Does Technology Increase Or Decrease The Learning Process.
Leading upward to the 75th ceremony of the UN General Assembly, this "Realizing the hope: How can education technology improve learning for all?" publication kicks off the Center for Universal Education's first playbook in a series to help improve education around the world.
It is intended every bit an show-based tool for ministries of education, particularly in low- and heart-income countries, to prefer and more successfully invest in education technology.
While there is no unmarried educational activity initiative that volition achieve the same results everywhere—as school systems differ in learners and educators, equally well as in the availability and quality of materials and technologies—an important first step is agreement how applied science is used given specific local contexts and needs.
The surveys in this playbook are designed to be adapted to collect this data from educators, learners, and school leaders and guide decisionmakers in expanding the use of technology.
Introduction
While technology has disrupted most sectors of the economy and changed how we communicate, access information, work, and even play, its impact on schools, instruction, and learning has been much more limited. We believe that this limited impact is primarily due to engineering beingness been used to supercede analog tools, without much consideration given to playing to engineering'southward comparative advantages. These comparative advantages, relative to traditional "chalk-and-talk" classroom instruction, include helping to scale upwardly standardized pedagogy, facilitate differentiated instruction, expand opportunities for practice, and increase student date. When schools utilise technology to enhance the work of educators and to amend the quality and quantity of educational content, learners volition thrive.
Further, COVID-19 has laid blank that, in today's environment where pandemics and the effects of climate change are probable to occur, schools cannot ever provide in-person education—making the case for investing in education technology.
Hither we argue for a simple still surprisingly rare arroyo to didactics engineering that seeks to:
- Sympathize the needs, infrastructure, and chapters of a schoolhouse organization—the diagnosis;
- Survey the all-time available evidence on interventions that match those weather condition—the bear witness; and
- Closely monitor the results of innovations before they are scaled up—the prognosis.
The framework
Our arroyo builds on a simple yet intuitive theoretical framework created two decades ago by two of the most prominent education researchers in the United States, David Thou. Cohen and Deborah Loewenberg Brawl. They argue that what matters nearly to improve learning is the interactions among educators and learners effectually educational materials. Nosotros believe that the failed school-improvement efforts in the U.Southward. that motivated Cohen and Ball's framework resemble the ed-tech reforms in much of the developing earth to date in the lack of clarity improving the interactions between educators, learners, and the educational material. We build on their framework by adding parents equally key agents that mediate the relationships between learners and educators and the material (Effigy 1).
Figure one: The instructional core
Adapted from Cohen and Brawl (1999)
As the figure above suggests, ed-tech interventions can touch the instructional cadre in a myriad of means. Withal, simply considering technology can do something, it does not mean it should. School systems in developing countries differ along many dimensions and each system is likely to have unlike needs for ed-tech interventions, as well as different infrastructure and capacity to enact such interventions.
The diagnosis:
How tin school systems assess their needs and preparedness?
A useful first step for whatsoever school system to determine whether information technology should invest in didactics engineering is to diagnose its:
- Specific needs to amend pupil learning (eastward.g., raising the average level of accomplishment, remediating gaps among low performers, and challenging high performers to develop college-order skills);
- Infrastructure to prefer technology-enabled solutions (e.one thousand., electricity connection, availability of space and outlets, stock of computers, and Internet connectivity at schoolhouse and at learners' homes); and
- Chapters to integrate technology in the instructional procedure (e.chiliad., learners' and educators' level of familiarity and comfort with hardware and software, their beliefs about the level of usefulness of technology for learning purposes, and their electric current uses of such technology).
Earlier engaging in whatever new information collection exercise, school systems should take full advantage of existing administrative data that could shed light on these three main questions. This could be in the course of internal evaluations just also international learner assessments, such as the Programme for International Student Cess (PISA), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Written report (TIMSS), and/or the Progress in International Literacy Report (PIRLS), and the Teaching and Learning International Study (TALIS). But if school systems lack information on their preparedness for ed-tech reforms or if they seek to complement existing data with a richer set of indicators, nosotros developed a gear up of surveys for learners, educators, and school leaders. Download the total report to see how nosotros map out the principal aspects covered past these surveys, in hopes of highlighting how they could be used to inform decisions around the adoption of ed-tech interventions.
The evidence:
How tin can schoolhouse systems identify promising ed-tech interventions?
In that location is no unmarried "ed-tech" initiative that volition reach the aforementioned results everywhere, only because schoolhouse systems differ in learners and educators, every bit well equally in the availability and quality of materials and technologies. Instead, to realize the potential of education technology to advance student learning, decisionmakers should focus on four potential uses of technology that play to its comparative advantages and complement the work of educators to advance student learning (Figure 2). These comparative advantages include:
- Scaling upwardly quality educational activity, such every bit through prerecorded quality lessons.
