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/
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature