Assessing Ed Tech's Value

A new Web site examines how education technology affects student learning; research may impact funding

By Kathy Ishizuka -- School Library Journal, 1/1/2005

What is technology's impact on student learning? To find out, the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) has launched a new Web site that examines the work of nine federally funded grant projects charged with evaluating technology's effect on student achievement.

Part of SETDA's Technical Assistance Partnership Program (TAPP), the site (www.setdatapp.org) will document how technology is working in K–8 schools in eight states: Arkansas, Iowa, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The three-year projects cover a range of interventions, from placing recycled computers in the homes of low-income families to technology-immersion programs. All were funded last summer by a $15 million Department of Education grant to conduct scientific evaluations of education technology.

"Scientifically based information is such an important part of No Child Left Behind and accountability," says SETDA's executive director, Melinda George. In addition to data, she says, the site will provide educators nationwide with the tools they can use to measure their own programs. Final data won't be available until after the grants end in 2007.

Until then, the education community is watching the site in eager anticipation. "Research-based evidence is exactly what we need to secure funding," says Leslie Conery, deputy CEO of the International Society of Technology in Education. "The lack of supportive evidence [this year] may be the reason we didn't get the federal funding that was expected." Congress slashed $196 million in technology funding in the recently approved 2005 education budget.

Meanwhile, North Carolina's TAPP program, Lancet, is well underway at 11 elementary and middle schools, Lancet will closely examine teaching practices outlined in the state's 2000 ed-tech plan.

Among those practices, North Carolina calls for an instructional technology facilitator in each school to partner with a library media specialist in supporting teaching and learning. Frances Bradburn, director of instructional technologies at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, says federal technology money has funded a facilitator at each of the 11 schools, which in turn have agreed to hire a full-time media specialist, if they don't already have one. In addition, facilitators, media specialists, and teachers have received training in collaboration.

And the results? Even the participants were surprised, says Bradburn. "It created a completely different climate in the school, increasing the use of library resources as well as technology."

While the site is still in its infancy—offering little information beyond thumbnail sketches of the nine grant projects—ed-tech supporters are confident that it will eventually provide data that proves that technology makes a significant difference in student learning. "The more tools out there, the better for all of us. As a community of educators, we all have to be articulate about what works," says Conery.