- Facilitating differentiated educational activity, through, for example, computer-adaptive learning and live one-on-i tutoring.
- Expanding opportunities to practice.
- Increasing learner date through videos and games.
Effigy 2: Comparative advantages of technology
Adapted from Cohen and Ball (1999)
Here we review the prove on ed-tech interventions from 37 studies in xx countries*, organizing them past comparative advantage. Information technology's of import to note that ours is not the only way to classify these interventions (e.chiliad., video tutorials could be considered as a strategy to calibration up educational activity or increase learner engagement), but we believe information technology may be useful to highlight the needs that they could address and why engineering science is well positioned to do so.
When discussing specific studies, we report the magnitude of the furnishings of interventions using standard deviations (SDs). SDs are a widely used metric in enquiry to limited the effect of a program or policy with respect to a business-as-usual condition (east.thou., exam scores). There are several ways to make sense of them. I is to categorize the magnitude of the furnishings based on the results of impact evaluations. In developing countries, furnishings below 0.ane SDs are considered to be small, furnishings between 0.one and 0.two SDs are medium, and those higher up 0.ii SDs are large (for reviews that estimate the average effect of groups of interventions, called "meta analyses," run into e.g., Conn, 2017; Kremer, Brannen, & Glennerster, 2013; McEwan, 2014; Snilstveit et al., 2015; Evans & Yuan, 2020.)
*In surveying the evidence, we began past compiling studies from prior general and ed-tech specific evidence reviews that some of us accept written and from ed-tech reviews conducted by others. Then, nosotros tracked the studies cited by the ones we had previously read and reviewed those, as well. In identifying studies for inclusion, we focused on experimental and quasi-experimental evaluations of didactics technology interventions from pre-schoolhouse to secondary school in low- and middle-income countries that were released between 2000 and 2020. We only included interventions that sought to improve pupil learning directly (i.eastward., students' interaction with the textile), equally opposed to interventions that accept impacted achievement indirectly, by reducing teacher absence or increasing parental engagement. This process yielded 37 studies in 20 countries (see the total listing of studies in Appendix B).
Scaling up standardized instruction
Ane of the ways in which technology may amend the quality of educational activity is through its capacity to deliver standardized quality content at scale. This feature of technology may be particularly useful in three types of settings: (a) those in "difficult-to-staff" schools (i.e., schools that struggle to recruit educators with the requisite training and experience—typically, in rural and/or remote areas) (meet, east.one thousand., Urquiola & Vegas, 2005); (b) those in which many educators are oft absent from schoolhouse (due east.g., Chaudhury, Hammer, Kremer, Muralidharan, & Rogers, 2006; Muralidharan, Das, Holla, & Mohpal, 2017); and/or (c) those in which educators take low levels of pedagogical and subject matter expertise (e.g., Bietenbeck, Piopiunik, & Wiederhold, 2018; Bold et al., 2017; Metzler & Woessmann, 2012; Santibañez, 2006) and practice not have opportunities to observe and receive feedback (east.g., Bruns, Costa, & Cunha, 2018; Cilliers, Fleisch, Prinsloo, & Taylor, 2018). Technology could address this trouble past: (a) disseminating lessons delivered by qualified educators to a large number of learners (eastward.one thousand., through prerecorded or live lessons); (b) enabling altitude education (eastward.g., for learners in remote areas and/or during periods of schoolhouse closures); and (c) distributing hardware preloaded with educational materials.
Prerecorded lessons
Technology seems to be well placed to dilate the bear on of effective educators by disseminating their lessons. Testify on the impact of prerecorded lessons is encouraging, but non conclusive. Some initiatives that have used short instructional videos to complement regular instruction, in conjunction with other learning materials, take raised student learning on independent assessments. For example, Beg et al. (2020) evaluated an initiative in Punjab, Pakistan in which grade 8 classrooms received an intervention that included short videos to substitute live instruction, quizzes for learners to practice the textile from every lesson, tablets for educators to acquire the cloth and follow the lesson, and LED screens to projection the videos onto a classroom screen. After half-dozen months, the intervention improved the performance of learners on independent tests of math and science by 0.nineteen and 0.24 SDs, respectively but had no discernible effect on the math and science section of Punjab'southward high-stakes exams.
One study suggests that approaches that are far less technologically sophisticated can also improve learning outcomes—especially, if the business organisation-as-usual didactics is of low quality. For case, Naslund-Hadley, Parker, and Hernandez-Agramonte (2014) evaluated a preschool math program in Cordillera, Paraguay that used audio segments and written materials iv days per week for an hour per 24-hour interval during the school mean solar day. After 5 months, the intervention improved math scores by 0.xvi SDs, narrowing gaps between depression- and loftier-achieving learners, and between those with and without educators with formal training in early childhood education.
