No Access, No Use, No Impact

Abstract

There is general agreement that computing technologies have not had a sign~ficant impact on teaching and learning in K-12 in the US., even though billions of dollars have been spent in purchasing, equipping, and supporting the technology. Some critics of school technology use this situation to push their position that technology is not appropriate for children. Others put the foilure on the backs of classroom teachers. However, based on the data we collected administering the Snapshot Survey in districts large and small around the country to approximately 4,000 K-12 classroom teachers, the reason that technology has not had an impact on teaching and learning is that students have, for al! intents and purposes, not actually used the technology. Furthermore, the reason for this non-use lies not at the feet of the teachers, but rather in the very real lack of access to the technology. Having one computer in the classroom is not access, nor will it lead to significant student use. Frankly, technology can't have an impact if children have not had the opportunity to access and use the technology.

Educational Technology Research Patterns in the Realm of the Digital Knowledge Age

“…The most cited articles from the sample confirm that the online learning environments (Gerjets & Hesse 2004; that resulted from the convergence of two disciplines, that is educational technology and distance education, had a transformative effect (King 2002), affecting the use of educational technology in traditional learning environments and the integration of educational technology in schools and higher educational institutions by focusing on students and educators (Clarke III, Flaherty, & Mottner 2001;Margerum-Leys, & Marx 2002). This process, however, was accompanied by rising concerns on the effectiveness of educational technology (Norris et al 2003). In the transition period from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 technologies, that is from 2005 to 2009, three major themes were identified, namely, (I) revising curriculum for educa-tional technology (Path: research, study, design, data, field, practice), (II) educational technology in higher education and distance education (higher, distance, education, learning, educational, teaching), and (III) the bottleneck in educational technology research (Path: based, development, data, analysis, significant) as the baselines in the concept map (Figure 8).…”

Towards The Use Of Information And Communication Technology In Undergraduates Learning: Possession, Perception And Problems In Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

“…Teachers need not only to be prepared in terms of qualification but also in terms of instructional resources that will enhance classroom activities. Norris, Sullivan & Poirot (2003) while concluding the results obtained from their study reamarked as follows "taken as a whole, these results refute the conventional wisdom that adoption and integration of techlnology into K-1 2 classroonms are somehow based on (or even related to) individual educator attitudes. Rather, these results indicate that teachers' use of technology for curricular purposes is almost exclusively a function of their access to that technology.…”

Do “Interactive” Educational Technologies Promote Interactive Literacy Instruction?

“…Additionally, some schools (such as in Study 2) are moving away from touch-sensitive devices towards data projectors which display the same content but do not react to touch. The introduction of personal devices, especially to support the content displayed on whole-class devices, enables more students to have technical interaction with devices but is dependent upon availability of devices (Norris et al, 2003).…”