Laura Devaney, editor with eSchool News, shared results from a recent study. Project RED (Revolutionizing Education), a national initiative that “aims to prove that when properly implemented, investing in technology can boost student achievement and will result in monetary savings for schools and local governments.” Nearly a thousand schools with diverse student populations were surveyed. These schools had varying levels of technology integration. The RED group used a model that correlated 11 measures of success with more than 100 other variables and 22 categories to determine which factors had the biggest impact. “The results indicate that schools properly implementing one-to-one programs achieve more educational success than schools with higher student-to-computer ratios.”

What are the Implementation Factors?

“Daily technology use in core subjects-area classes, frequent technology use in intervention courses, and a low student-to-computer ratio were found to play a critical role in reducing dropout rates, the study reveals. Students in reading intervention, special education, and Title 1 programs … benefit from the individualized instruction that technology can provide best,” according to Project RED’s Tom Greaves.

Maybe the lesson here is that if schools are investing in education technology it would be terrific if they were included in their intervention classes. This lesson applies to preschool as well.

Source: eSchoolNews.com | http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/06/28/survey-reveals-factors-in-ed-tech-success/

According to an article in, Science Daily, the answer is “yes!”  The January 24, 2010 article stated that many computer scientists in the United States think that creating computer games, rather than just playing them, can boost skills.  The boost would come in the student’s critical and creative thinking skills, as well as broadening his or her computer skills.  As we know, computer games have a broad appeal that transcends gender, culture, age and socio-economic status.  In the current issue of International Journal of Social and Humanistic Computing, we learn of such a case at Oklahoma State University.  The principal investigators in the study make a case for using rapid computer game creations as an innovative teaching method that has the potential of helping to bridge the digital divide between “those people lacking computer skills and access and those with them.”   

There is an increasing recognition of the digital divide.  “The digital divide refers not only to unequal access to computing resources between groups of people but also to inequalities in their ability to use information technology fully,” explains the evaluative team.

As I read this article, I thought of the digital divide that exists in early childhood.  Another huge problem is the lack of appropriate software for young children.  We are to ensure the efforts in early childhood are made to narrow this divide with solid research findings and make certain best practices in early childhood are not ignored.