Yet, the integration of prerecorded material into regular education has not always been successful. For example, de Barros (2020) evaluated an intervention that combined instructional videos for math and science with infrastructure upgrades (e.g., 2 "smart" classrooms, two TVs, and 2 tablets), printed workbooks for students, and in-service grooming for educators of learners in grades 9 and 10 in Haryana, Republic of india (all materials were mapped onto the official curriculum). Afterward 11 months, the intervention negatively impacted math achievement (by 0.08 SDs) and had no result on science (with respect to concern as usual classes). Information technology reduced the share of lesson time that educators devoted to instruction and negatively impacted an index of instructional quality. Besides, Seo (2017) evaluated several combinations of infrastructure (solar lights and TVs) and prerecorded videos (in English and/or bilingual) for grade xi students in northern Tanzania and found that none of the variants improved student learning, fifty-fifty when the videos were used. The study reports effects from the infrastructure component across variants, merely as others have noted (Muralidharan, Romero, & Wüthrich, 2019), this approach to estimating bear on is problematic.
A very similar intervention delivered afterwards schoolhouse hours, however, had sizeable effects on learners' basic skills. Chiplunkar, Dhar, and Nagesh (2020) evaluated an initiative in Chennai (the upper-case letter city of the state of Tamil Nadu, India) delivered by the same organization every bit above that combined curt videos that explained key concepts in math and science with worksheets, facilitator-led instruction, small groups for peer-to-peer learning, and occasional career counseling and guidance for class 9 students. These lessons took place subsequently school for one 60 minutes, v times a week. After 10 months, it had large effects on learners' achievement equally measured by tests of bones skills in math and reading, but no effect on a standardized high-stakes exam in grade 10 or socio-emotional skills (due east.chiliad., teamwork, decisionmaking, and communication).
Drawing full general lessons from this trunk of enquiry is challenging for at least two reasons. First, all of the studies to a higher place have evaluated the impact of prerecorded lessons combined with several other components (e.chiliad., hardware, impress materials, or other activities). Therefore, information technology is possible that the effects found are due to these boosted components, rather than to the recordings themselves, or to the interaction between the two (encounter Muralidharan, 2017 for a discussion of the challenges of interpreting "arranged" interventions). 2d, while these studies evaluate some type of prerecorded lessons, none examines the content of such lessons. Thus, it seems entirely plausible that the direction and magnitude of the effects depends largely on the quality of the recordings (e.g., the expertise of the educator recording it, the corporeality of preparation that went into planning the recording, and its alignment with best teaching practices).
These studies as well raise 3 important questions worth exploring in futurity enquiry. One of them is why none of the interventions discussed in a higher place had effects on loftier-stakes exams, even if their materials are typically mapped onto the official curriculum. It is possible that the official curricula are but too challenging for learners in these settings, who are several grade levels behind expectations and who oft need to reinforce basic skills (see Pritchett & Beatty, 2015). Some other question is whether these interventions have long-term effects on teaching practices. Information technology seems plausible that, if these interventions are deployed in contexts with low teaching quality, educators may larn something from watching the videos or listening to the recordings with learners. Yet some other question is whether these interventions make information technology easier for schools to deliver instruction to learners whose native language is other than the official medium of instruction.
Distance education
Engineering science can also allow learners living in remote areas to admission education. The evidence on these initiatives is encouraging. For example, Johnston and Ksoll (2017) evaluated a program that broadcasted live instruction via satellite to rural primary school students in the Volta and Greater Accra regions of Ghana. For this purpose, the programme also equipped classrooms with the engineering needed to connect to a studio in Accra, including solar panels, a satellite modem, a projector, a webcam, microphones, and a figurer with interactive software. After two years, the intervention improved the numeracy scores of students in grades 2 through 4, and some foundational literacy tasks, only it had no effect on omnipresence or classroom time devoted to didactics, as captured by school visits. The authors interpreted these results as suggesting that the gains in accomplishment may exist due to improving the quality of instruction that children received (as opposed to increased instructional time). Naik, Chitre, Bhalla, and Rajan (2019) evaluated a similar program in the Indian state of Karnataka and also establish positive furnishings on learning outcomes, but it is not articulate whether those furnishings are due to the program or due to differences in the groups of students they compared to guess the affect of the initiative.
