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



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/

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