Summary from the original page here.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
November 8, 2007—Maine’s pioneering program to give every middle school student a laptop computer is leading to better writing, according to a new study.
Despite creating a language all their own using eMail and text messages, students are still learning standard English, and their writing scores have improved on a standardized test since laptop computers were distributed, the study says.
Moreover, the students’ writing skills improved even when they were using pen and paper, not just a computer keyboard.
“If you concentrate on whether laptops are helping kids achieve 21st-century skills, this demonstrates that it’s happening in writing,” said David Silvernail, director of the Maine Education Policy Research Institute at the University of Southern Maine.
The study, authored by Silvernail and Aaron Gritter, is the first in a series in which educators aim to evaluate Maine’s first-in-the-nation laptop program.
The program, which seeks to eliminate the so-called “digital divide” between wealthy and poor students, kicked off with distribution of about 36,000 computers to each seventh- and eighth-grader in Maine public schools in 2002 and 2003.
The study focused on eighth-graders’ scores on the Maine Educational Assessment to see if the standardized test results backed up the perception of both students and teachers alike that laptops have led to better writing skills. (See “Maine laptop program gets high marks in mid-year survey”.)
State Education Commissioner Sue Gendron said the study represents the first concrete evidence that backs up what most educators already believe: that the laptop program, known as the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, is working.
“It’s about enhancing learning opportunities, and the evidence and the data we’ve received in this report substantiates that this is the right approach,” she said.
Maine Education Assessment scores indicate 49 percent of eighth-graders were proficient in 2005 in writing, compared with 29 percent in 2000.
And it wasn’t just a function of taking the writing portion of the test using a computer and keyboard. Students who used pen and paper, and those who used a computer keyboard, showed similar improvements on the test, Silvernail said.
During the same period, math scores were unchanged and science scores improved by 2 points, while reading scores actually dropped 3 points, Silvernail said. Writing showed the biggest improvement of 7 points, from 530 to 537, he said.
Silvernail said it’s unrealistic to expect big increases on standardized test scores that are tied to laptops, but writing is the exception.
Laptops make it easier for students to edit their copy and make changes without getting writer’s cramp, he said. As a result, students are writing and revising their work more frequently, which leads to better results. And it’s important, Silvernail said, that those skills translated when the test was taken with pen and paper, too.
Virginia Rebar, principal at Piscataquis Community Middle School, said she was not surprised by the results, because language skills are being developed every time the computers are used, in social studies and other subjects beyond language arts.
“It’s just a lot easier to edit, to self-critique. Our teachers engage students in a lot of peer editing. Not only are they helping themselves, but they’re helping each other as they get to their final projects,” Rebar said.
Links:
Maine Learning Technology Initiative
Maine Education Policy Research Institute
Study: “Maine’s Middle School Laptop Program: Creating Better Writers”
After seeing the video, as student posted this “inversion” of the video. It’s very telling, and combined with what we see in the video drives home the reality that something is broken here.
It these walls could talk …
What would they say?
If lecturers are rewarded more for their research than their teaching
Why do they lecture at all?
The information is up here.
Follow along.
Follow.
Of course, bookshelves cannot talk.
But lecturers can.
What is it like being a lecturer today?
66% of my students
Bother to come to the lectures
I spend all Sunday carefully preparing.
I spent five days researching and preparing.
A carefully considered reading list
Of which my students read
20% of the items.
I spent the summer
Creating an online learning environment
Full of amazing study resources
That only 30% of my students visit
I will read 80 books this year
Review three in my spare time
Unpaid
I will read 200 academic journal articles
Review four in my spare time
Unpaid
I will read 2300 web pages
And many of my students’ Facebook profiles
Especially the ones with tasteless pictures
Because word gets around.
I will spend six weeks
Finalising 2 research council funding applications
That stand a 75% chance of being rejected
Even if they are world class.
My family’s future depends on
The next Research Assessment Exercise.
I will write 72 pages of text
For each module I teach this semester
And over 700 emails
And attend 36 meetings
And spend 30 hours on the phone
And fill in 75 forms
I get 6 1/2 hours of sleep each night
I spend 1 ½ hours watching TV each night.
I spend 6 hours a day online
Twice a week
I read my children their bedtime stories
Over the phone
I work 48 hours a week
Sometimes including weekends
I’m a multitasker.
I have to be.
I have a second job
To help pay the bills
Because UK lecturers earn 2/3
Of what school teachers earn
I spent 5 years writing my last book
Which was well reviewed
And got me interviewed on TV
But I only made £50 in royalties
So you have to ask
Why I do this job?
And my answer is
Because I believe
all that stands between civilization and barbarism
is education.
Discuss.
Posted in Smatterings, Vision of Students
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