In one context (Mexico), this type of distance education had positive long-term effects. Navarro-Sola (2019) took advantage of the staggered rollout of the telesecundarias (i.e., middle schools with lessons broadcasted through satellite Telly) in 1968 to estimate its impact. The policy had short-term effects on students' enrollment in school: For every telesecundaria per 50 children, 10 students enrolled in middle school and two pursued further educational activity. It also had a long-term influence on the educational and employment trajectory of its graduates. Each boosted year of education induced past the policy increased average income past nearly eighteen per centum. This issue was attributable to more graduates entering the labor force and shifting from agriculture and the breezy sector. Similarly, Fabregas (2019) leveraged a after expansion of this policy in 1993 and constitute that each additional telesecundaria per 1,000 adolescents led to an average increase of 0.ii years of educational activity, and a reject in fertility for women, simply no conclusive evidence of long-term effects on labor market outcomes.
It is crucial to interpret these results keeping in heed the settings where the interventions were implemented. As we mention in a higher place, function of the reason why they take proven effective is that the "counterfactual" conditions for learning (i.e., what would have happened to learners in the absence of such programs) was either to not accept access to schooling or to be exposed to depression-quality instruction. School systems interested in taking up like interventions should appraise the extent to which their learners (or parts of their learner population) observe themselves in similar conditions to the subjects of the studies above. This illustrates the importance of assessing the needs of a organisation before reviewing the evidence.
Preloaded hardware
Technology also seems well positioned to disseminate educational materials. Specifically, hardware (due east.g., desktop computers, laptops, or tablets) could also assist deliver educational software (e.g., word processing, reference texts, and/or games). In theory, these materials could non merely undergo a quality assurance review (e.g., past curriculum specialists and educators), but also draw on the interactions with learners for adjustments (eastward.1000., identifying areas needing reinforcement) and enable interactions between learners and educators.
In practise, however, virtually initiatives that have provided learners with costless computers, laptops, and netbooks practise non leverage whatever of the opportunities mentioned in a higher place. Instead, they install a standard set of educational materials and hope that learners observe them helpful plenty to take them up on their ain. Students rarely do so, and instead use the laptops for recreational purposes—frequently, to the detriment of their learning (meet, e.g., Malamud & Pop-Eleches, 2011). In fact, free netbook initiatives take not only consistently failed to ameliorate academic accomplishment in math or language (e.g., Cristia et al., 2017), but they have had no affect on learners' general estimator skills (e.grand., Beuermann et al., 2015). Some of these initiatives take had small impacts on cognitive skills, but the mechanisms through which those effects occurred remains unclear.
To our knowledge, the just successful deployment of a complimentary laptop initiative was one in which a squad of researchers equipped the computers with remedial software. Mo et al. (2013) evaluated a version of the 1 Laptop per Child (OLPC) plan for grade 3 students in migrant schools in Beijing, China in which the laptops were loaded with a remedial software mapped onto the national curriculum for math (similar to the software products that we discuss under "do exercises" below). After nine months, the programme improved math accomplishment by 0.17 SDs and estimator skills by 0.33 SDs. If a school system decides to invest in free laptops, this written report suggests that the quality of the software on the laptops is crucial.
To date, still, the evidence suggests that children do not learn more from interacting with laptops than they do from textbooks. For example, Bando, Gallego, Gertler, and Romero (2016) compared the effect of free laptop and textbook provision in 271 elementary schools in disadvantaged areas of Honduras. After seven months, students in grades 3 and 6 who had received the laptops performed on par with those who had received the textbooks in math and language. Further, fifty-fifty if textbooks substantially become obsolete at the end of each school year, whereas laptops can be reloaded with new materials for each year, the costs of laptop provision (not but the hardware, just as well the technical assistance, Internet, and grooming associated with information technology) are not however low enough to make them a more than cost-constructive mode of delivering content to learners.
Bear witness on the provision of tablets equipped with software is encouraging just express. For example, de Hoop et al. (2020) evaluated a composite intervention for first form students in Zambia's Eastern Province that combined infrastructure (electricity via solar ability), hardware (projectors and tablets), and educational materials (lesson plans for educators and interactive lessons for learners, both loaded onto the tablets and mapped onto the official Zambian curriculum). Subsequently 14 months, the intervention had improved pupil early-course reading by 0.4 SDs, oral vocabulary scores by 0.25 SDs, and early-form math by 0.22 SDs. It also improved students' accomplishment by 0.16 on a locally adult assessment. The multifaceted nature of the plan, nonetheless, makes it challenging to identify the components that are driving the positive effects. Pitchford (2015) evaluated an intervention that provided tablets equipped with educational "apps," to exist used for 30 minutes per day for two months to develop early math skills among students in grades one through 3 in Lilongwe, Malawi. The evaluation establish positive impacts in math achievement, but the principal written report limitation is that it was conducted in a unmarried school.
