education in IT

Technology Promoting Student
Excellence:
A preliminary analysis of the first year
of New Hampshire’s 1:1 laptop program
Damian Bebell
Lynch School of Education
Boston College
bebell@bc.edu

Full evaluation report and PowerPoint
slides will be
available for download at :
www.intasc.org

History of Educational Technology
Purported Benefits
• Motivate and Engage students
• Increase resources and information
• Exposure to technology (21st century skills)
• Improve teaching (lesson plans, communication)
• Movement towards student centered classrooms
• Streamline record keeping
• Special Needs/Accommodations
• Differentiate Instruction/learning

Trends in Educational Technology
• In the late 80’s a trend emerged that
technology was good for students – so that
they will be prepared for the technology
jobs/skills of the future
• Current thinking is that technology is a
vehicle for improved student learning of
traditional curriculum

Student : Computer Ratios
• Standard Metric of technology access
– National Student:Computer Ratios
• 125:1 = 1983
• 9:1 = 1995
• 6:1 = 1998
• 4:1 = 2003
Source: Market Data Retrieval, 1999; Education Week, 2004
Technology is shared
Use is sporadic
(lots of research)

Movement towards 1:1 technology
• Each teacher and student has full access to a
computer (usually laptop)
• Previous research suggests:
– Equity issues disappear
– Technology becomes the relied upon tool students use
for research, writing, and presentation
– Classroom management is simplified
– Students are more engaged enthusiastic

Current 1:1 laptop programs
• Maine Learning Technology Initiative (2002)
– All 7th and 8th grade students and teachers in 239
middle schools
– Apple iBooks, wireless classrooms,teacher training,
support, and professional development
– 1,000 flowers blossoming philosophy
• Henrico County, VA (2002)
– Apple iBooks in Grades 6th-12th
– 20,000+ students
– No systemic research or evaluation
• Massachusetts (3 Berkshire middle schools)
• Andover, MA (Toshiba laptops--parent purchase)

Current 1:1 laptop programs (2)
•Michigan
–Cross platforms
–Looking into less expensive technology (i.e. Palms)
•Sedgwick, KS (2002)
–Apple iBooks in middle school
•Texas
•Florida
•Georgia
•Vermont

New Hampshire Question:
• Would the initial positive findings from
Maine’s 1:1 laptop program generalize to six
New Hampshire middle schools?
Photo taken from: http://www.state.nh.us/governor/ (1/28/04)

History of TPSE
Fastest roll out of a 1:1 technology program
ever!!!

History of TPSE (2)
"Technology must be heavily leveraged in a way to
enhance the classroom experience and excite the
student's passion for learning,”
In a perfect world, this would mean each of the
participating student would be excited each
morning in anticipation of coming to school and no
student would ever want to leave after school
ends.”
Benson’s Philosophy:
Source:: http://www.state.nh.us/governor/

History of TPSE (3)
• Improve educational teaching,
learning and achievement
• Use an interactive instructional
practice
• Bridge the significant digital divide
• Create a highly educated, technology-
savvy workforce
1:1 laptops would…
Source: Benson PowerPoint 9/2/03

TPSE Timeline (3)
9/2/03: Program announced
10/15/03: Competitive material submitted
10/03: 24 private organizations donate over
$1.2 million to fund the program (no
public funds)
11/3/03: Participating schools announced
12/03: Installation of technology
» Teachers receive laptops
» Teacher training
January 5-6, 2004:
iBooks distributed to 7th grade students

Participants
6 New Hampshire middle schools selected
from approximately 20 applications
•Armand R. Dupont School (Allenstown, NH)
•Indian River Middle School (Canaan, NH)
•Haverhill Cooperative Middle School (N. Haverhill, NH)
•Paul School (Sanbornville, NH)
•Thornton Central School (Thornton, NH)
•Winnisquam Regional Middle School (Tilton, NH)
400+ students 40 teachers

Program Characteristics
• Apple iBook laptops for teachers and students
• Software
• Digital cameras and digital video cameras
• Wireless school wide networks
• Printers
• Teacher training
• Technology support

Study Design/Methodology
Try and capture the initial impact/effect of the the laptop
program (Jan. 04)
Convince stakeholders that research and evaluation was an
important component of the initiative
PRE/POST Design
Pre
Survey
Post
Survey
Follow Up
Web Survey
Teacher
Survey
Jan. 04 May/June
04
Oct. 05
Student
Survey
Jan. 04 May/June
04
---

