Schools with one-to-one computing programs have fewer discipline problems, lower dropout rates, and higher rates of college attendance than schools with a higher ratio of students to computers, according to the results of a major new study. But for one-to-one programs to boost student achievement as well, they must be properly implemented, the study found.

Sixty-nine percent of the schools in the study reported that their students’ achievement scores on high-stakes tests were on the rise. Among schools with 1-to-1 computing programs, that figure was 70 percent. But it was 85 percent for schools with 1-to-1 computing programs that employed certain strategies for success, including electronic formative assessments on a regular basis and frequent collaboration of teachers in professional learning communities.

The findings come from Project RED (Revolutionizing Education), a national initiative that aims to prove that when properly implemented, investing in technology can boost student achievement and will result in monetary savings for schools and local governments. The survey results will be revealed June 28 at the annual International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference [Editor’s Note: For more live coverage

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News Highlights
• Technology-assisted classes help students stay in school – reducing drop-out rates.
• Schools with 1:1 learning programs, when properly implemented, have better education
success than do schools with fewer computing devices and poor implementation.
• But 80% of schools under-utilize technologies they have already purchased.
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June 28, 2010, Denver Colorado – At ISTE 2010, the Project RED Team (Revolutionizing Education) announced findings from their major survey of nearly 1,000 school principals and technology coordinators. “The most exciting findings were identification of which implementation factors improve learning outcomes,” said Tom Greaves, CEO of the Greaves Group and founder of the initiative.

Download the Full Version of the Project Red Press Release – June 28, 2010

Download ISTE 2020 Presentation on Project RED

Students who have participated in 1:1 computing report higher achievement and increased engagement, according to findings of studies published in a special issue of the Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessment, published by Boston College’s Lynch School of Education.

The journal’s January 2010 edition represents the first-ever collection of peer-reviewed research articles examining the impacts of providing every teacher and student their own laptop computer in school — typically know as “1:1 computing.”

“This new collection of articles brings together some of the best evidence to date on the implementation and impacts of 1:1 computing,” said Boston College Assistant Professor of Education Laura M. O’Dwyer, a co-editor of the journal, which is housed jointly in the Technology and Assessment Study Collaborative (inTASC) and the Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation and Educational Policy (CSTEEP) at Boston College.

The journal includes co-editor and Lynch School researcher Damian Bebell’s evaluation of a pilot program in Massachusetts’ Berkshire County. Bebell found the Berkshire Wireless Learning Initiative produced improved performance in English and writing, though results for math achievement were flat. Overwhelmingly, the laptops got students excited about school.

Bebell said that across all of the studies contained in the journal, one common link is clear: the value of teachers committed to making 1:1 computing work.

“One of the most salient findings was the critical role that teachers played in the success of each 1:1 program,” Bebell said. Additional factors critical to student success across 1:1 technology settings included:

• Having a strong commitment from school leadership
• Developing consistent and supportive administrative policies
• Creating professional development opportunities for teachers, particularly the sharing of best practices

All of the studies that examined the impact of 1:1 computing on student achievement found that students in the 1:1 settings outperformed their traditional classroom peers on English/Language Arts standardized tests by a statistically significant margin. Study authors also reported on evidence of increased student motivation and engagement, as well as changes in teachers’ instructional practices.

It is recognized that properly implemented ubiquitous technology (UT) in schools positively impacts student achievement, transformation of teaching and learning, and the overall education system’s efficiency/cost effectiveness.

One of the Project Red goals is to identify models of best practice in UT schools that lead to the above findings.  We are seeing preliminary trends in technology rich schools relative to leadership, professional learning for teachers and administrators, funding, problem-based teaching and learning, ed tech sustainability and funding.

Following is an overview of these initial findings.

Teacher Professional Learning in Technology Rich Schools

Seventy-seven percent of the UT schools indicated that teachers’ professional learning has been very well and adequately implemented.  To transform from traditional to student-centered teaching and learning, the professionals need consistent, high quality opportunities to grow and learn how to make the shift.  In these schools, this has been clearly a top priority.