Facilitating differentiated instruction
Some other style in which technology may improve educational outcomes is past facilitating the delivery of differentiated or individualized instruction. Virtually developing countries massively expanded access to schooling in recent decades past edifice new schools and making education more affordable, both by defraying direct costs, as well every bit compensating for opportunity costs (Duflo, 2001; World Bank, 2018). These initiatives have not merely rapidly increased the number of learners enrolled in school, but take too increased the variability in learner' preparation for schooling. Consequently, a large number of learners perform well below grade-based curricular expectations (see, e.one thousand., Duflo, Dupas, & Kremer, 2011; Pritchett & Beatty, 2015). These learners are unlikely to get much from "one-size-fits-all" instruction, in which a unmarried educator delivers pedagogy deemed appropriate for the middle (or acme) of the achievement distribution (Banerjee & Duflo, 2011). Technology could potentially help these learners by providing them with: (a) instruction and opportunities for do that adapt to the level and footstep of preparation of each individual (known equally "computer-adaptive learning" (CAL)); or (b) live, one-on-one tutoring.
Calculator-adaptive learning
1 of the main comparative advantages of technology is its ability to diagnose students' initial learning levels and assign students to instruction and exercises of appropriate difficulty. No individual educator—no matter how talented—can be expected to provide individualized didactics to all learners in his/her course simultaneously. In this respect, applied science is uniquely positioned to complement traditional teaching. This use of engineering could assist learners master basic skills and help them go more than out of schooling.
Although many software products evaluated in contempo years accept been categorized as CAL, many rely on a relatively coarse level of differentiation at an initial stage (e.yard., a diagnostic examination) without further differentiation. We discuss these initiatives nether the category of "increasing opportunities for practice" below. CAL initiatives complement an initial diagnostic with dynamic accommodation (i.eastward., at each response or set of responses from learners) to adjust both the initial level of difficulty and charge per unit at which it increases or decreases, depending on whether learners' responses are correct or wrong.
Existing bear witness on this specific type of programs is highly promising. Well-nigh famously, Banerjee et al. (2007) evaluated CAL software in Vadodara, in the Indian country of Gujarat, in which course 4 students were offered two hours of shared computer fourth dimension per week before and afterwards school, during which they played games that involved solving math bug. The level of difficulty of such bug adjusted based on students' answers. This program improved math achievement by 0.35 and 0.47 SDs after one and two years of implementation, respectively. Consistent with the promise of personalized learning, the software improved accomplishment for all students. In fact, one yr afterwards the finish of the program, students assigned to the program nonetheless performed 0.1 SDs better than those assigned to a business concern as usual condition. More recently, Muralidharan, et al. (2019) evaluated a "blended learning" initiative in which students in grades 4 through 9 in Delhi, Bharat received 45 minutes of interaction with CAL software for math and language, and 45 minutes of small group teaching before or after going to schoolhouse. Afterward merely 4.5 months, the program improved accomplishment by 0.37 SDs in math and 0.23 SDs in Hindi. While all learners benefited from the program in accented terms, the lowest performing learners benefited the most in relative terms, since they were learning very trivial in school.
We see two important limitations from this body of research. First, to our knowledge, none of these initiatives has been evaluated when implemented during the school day. Therefore, it is not possible to distinguish the effect of the adaptive software from that of additional instructional time. Second, given that most of these programs were facilitated past local instructors, attempts to distinguish the effect of the software from that of the instructors has been by and large based on noncausal evidence. A frontier claiming in this body of research is to empathise whether CAL software can increase the effectiveness of schoolhouse-based instruction by substituting office of the regularly scheduled time for math and language instruction.
Live ane-on-one tutoring
Recent improvements in the speed and quality of videoconferencing, as well as in the connectivity of remote areas, have enabled yet some other way in which technology tin assistance personalization: live (i.east., real-fourth dimension) 1-on-one tutoring. While the evidence on in-person tutoring is scarce in developing countries, existing studies suggest that this approach works all-time when it is used to personalize instruction (see, e.g., Banerjee et al., 2007; Banerji, Berry, & Shotland, 2015; Cabezas, Cuesta, & Gallego, 2011).
At that place are almost no studies on the bear upon of online tutoring—perhaps, due to the lack of hardware and Internet connectivity in depression- and middle-income countries. One exception is Chemin and Oledan (2020)'south recent evaluation of an online tutoring program for grade 6 students in Kianyaga, Kenya to learn English from volunteers from a Canadian academy via Skype ( videoconferencing software) for ane hr per week after schoolhouse. After 10 months, program beneficiaries performed 0.22 SDs better in a test of oral comprehension, improved their comfort using technology for learning, and became more willing to engage in cross-cultural communication. Chiefly, while the tutoring sessions used the official English textbooks and sought in part to help learners with their homework, tutors were trained on several strategies to teach to each learner's individual level of grooming, focusing on basic skills if necessary. To our knowledge, similar initiatives within a country accept non yet been rigorously evaluated.
