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Ask HN: Has technology benefited the classroom?

7 points by Snackchez ↗ HN
As a teacher, I've seen new technologies being pushed into the classroom as tools to help students: from the SmartBoard, iPads, being allowed to use cellphones in the classrooms, carts full of laptops, etc.

Is there any research out there that shows the benefits of technology being incorporated in the classroom? Does the opposite exist? If research does exist, are these studies independently funded or are they funded by the companies of these techonologies?

11 comments

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cwt
Not sure if you are looking for specific data about "brick and mortar" classrooms or if you are open to digital and blended classrooms, too. You can see videos and papers about new educational technology here: https://www.imsglobal.org/2016-learning-impact-awards-public...

I haven't looked at all of them, but you should be able to see some data/research by the participants supporting their educational technology.

Also, voting is open to the public until 2016-05-24 @ Noon.

Snackchez
Ah, I knew I had forgotten something. I'm specifically looking at "brick and mortar" schools. The reason is that I've noticed in my school board that a lot of new technologies seem to get implemented very quickly and without proper reflection on choice. For example, almost all schools in my school board have been equipped with SmartBoards. These are huge money pits: they break down often and I see very little ROI as a teaching tool (especially within the senior level courses). But somehow, their numbers keep proliferating... This seems to be the general outlook on most technologies being implemented in the classroom.
runjake
> Is there any research out there that shows the benefits of technology being incorporated in the classroom?

Yes.

> Does the opposite exist?

Probably.

> If research does exist, are these studies independently funded or are they funded by the companies of these techonologies?

Both.

I think that educational technology is still at a point of "throw it at the wall and see if it sticks". I also think a lot of technology is being deployed without adequate professional development for teachers.

They have the technology, but haven't been gotten the proper level of training nor had the proper resources to develop effective curriculum using technology.

Thus far, effective programs always seem to have a "rock star" teacher/instructor at the center, going the many extra miles needed to establish gravitas.

brudgers
To me, it seems that an academic literature search is closer to the daily activities of one than to a random population of tech nerds particularly in regard to questions of professional educational practice.

Good luck.

wayn3
My mother is an elementary school teacher. She recently bought a set of ipads to use in the classroom. She cant get them to work because the internet at the place is set up improperly and they wont let me fix it for her either.

Schools suffer from bureaucracy, not a lack of tech.

bitJericho
Has she talked to the IT guy directly? As an IT guy I would bend over backwards for this type of request.
wayn3
There is no such thing as an IT guy. The district contracted the work out to a company. My mother talked to them, they told her what needs to be done and wrote a proposal to the district administration. Those guys rejected it on the basis of "because fuck you, thats why".

It's a small school. Not a big network. Basically your average household internet with a $20 router and a bunch of cables. I could set the whole thing up in an hour but that's not going to happen either.

jabv
My company is of the mind that many ed tech products are not impactful because they don't take a rigorous approach to curriculum (notwithstanding the absolute buzzword status of "rigor" in K12 education). Our approach is to use tech as a lever to transplant a successful curriculum into areas that otherwise wouldn't have this curriculum.[0]

SRI reviewed the research on our impact with fairly positive findings.[1]

[0] - detail on the approach in the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education: http://ijaied.org/pub/1368/

[1] - https://www.sri.com/work/publications/strength-research-reas...