Spring 2004 Student Surveys (n=862 both pre and post)
1. Measures of technology use in school
2. Technology use at home
3. Across subject area
4. Personal comfort level with technology
Spring 2004 Teacher Surveys (n=47 both pre and post)
1. Measures of technology use in school
2. Measures of technology use beyond the classroom
3. Across subject area
4. Personal comfort level with technology
5. Demographic Information
6. Attitude toward technology

Fall 2004 Teacher Survey Follow Up (n=32)
Capture teachers perceptions about the specific impacts of
the 1:1 program on students, teaching and learning
•Collected Online
•http://corvus.bc.edu/nhteacherfollowup/NH_teacher_followup.cfm
•Survey items adapted from teacher survey measures created
for use in Maine
•Specific focus on how technology has impacted different
groups of students
•Traditional students
•High Achieving Students
•At-Risk or Low Achieving Students

No systematic examination of achievement…yet
– First need to measure impact and level of us
– No shared assessment in NH at the 7th grade
– Need previous measures of student achievement
– Individual student data
– Difficulty in getting comparison groups to participate
– Teachers perception of technology impact on
achievement
Today’s presentation focuses on
the immediate (1st six months)
impact of the laptop program

Student Level Results/Findings
Estimated #
of 7th grade
Students
Pre (1/04)
Responses
Post (5/04)
Responses
Dupont 63 61 58
Haverhill 71 73 47
Indian River 118 100 96
Paul 80 64 61
Thornton 28 27 28
Winnisquam 175 114 134
Student survey response rate

Students used technology in school substantially
more across all six 1:1 settings
15 min
or less
15 -60 minNever 1-2 hrs 2+ hrs

more in English/Language Arts
15 min
or less 15 -60 minNever 1-2 hrs 2+ hrs

more in Science
15 min
or less

Students used technology for wide variety of tasks
15 min
or less

Teachers use of technology as reported by the students
R
15 min
or less

Students use of technology at home
15 min
or less

Not Well Very Well
Students reported technology skills

Pre/Post SY (03/04) Teacher Results
Teacher
survey
response rate
less sure than
student
survey Typically Math, Science,
English/language Arts, or Social
Studies teachers completed the
survey, however around 10% of
respondents were not primary
classroom teachers

Teacher Pre/Post Beliefs and Confidence Measures
1=Very Important
2=Somewhat Important
3=Not Very Important
1= Very Confident
2=Somewhat Confident
3=Not Very Confident

Teachers Use of Technology
R
Once or
twice a year
Several times
per year
Never
Several times
per month
Several times
per week

How often do teachers assign students to create the following products
using technology?
Once or
twice a year
Several times
per year
Never
Several times
per month
Several times
per week

Also observed changes in teachers beliefs towards learning and
technology?
Increase in the belief that students
interact with each other more
while working with computers
Students work harder when using computers
Technology allows students to create better looking finished
products
Overwhelming agreement among participating teachers that :
Students are more willing to write second drafts when using
a computer
Students develop a deeper understanding of the
material when using technology

Teacher Survey Follow Ups (Oct. 04)
32 teachers across the six schools responded to an
online follow up survey (n=32 in all cases)

Teacher Survey Follow Ups (Oct. 04)

The Rise and Fall of 1:1 Computing
•The cost of going 1:1 is great
•$40 million in Maine,
•$1.2+ million in NH
•Over $25 million in VA
•There is a climate of great pressure on
schools to demonstrate that money spent is
directly and positively impacting students
•Current definition of impacting students is
increased performance as measured by a
standardized test (accountability at all levels,
AYP, etc)

The Rise and Fall of 1:1 Computing (2)
It is estimated that the measurable
impact of educational technology
investments can take 4+ years
Stakeholders expect to see measurable
differences in student scores given
their investments (typically not very
patient)

Rise and Fall of 1:1 Computing
Research/Evaluation is costly (time and money)
Methodological Challenges
Good accurate measures of technology “use” (STEP 1)
Valid measurement of student achievement
Issues with paper based tests for high-tech students
(Russell, 1999; 2001; 2002)
Measures of prior achievement
IDEAL QUESTION:
What kind of technology use leads to what kind of
achievement gains (for x kind of student)?

Laptop flop; Maine results
should give pause to NH
MAINE'S two-year-old experiment with laptop
computers in the classroom has flopped as measured
by student test scores. Now maybe this nonsensical
trend will fizzle out and we can get back to spending
time and money on educating students instead of
buying them expensive tools that don't help them
learn the basics. Maine has laid out $37.2 million on a
four-year experiment that provides laptop computers
to all students in grades 7 and 8…
Manchester Union Leader August 12, 2004 Page A16

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