Expanding opportunities for practise
A third way in which applied science may meliorate the quality of education is by providing learners with additional opportunities for practice. In many developing countries, lesson time is primarily devoted to lectures, in which the educator explains the topic and the learners passively re-create explanations from the blackboard. This setup leaves lilliputian time for in-class practice. Consequently, learners who did not empathise the caption of the material during lecture struggle when they accept to solve homework assignments on their ain. Technology could potentially address this problem by allowing learners to review topics at their own step.
Practise exercises
Engineering science can help learners get more than out of traditional teaching by providing them with opportunities to implement what they learn in grade. This arroyo could, in theory, let some learners to anchor their agreement of the fabric through trial and error (i.e., by realizing what they may non have understood correctly during lecture and by getting better acquainted with special cases not covered in-depth in form).
Existing testify on practice exercises reflects both the promise and the limitations of this employ of technology in developing countries. For example, Lai et al. (2013) evaluated a program in Shaanxi, Red china where students in grades iii and 5 were required to nourish two twoscore-infinitesimal remedial sessions per week in which they first watched videos that reviewed the material that had been introduced in their math lessons that calendar week so played games to practice the skills introduced in the video. Later on four months, the intervention improved math achievement past 0.12 SDs. Many other evaluations of comparable interventions accept constitute similar small-to-moderate results (come across, e.g., Lai, Luo, Zhang, Huang, & Rozelle, 2015; Lai et al., 2012; Mo et al., 2015; Pitchford, 2015). These effects, however, have been consistently smaller than those of initiatives that adjust the difficulty of the textile based on students' performance (eastward.g., Banerjee et al., 2007; Muralidharan, et al., 2019). Nosotros hypothesize that these programs do fiddling for learners who perform several grade levels backside curricular expectations, and who would benefit more from a review of foundational concepts from earlier grades.
We run across 2 important limitations from this research. First, most initiatives that have been evaluated thus far combine instructional videos with practise exercises, so it is hard to know whether their effects are driven by the erstwhile or the latter. In fact, the program in People's republic of china described above allowed learners to inquire their peers whenever they did not empathize a difficult concept, so it potentially also captured the effect of peer-to-peer collaboration. To our cognition, no studies accept addressed this gap in the evidence.
Second, virtually of these programs are implemented earlier or after school, then we cannot distinguish the effect of additional instructional time from that of the actual opportunity for practice. The importance of this question was beginning highlighted by Linden (2008), who compared two commitment mechanisms for game-based remedial math software for students in grades 2 and three in a network of schools run by a nonprofit organisation in Gujarat, India: one in which students interacted with the software during the school day and another one in which students interacted with the software before or after school (in both cases, for three hours per day). Subsequently a year, the first version of the program had negatively impacted students' math achievement by 0.57 SDs and the second i had a zilch effect. This study suggested that estimator-assisted learning is a poor substitute for regular teaching when it is of loftier quality, equally was the instance in this well-functioning private network of schools.
In recent years, several studies have sought to remedy this shortcoming. Mo et al. (2014) were among the kickoff to evaluate practice exercises delivered during the school mean solar day. They evaluated an initiative in Shaanxi, China in which students in grades 3 and 5 were required to interact with the software like to the one in Lai et al. (2013) for two 40-minute sessions per week. The primary limitation of this report, however, is that the programme was delivered during regularly scheduled calculator lessons, and so information technology could not make up one's mind the touch of substituting regular math instruction. Similarly, Mo et al. (2020) evaluated a cocky-paced and a teacher-directed version of a similar programme for English language for grade v students in Qinghai, China. Yet, the fundamental shortcoming of this written report is that the instructor-directed version added several components that may as well influence achievement, such every bit increased opportunities for teachers to provide students with personalized assistance when they struggled with the material. Ma, Fairlie, Loyalka, and Rozelle (2020) compared the effectiveness of additional fourth dimension-delivered remedial instruction for students in grades 4 to half-dozen in Shaanxi, China through either computer-assisted software or using workbooks. This written report indicates whether additional instructional fourth dimension is more effective when using technology, but information technology does not address the question of whether school systems may ameliorate the productivity of instructional time during the schoolhouse twenty-four hours by substituting educator-led with estimator-assisted educational activity.
