report to congress from the Institute of Education Sciences (2007).

This paper can be found online at: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pdf/20074005.pdf ^[4]. This study was actually conducted in 2004 and 2005 and looked at 16 selected software products (out of 160 submissions). For Reading, Grades 1 and 4 were sampled, and for the Mathematics, Grade 6 and Algebra. The fundamental finding of this study was that “Test Scores Were Not Significantly Higher in Classrooms Using Selected Reading and Mathematics Software Products.”

“Discussion Paper: Impact of Technology on Education” by Debbie Look for PUSD Excellence Committee (2005).

This paper can be found online at http://www.pleasanton.k12.ca.us/Superintendent/Downloads/Technology.pdf ^[5]. The paper looks at a good number of previous studies (a few of which meet my criteria, and I will have to look into further). The paper concludes that, “Despite some limitations in the scope of the research-based evidence, there does seem to be a sufficient body of data, both quantitative and qualitative, to determine a positive relationship between increased use of educational technologies and student achievement.”

“Quantity versus Quality: A New Approach to Examine the Relationship between Technology Use and Student Outcomes” from the British Journal of Educational Technology, Volume 41 Issue 3 (May 2009).

I found an abstract of this report here ^[6], and will have to follow up and try to secure a full copy of the report. In this report, “the author argues that to examine the relationship between technology use and student outcomes, the quality of technology use—how, and what, technology is used—is a more significant factor than the quantity of technology use.” The abstract goes on to state that, “when the quality of technology was examined by investigating the specific types of technology uses, a significant association was identified between technology use and all student outcomes.”

Conclusions and Next Steps
It was certainly encouraging to see that 4 of these 5 studies indicated a positive correlation between education technology and improved student achievement and learning outcomes. As I mentioned above, finding reports that met my simple criteria (published after 2004 and measuring the impact of education technology on learning) proved harder than I anticipated. I found plenty of reports that were either close to the topic, but not on target, or were older than I desired.

I have no doubt there are more studies out there from the last 5 years, and this is just the beginning of an effort to locate and these. I happen to be heading to the Campus Technology 2010 ^[7] conference in Boston this week, which should present a good opportunity to ask vendors, presenters, and attendees of any such articles they are aware of, to start building on my collection. Of course, if any of you know of any studies you think I should consider adding to the list, please comment below and let us know about them (thanks!).

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
8 Engaging Videos Advocating Better Integration of Technology in Education ^[8]
5 Reasons Why Educators Need To Embrace Internet Technologies ^[9]
Education Technology – Don’t Lean On It, Leverage It! ^[10]

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