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Re: [school-discuss] student:computer - studies to reference?



You could check out some of richard kozma' writings. 
He has done the SITES module research that involved
increasing the ratio of computers per student in
classrooms.
hope that helps.
teprine
--- Matt Oquist <moquist@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Note: I'm also posting to k12osn and k12opensource;
> sorry for any
> duplication.
> 
> I'm on the newly-formed school tech planning
> committee in my
> community, and at the second committee meeting I
> discussed the idea
> that there's a tipping-point at which access to
> technology naturally
> snowballs into increasing technology integration.
> (There's a bit of
> the "if you build it they will come" thinking in
> here.) I asserted
> that I believed studies had been done on such data
> points as the range
> of student:computer ratios that define such a
> tipping-point.
> 
> The committee chairman (a school board member)
> insightfully asked if
> I could find out about such studies and report back
> at our next
> meeting -- so now I'm asking all of you. I've done
> some googling and
> I'll do some more, but what studies (formal and
> informal, but I'm
> looking for more than just opinions) do you know of
> that communicate
> concrete results such as (NOTE: I'M MAKING THIS UP
> as an EXAMPLE!):
>   "Moving from a 10:1 student:computer ratio to a
> 2:1 ratio is 75%
>   more likely to result in a 20% increase in math
> standardized test
>   scores than moving instead to a 5:1 ratio."
> 
> A study with results like that would be outstanding,
> of course, but
> I'll be pleasantly shocked to find one. What has
> actually been done?
> What more do we have than anecdotal evidence of the
> sort of
> tipping-point that I described?
> 
> I'm pretty sure I snagged the phrase "tipping point"
> from one of the
> slides in Daniel Howard's presentation to the CIO of
> Atlanta Public
> Schools on their case study at Morris Brandon
> Elementary School.
> Here's what he said:
>   Tipping point: must have at least 5 PCs for
> teachers to fully
>   integrate into instruction, more is better for
> most teachers
> 
> I'll follow up with Daniel to find out how many
> students those
> 5 (LTSP) PCs are covering...but what have the rest
> of you experienced
> in your own schools?
> 
> With 1:1 as the assumed goal, what ratio will give
> us the best
> bang-for-the-buck along the way?
> 
> --matt
> 
> --
> Open Source Software Engineering Consultant
> http://majen.net/
> 


Teprine Baldo 
  Bleu Rouge Productions
  (514) 201-7801
  (514) 522-3168
   


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