Recent Studies in Educational Technology

The current results, trends, issues.

The Role of Online Communications in Schools: A National Study

http://www.cast.org/publications/ stsstudy/ index.html
A major study by the Center for Applied Special Technology demonstrates that students with online access perform better. It offers evidence that using the Internet can help students become independent, critical thinkers, able to find information, organize and evaluate it, and then effectively express their new knowledge and ideas in compelling ways.
 

Technology Counts '98

http://www.edweek.org/sreports/tc98/
Education Week's annual assessment of the current state of technology implementation, and its effectiveness, in U.S. schools.
 

Educators Emphasize Teacher Training in Technology

http://www.nytimes.com/library/ tech/ 98/ 10/ cyber/ education/ 07education.html
 

The Computer Delusion

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jul/computer.htm
This magazine article argues there is no good evidence that most uses of computers significantly improve teaching and learning. (see also Critic of Technology in Schools Faces Tough Audience, http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/ 04/ cyber/ education/ 29education.html
   

Mathematics for the Moment, or the Millenium

http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-18/29boaler.h18
Stanford University Assistant Professor of Education Jo Boaler reports on a recent study of two groups of students aged 13-16, one using a "textbook" approach to math instruction, the other using what Boaler calls a "project" approach.
  
"At the beginning of the research period," writes Boaler, "the students at the two schools had experienced the same mathematical approaches and, at that time, they demonstrated the same levels of mathematical attainment on a range of tests.... At the end of the three-year period, the students had developed in very different ways. One of the results of these differences was that students at the second school--what I will call the project school, as opposed to the textbook school--attained significantly higher grades on the national exam. This was not because these students knew more mathematics, but because they had developed a different form of knowledge."