Rate of Effectiveness of Teachers’ Professional Learning in UT Schools

Use of Problem-Based Learning in Technology Rich Schools

Twenty-six percent of UT schools engage problem-based learning activities many times a day and daily.  32.3% do so on a weekly basis.  Problem-based learning is a strategy for integrating 21^st century skill development within curriculum and instruction.  This technique engages collaboration, projects, high level thinking and strategizing within content areas.

Rate of Problem-Based Learning Use in UT Schools

Principal’s Professional Learning in Technology Rich Schools

Leadership is the single most important factor for transforming schools.  To lead the required changes, unique professional growth experiences are needed.  It is significant that the Project Red identified UT schools demonstrate strong commitment to the principals’ ongoing training opportunities.  Thirty-eight percent of UT principals are engaged in ongoing professional development.  11% participated in short or long term courses.

Principals’ Professional Learning In Technology Rich Schools

Funding Sources for Technology Rich Schools

One hundred percent of the identified ubiquitous technology schools are funded through the district’s operating or capital outlay budgets. 38% are funded through state or federal competitive grants.  Demonstrated here is ubiquitous technology schools’ district or school level commitment of existing funds to implement the vision.  Allocation of operating and capital outlay budgets indicates internal control for present and future funding.  Reliance on grants (soft money) to fund these initiatives comes with greater uncertainty for long term sustainability.  Grants are not long term resource solutions and rely on others’ decision making to provide funding to districts/schools.

Stay tuned as the Project Red team continues to provide early insights into this groundbreaking research project!!

“We are looking at how teaching and learning practices by both principals and teachers lead to improved learning and financial savings,” says Jeanne Hayes, one of the co-authors of Project RED. “Partnering with Project Tomorrow makes sense since we can compare the difference in learning practices as described by school principals with opinions about school technology by their student respondents.”

According to Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, “Since our goal is to prepare today’s students to be tomorrow’s innovators, Speak Up has always focused on students’ aspirations and views on technology in learning. We believe comparing the Speak Up survey findings to those of Project RED may lead to some interesting comparisons of technology-rich schools to others.”

Both surveys are offered online with Dec. 2009 deadlines. Take the Project Tomorrow survey by Dec. 23 and the Project RED survey by Dec. 31.

by Leslie Wilson

Project Red’s early results are in. They provide a peak into what is happening in technology rich school environments around critical success factors.  Findings directly speak to ‘Race to the Top’ criteria of ‘Teacher and Principal Reform’ which is 28% (highest value) of the grading criteria.

It is recognized that properly implemented ubiquitous technology (UT) in schools positively impacts student achievement, transformation of teaching and learning, and the overall education system’s efficiency/cost effectiveness.

One of the Project Red goals is to identify models of best practice in UT schools that lead to the above findings.  We are seeing preliminary trends in technology rich schools relative to leadership, professional learning for teachers and administrators, funding, problem-based teaching and learning, ed tech sustainability and funding.

With your help and participation:

• We’ll see dramatic improvements in student achievement — statewide.
• Education Technology funding will be substantially increased and will be a standard line item of budgets, less susceptible to whimsical cuts.

Join Project Red by encouraging schools and districts you are associated with to take the survey.

Click here to view the full presentation.

States with the most technology-rich schools:

1. Texas
2. New York
3. Florida
4. Ohio
5. Illinois

“It is not surprising that Texas has more high-technology schools than anyone else. Their leadership in using technology goes back to the early 90s and has continued since then, “ said Jeanne Hayes, one of the authors of the Project Red initiative. “What is more surprising is that California, with 12.5% of the U.S. student population, has so few schools in the database. “

The Project RED Team is conducting a national survey of schools with computing devices for almost every student to see if teaching and learning practices are changing with the infusion of technology.  If you are a school principal of a technology-rich school, please click here.

Not surprisingly, the top-ranked states have very large student populations;  in fact, these five states enroll 29% of all students in U.S. schools.

States with the highest percentage of technology-rich schools:

Rural states with a history of distance learning seem to have invested more heavily in computing devices for each student than most.

For all fifty states,  5% of schools  have invested in computing devices for  each student.  In South Dakota, on the other hand, 24% of schools have made this investment.

