Around the country and throughout the world, politicians and education activists have sought to eliminate the “digital divide,” by guaranteeing universal access to home computers, and in some cases to high-speed Internet service.
According to a new study by scholars at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, these efforts would actually widen the achievement gap in math and reading scores. Students in grades 5 through 8, particularly those from disadvantaged families, tend to post lower scores once one of these technologies arrives in their home.
Professors Jacob Vigdor and Helen Ladd analyzed responses to computer-use questions included on North Carolina’s mandated End-of-Grade tests (EOGs). Students reported how frequently they use a home computer for schoolwork, watch TV, or read for pleasure. The study covers 2000 to 2005, a period when home computers and high-speed Internet access expanded dramatically. By 2005, broadband access was available in almost every zip code in North Carolina, Vigdor said.
The study had several advantages over previous research that suggested similar results, Vigdor said. The sample size was large — numbering more than 150,000 individual students. The data allowed researchers to compare the same children’s reading and math scores before and after they acquired a home computer, and to compare those scores to those of peers who had a home computer by fifth grade and to test scores of students who never acquire a home computer. The negative effects on reading and math scores were “modest but significant,” they found.
“We cut off the study in 2005, so we weren’t getting into the Facebook and Twitter generation,” Vigdor said. “The technology was much more primitive than that. IM (instant messaging) software was popular then, and it’s been one thing after the other since then.
“Adults may think of computer technology as a productivity tool first and foremost, but the average kid doesn’t share that perception.” Kids in the middle grades are mostly using computers to socialize and play games, Vigdor added, with clear gender divisions between those activities.
Vigdor and Ladd concluded that home computers are put to more productive use in households where parental monitoring is more effective. In disadvantaged households, parents are less likely to monitor children’s computer use and guide children in using computers for educational purposes.
The research suggests that programs to expand home computer access would lead to even wider gaps between test scores of advantaged and disadvantaged students, Vigdor said. Several states have pursued programs to distribute computers to students. For example, Maine funded laptops for every sixth grader, and Michigan approved a program but then did not fund it.
The Graduate Centre of CUNY has a great video on the future of digital universities on fora.tv. In this keynote address video titled "‘The Classroom is Sacred’: Digitization Without Commercialization," Professor Vaidhyanathan’s addresses the myriad challenges facing university faculty, administrators and students in finding the best ways to embrace emerging digital technologies to improve teaching, research and learning without giving in to commercial pressures or arguments about efficiency or cost savings. Prof. Vaidhyanathan suggests that we approach the implementation of academic technologies in the classroom with a sense of experimentation and modesty. [from the site]
Siva Vaidhyanathan is a cultural historian and media scholar, and is currently an associate professor of Media Studies and Law at the University of Virginia. He blogs at http://www.googlizationofeverything.com/ – which is also the title of his upcoming book to be released later this year. You can also follow him on twitter http://twitter.com/sivavaid
TEDxNYED (@tedxnyed) was an all-day event designed to bring leading educators, innovators, and idealists together to share their vision of education. It’s an event to provide a platform for administrators, teachers, and those passionate about education to connect, learn from these extraordinary speakers, and spread their ideas on how new media and technology are shaping the future of education.
The speakers at the event were Gina Bianchini, Amy Bruckman, Andy Carvin, Dan Cohen, Jeff Jarvis, Henry Jenkins, Neeru Khosla, Juliette LaMontagne, Chris Lehmann, Lawrence Lessig, Dan Meyer, Jay Rosen, George Siemens, Mike Wesch and David Wiley
Here’s the video of Henry Jenkins and more on TEDx NYED official web site.
As smartphones and handheld computers move into classrooms worldwide, we may be witnessing the start of an educational revolution. How technology could unleash childhood creativity — and transform the role of the teacher.
Gemma and Eliana Singer are big iPhone fans. They love to explore the latest games, flip through photos, and watch YouTube videos while waiting at a restaurant, having their hair done, or between ballet and French lessons. But the Manhattan twins don’t yet have their own phones, which is good, since they probably wouldn’t be able to manage the monthly data plan: In November, they turned 3.
When the Singer sisters were just 6 months old, they already preferred cell phones to almost any other toy, recalls their mom, Fiona Aboud Singer: “They loved to push the buttons and see it light up.” The girls knew most of the alphabet by 18 months and are now starting to read, partly thanks to an iPhone app called First Words, which lets them move tiles along the screen to spell c-o-w and d-o-g. They sing along with the Old MacDonald app too, where they can move a bug-eyed cartoon sheep or rooster inside a corral, and they borrow Mom’s tablet computer and photo-editing software for a 21st-century version of finger painting. “They just don’t have that barrier that technology is hard or that they can’t figure it out,” Singer says.
Some people will criticize such early exposures to tech and gadgets, but it’s really part of our standard environment. My 1 and half year old can’t be fooled with a toy phone and she’s always after our mobile phones. Even though we don’t allow her to carry phone, she still manages to speak to our remote and says “Hello & Bye”. Kids learn by mimicing, experimenting and exploring and these devices allow it so easily.