Increasing learner appointment
Another fashion in which engineering science may improve education is by increasing learners' date with the material. In many school systems, regular "chalk and talk" instruction prioritizes time for educators' exposition over opportunities for learners to ask clarifying questions and/or contribute to class discussions. This, combined with the fact that many developing-land classrooms include a very big number of learners (see, e.g., Angrist & Lavy, 1999; Duflo, Dupas, & Kremer, 2015), may partially explain why the majority of those students are several course levels behind curricular expectations (due east.g., Muralidharan, et al., 2019; Muralidharan & Zieleniak, 2014; Pritchett & Beatty, 2015). Technology could potentially address these challenges past: (a) using video tutorials for self-paced learning and (b) presenting exercises as games and/or gamifying practise.
Video tutorials
Engineering science tin potentially increase learner effort and understanding of the textile by finding new and more than engaging ways to deliver it. Video tutorials designed for self-paced learning—as opposed to videos for whole class instruction, which we discuss under the category of "prerecorded lessons" above—can increment learner effort in multiple means, including: allowing learners to focus on topics with which they need more help, letting them right errors and misconceptions on their own, and making the material appealing through visual aids. They can increase agreement by breaking the material into smaller units and tackling common misconceptions.
In spite of the popularity of instructional videos, there is relatively footling evidence on their effectiveness. Notwithstanding, two recent evaluations of different versions of the Khan University portal, which mainly relies on instructional videos, offer some insight into their impact. First, Ferman, Finamor, and Lima (2019) evaluated an initiative in 157 public primary and center schools in five cities in Brazil in which the teachers of students in grades five and 9 were taken to the computer lab to learn math from the platform for fifty minutes per week. The authors found that, while the intervention slightly improved learners' attitudes toward math, these changes did non interpret into better operation in this subject. The authors hypothesized that this could be due to the reduction of teacher-led math instruction.
More recently, Büchel, Jakob, Kühnhanss, Steffen, and Brunetti (2020) evaluated an later on-school, offline delivery of the Khan University portal in grades iii through 6 in 302 primary schools in Morazán, El Salvador. Students in this written report received ninety minutes per week of additional math instruction (effectively nearly doubling total math didactics per calendar week) through teacher-led regular lessons, instructor-assisted Khan Academy lessons, or like lessons assisted by technical supervisors with no content expertise. (Importantly, the commencement grouping provided differentiated instruction, which is not the norm in Salvadorian schools). All iii groups outperformed both schools without any additional lessons and classrooms without boosted lessons in the aforementioned schools every bit the programme. The instructor-assisted Khan University lessons performed 0.24 SDs meliorate, the supervisor-led lessons 0.22 SDs better, and the teacher-led regular lessons 0.xv SDs better, but the authors could non make up one's mind whether the effects across versions were different.
Together, these studies suggest that instructional videos piece of work all-time when provided as a complement to, rather than as a substitute for, regular instruction. Yet, the main limitation of these studies is the multifaceted nature of the Khan Academy portal, which also includes other components found to positively improve learner achievement, such equally differentiated instruction past students' learning levels. While the software does not provide the type of personalization discussed above, learners are asked to take a placement exam and, based on their score, educators assign them dissimilar work. Therefore, it is not articulate from these studies whether the effects from Khan Academy are driven by its instructional videos or to the software's ability to provide differentiated activities when combined with placement tests.
Games and gamification
Technology tin besides increase learner appointment by presenting exercises every bit games and/or by encouraging learner to play and compete with others (e.thousand., using leaderboards and rewards)—an approach known as "gamification." Both approaches can increase learner motivation and effort by presenting learners with entertaining opportunities for practice and by leveraging peers as delivery devices.
At that place are very few studies on the effects of games and gamification in low- and eye-income countries. Recently, Araya, Arias Ortiz, Bottan, and Cristia (2019) evaluated an initiative in which class 4 students in Santiago, Chile were required to participate in two ninety-minute sessions per week during the schoolhouse day with instructional math software featuring individual and grouping competitions (due east.chiliad., tracking each learner'south standing in his/her form and tournaments betwixt sections). Later on 9 months, the programme led to improvements of 0.27 SDs in the national student assessment in math (it had no spillover furnishings on reading). Still, it had mixed effects on not-academic outcomes. Specifically, the program increased learners' willingness to use computers to learn math, merely, at the same time, increased their anxiety toward math and negatively impacted learners' willingness to interact with peers. Finally, given that one of the weekly sessions replaced regular math instruction and the other one represented boosted math instructional fourth dimension, it is not articulate whether the academic effects of the program are driven past the software or the additional time devoted to learning math.
The prognosis:
How can school systems adopt interventions that match their needs?
Here are five specific and sequential guidelines for decisionmakers to realize the potential of instruction technology to accelerate student learning.