See where your state ranks on technology-rich schools. Click here to see the chart.

by Leslie Wilson

We know the imperative for schools to ‘build’ their 21^st century teaching and learning environments. This change for schools is tough stuff. If you are a pioneer in the use of robust technology integration then you are likely familiar with the complexities. This isn’t the kind of mission you take on because it looks good or it is the ‘next big thing’.

You know that your school must transform to be a viable preparatory ground for today’s and tomorrow’s students. You know that these students will enter a rapidly changing global marketplace. They need to be prepared to engage and succeed.

It isn’t easy work. In fact, it is wrought with chaos, trial and error, adjusting, clarifying and problem-solving-much like the ‘real’ world. Those engaged in this work are overhauling education’s culture. It can be agonizing on many levels. Teachers, using a variety of technology tools and resources, are regularly learning new techniques and experimenting as they hone their craft. Administrators champion the vision. They must be visible supporters who model meaningful technology use, participate in finding resources, support and ensuring ongoing professional learning. Technology personnel work at a fevered pitch to ensure consistently functional networks, manage trouble-shooting protocols, hardware, and software. Success depends of the careful weaving of this team.

You are significantly changing the culture of education. You are guided by where schools need to go not by where schools have been. It’s a messy process. You can’t look back at ‘how things used to be’ (rearview mirror gazing). The speed at which information moves dictates your looking forward and forging ahead (the window of the future).

So what helps this process? How can you expand your critical mass? How can you help others ‘care’ enough to move their school into the future? Following are a few ideas.

• Consistently communicate about education technology goals, at all levels.

• Collaborate a shared education technology vision among stakeholders.

• Include ongoing funding/resources as part of that vision.

• Engage skeptics by listening to and addressing their issues.

• Identify unfounded reasons for dissension and disapproval by providing facts and research about education technology and the global marketplace.

• Help recalcitrant staff identify their fears and encourage them to take risks.

• Provide opportunities for disbelievers to observe teachers and students who have successfully integrated technology, curriculum and instruction.

• Create cadres of teachers who support and problem-solve with one another as they increasingly implement technology tools.

• Provide for formative and summative evaluation of education technology efforts. Honestly report findings and adjust where needed.

Key considerations in the impact of culture change are: the kind of education technology being implemented, who and how many are involved, leadership capacity, stake-holder understanding and buy-in, short and long range planning, goals and sustainability. No one person in the school/district/state can facilitate these factors. It must be a collaborative, ongoing team approach.

By Leslie A. Wilson

“The most profound technologies are those that disappear, that weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable in it,” said Mark Weiser, 1991, in “The Computer for the 21^st Century” in Scientific American. Today’s learners, tomorrow’s job candidates, will be assessed on knowledge and skills needed in an information-driven market. A focus on the development of high quality ‘information-age adept’ works is crucial to the country’s future. This helps us realize why ‘meaningful’ versus ‘low level’ technology application in the classroom is important.

Students exiting high school and higher education need to demonstrate proficiencies not only in technology tool usage but in relevant applications. That relevancy will come about only when teachers have seamlessly woven appropriate tools with curriculum and instruction. High quality, ongoing, scheduled professional learning in this focused area is essential.

Postman (1996) said that technology should be used as an object of inquiry. It is important to understand how we might use technology and also how we are used by technology. We need to embrace technologies that are specifically useful because the design qualities call on higher order thinking and problem solving….where students have reason to explore and to learn by discovery. Technology that calls upon students’ investigative, research and exploration can be well guided by the teachers. In the same sense, technology can be used to solve many difficult tasks such as data analysis, synthesis and program development.

Educators are fortunate to be honing their practice during the information age. It is a time of opportunity to facilitate remarkable student access to discovery and knowledge exchange, communication, self-directed learning and instructing. We recognize those as the ever-present and discussed ‘21^st century skills’.

Applied to real-life contribution, these 21^st century talents are key to the future of individual’s success and to our country’s competitive edge. There are ever emerging technologies that empower classrooms to be learner-centered and controlled, self-paced and directed, any time, and anywhere. These technologies provide the chance for ongoing assessments, interactions and teacher feedback to individual learners. These authentic learning environments are the foundation of education transformation.

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