Saturday, September 11, 2010
CED525A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of teaching and learning
The introduction to this article talked about the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. I've had a great deal of mixed emotions about that act for years. The act is placing a new emphasis on research and having evidence based programs for schools. Honestly, my initial thought after reading that sentence was "why". I thought to myself, why would we need all this research and evidence to show that students learn better through technology. I just thought that was common knowledge and didn't require all these fancy case studies. I liked the paragraph that stated technology is dramatically different in schools today, than years ago. Well...... yes I would have to agree and state that evidence is clear, without research. Our cell phones are also our computers, navigational devices, media players and so on. I did think some of the results of the studies were very informative and useful for educators. I strongly believe in group work and one of the results of this article, reinforced the importance of it. It stated " small-group learning had more positive effects than individual learning" when using technology. I think that more and more research will be done and needs to be done on technology and it's effects in schools. We must use the research to make our schools a safe, engaging, and a technologically based environment. So, I understand the need for all the case studies, but I also think that we don't need to do studies on the "obvious". That is strictly my opinion. I know that this type of research is only going to help me be a better educator. Overall, I thought this article was interesting and informative with all the studies that were conducted.
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Wow.... I had a totally different take on it. We both agree that more research needs to be done, but like you said, some of it was rather obvious.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your comment about doing studies on the "obvious". But I guess that obvious needs to be studied and proven to go on and prove other things (and lend credibility). Seems like a waste of money though, doesn't it?
I think the reason why group work is more effective than individual work is due to the fact that students relate to each other better than they relate to their teachers. They are able to word and explain ideas and thoughts in an age appropriate way (most of the time) because they are all that age. Add in aids like Google apps, wikis, and tokbox and students can work together without being together while still providing the "fun" element. To the student, they are doing part of the work instead of all, they get to be with kids their own age who most likely understand them, and they get to use fun tools.
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