1. Take stock of how your current schools, educators, and learners are engaging with technology.
Acquit out a short in-school survey to understand the electric current practices and potential barriers to adoption of technology (we take included suggested survey instruments in the Appendices); use this information in your decisionmaking process. For instance, nosotros learned from conversations with current and former ministers of education from various developing regions that a common limitation to technology utilise is regulations that agree school leaders accountable for damages to or losses of devices. Some other common bulwark is lack of access to electricity and Net, or even the availability of sufficient outlets for charging devices in classrooms. Agreement basic infrastructure and regulatory limitations to the use of educational activity engineering science is a first necessary step. But addressing these limitations volition not guarantee that introducing or expanding engineering utilize will accelerate learning. The next steps are thus necessary.
"In Africa, the biggest limit is connectivity. Cobweb is expensive, and we don't have it everywhere. The continent is creating a digital dissever betwixt cities, where at that place is cobweb, and the rural areas.
The [Ghanaian] assistants put in schools offline/online technologies with books, assessment tools, and open source materials. In deploying this, nosotros are finding that again, teachers are unfamiliar with it. And existing policies prohibit students to bring their own tablets or cell phones. The easiest mode to do it would have been to let everyone bring their ain device. But policies are confronting it."
H.Due east. Matthew Prempeh, Minister of Education of Ghana, on the need to sympathise the local context.
2. Consider how the introduction of applied science may impact the interactions among learners, educators, and content.
Our review of the evidence indicates that technology may accelerate student learning when it is used to scale upward access to quality content, facilitate differentiated education, increase opportunities for practice, or when it increases learner engagement. For example, will adding electronic whiteboards to classrooms facilitate access to more than quality content or differentiated instruction? Or will these expensive boards be used in the same way as the sometime chalkboards? Will providing 1 device (laptop or tablet) to each learner facilitate access to more and better content, or offer students more than opportunities to practice and learn? Solely introducing technology in classrooms without additional changes is unlikely to lead to improved learning and may be quite plush. If you cannot clearly identify how the interactions among the three primal components of the instructional cadre (educators, learners, and content) may alter after the introduction of technology, so it is probably not a good idea to make the investment. Run into Appendix A for guidance on the types of questions to ask.
3. Once decisionmakers have a clear idea of how education engineering can aid accelerate student learning in a specific context, it is important to define clear objectives and goals and plant ways to regularly assess progress and make course corrections in a timely fashion.
For case, is the education applied science expected to ensure that learners in early grades excel in foundational skills—basic literacy and numeracy—past historic period 10? If then, volition the applied science provide quality reading and math materials, aplenty opportunities to practice, and engaging materials such as videos or games? Will educators exist empowered to use these materials in new means? And how will progress be measured and adjusted?
four. How this kind of reform is approached can matter immensely for its success.
It is easy to nod to bug of "implementation," but that needs to be more than rhetorical. Proceed in mind that good employ of education technology requires thinking about how it volition affect learners, educators, and parents. Later on all, giving learners digital devices will make no divergence if they become cleaved, are stolen, or get unused. Classroom technologies just thing if educators feel comfortable putting them to work. Since good technology is generally about complementing or amplifying what educators and learners already practise, information technology is almost ever a mistake to mandate programs from on loftier. It is vital that technology be adopted with the input of educators and families and with attention to how it volition exist used. If applied science goes unused or if educators use it ineffectually, the results will disappoint—no affair the virtuosity of the engineering. Indeed, unused education applied science can be an unnecessary expenditure for cash-strapped teaching systems. This is why surveying context, listening to voices in the field, examining how applied science is used, and planning for grade correction is essential.
five. It is essential to communicate with a range of stakeholders, including educators, school leaders, parents, and learners.
Applied science tin can experience alien in schools, confuse parents and (peculiarly) older educators, or become an alluring distraction. Good advice tin assist address all of these risks. Taking care to listen to educators and families can help ensure that programs are informed past their needs and concerns. At the aforementioned time, deliberately and consistently explaining what technology is and is non supposed to practise, how it can be nigh finer used, and the ways in which it can brand it more likely that programs work as intended. For instance, if teachers fear that technology is intended to reduce the demand for educators, they will tend to exist hostile; if they believe that it is intended to assistance them in their work, they volition be more receptive. Absent-minded constructive advice, it is easy for programs to "fail" non because of the engineering science but because of how it was used. In brusque, by feel in rolling out instruction programs indicates that it is as of import to have a strong intervention design as it is to accept a solid program to socialize information technology amidst stakeholders.
Events
Videos
Downloads
Virtually the Authors
Does Technology Increase Or Decrease The Learning Process.,
Source: https://www.brookings.edu/essay/realizing-the-promise-how-can-education-technology-improve-learning-for-all/
Posted by: poindexterdwellied.blogspot.com
0 Response to "Does Technology Increase Or Decrease The Learning Process."
Post a Comment