Technology+and+Equity+in+Schools

=Technology and Equity in Schooling: Deconstructing the Digital Divide= Mark Warschauer et al. Group Pickle - Sandra Lee, Amy Ko, Dang Nguyen, Darryl Tom

Pre-Assessment
How can you immediately narrow your focus on main keywords and ideas when faced with unfamiliar text?

[|ED334 - Wiki Wordle] [|Wordle.net]

**Introduction**
In this study, the researchers wanted to investigate the impact of advancing technology has on the academic achievement gap (affected by race and SES - socioeconomic status). They predicted that if there was a negative impact that increased the gap, it would be due to unequal access to computers and internet while in a positive impact, it would be due to using technology as “powerful tool to increase learning among marginalized students and provide greater access to a broader information society.” (Warschauer, 563).

Prior Research suggest -

 * 1) Computers and Internet access is **distributed unequally** by race, income, and education.
 * 2) There is **decrease** in this **unequal access to technology** as more and more people are buying computers. Also, the ratio of computers to students is **decreasing**.
 * 3) High SES students are more likely to use computers to **complete homework assignments** than Low SES students therefore showing that computers have a **greater academic impact** for High SES students than Low SES students.
 * 4) Online access at schools is sometimes **granted to the most advancing** student therefore **increasing** the inequality of access.
 * 5) Low SES students use computers for math and English (**computer based drills**) while High SES students use it for science (**simulations and research**).

**Method**
This was a qualitative study of technology access and use in eight California high schools of both low and high SES.

Schools’ Profile

 * 5 Low SES schools, 3 High SES schools (couldn’t get two other High SES to break even).
 * 4 subjects - Math, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies (total 64 classrooms)
 * Over 7 month period. 2001-2002 academic year.
 * Availability, access, use - school, community, student population, academic preparation for university entry.
 * More Hispanics and English Language Learners in Low SES. Bottom 40% API, 5x more likely not to have credential teacher than High SES
 * Whites and Asians in High SES. Top 20% API

Data Collection

 * 1) Observation - 2-50 minutes instructions per teacher, total of 115 hours, taken during technology use.
 * 2) Adult Interviews - Teachers and Admin, at least one per person-total 50-90 minutes, personal opinions of technology use and its impact on students
 * 3) Students questionnaire - 15 questions: 12 personal - 3 open-ended about technology use and its impact on their learning.
 * 4) Student Interviews - small group interview, ½ hour, 1) use of computer outside of school, 2) thoughts of computer enhancing learning and grades, 3) plans after graduation
 * 5) Artifacts - technology policies, inventories, surveys, student works, web sites, lesson plans/handouts, assessment and rubric.

Data Analysis
Use of lots of techniques: ethnography, sociolinguistics, historiography, **pattern matching**, domain and taxonomic analysis.

**Findings**
Low SES has more computers to students therefore had **more access** than High SES. This confirms that the gap of unequal access is **going down**. Below is a chart listing the type of computer use according to subject matter: Low SES practiced more soft skills and drill based use while High SES perform research and inquiry. Based on the findings, the researcher found and compared **three patterns** of the type of computer use among the schools: Performativity, Workability, and Complexity.

**Performativity**
//Introduction:// Coined by Jean-Francois Lyotard (1984) who used the term to describe postindustrial societies such as the U.S. who legitimizes anything that contributes to maximizing the optimal performance of a system. In other words, performativity is measurable performance and in the context of schools, it refers to instances in which teachers assign students to a series of tasks on a checklist without making content meaningful and purposeful for the learners

//Low SES performativity in technology:// In low ses schools, teachers simply assigned English Language learners with the task of researching articles using a search engine. The students were instructed to go down the list of returned searches, visit the webpage, copy and paste the text and move onto the next page without learning any true methods of research such as assessing a site’s trustworthiness, or re-defining and narrowing search terms or using a different, more appropriate search engine. Unfortunately, the teacher did not intervene in any way with these students’ searches and help them develop better skills.

//Hi SES performativity:// A science teacher assigned students the task of creating a powerpoint, but a large part of the grades were based on what kinds of fonts, slide transitions and aesthetics were used rather than content. It appears that the purpose of the assignment was not to teach how to create effective and concise presentations, but rather to allow teachers to check off that students had mastered various features of Powerpoint.

//Implications:// There are good technology practices in all schools, but performativity was a widespread problem in all schools involved in this study. This has many implications for low ses students: teachers only teach basic computer tasks since they are uncertain about students’ home computer access. Low ses students face greater challenges than hi ses peers and therefore can’t truly immerse themselves in learning all uses of technology. Lastly, more than twice as many students in low-SES schools indicated that Powerpoint was something they enjoyed about using computers; researchers have clearly stated that becoming fluent users of software is never really that important.

**Workability**
//New Technology and Design Flaws// - In both the low and high SES schools teachers and students had concerns on whether the existing technology actually functioned and could be accessed and used easily. - Created more work for the teachers
 * Blackboard, books, and overhead projectors VS. New technology
 * Did not trust the technology so had to create two lesson plans
 * One using new technology and the other a back up plan

//Design Flaws// - In one library the power cords for a set of computers were grouped in the center of the lab space where it was regularly kicked out of the sockets on accident - Salix (low SES school)
 * This caused all the computers to lose power
 * Majority of computer labs were in classrooms dedicated to business studies
 * Teachers then associated the computers with only business studies rather than the computers being open to all subject areas

//Difference Workability Issues between Low and High SES schools// - High SES schools - Low SES schools
 * Tended to invest in more professional development (hiring full time technical support staff, lines of communication among teachers, office staff, media specialists, technical staff, and administration to create digital networks)
 * Encouraged more teacher use of new technologies
 * Did not invest in professional development with technology
 * Less success in creating the kinds of support networks that made technology workablemedia type="youtube" key="KuVMbg4Ih_4" height="315" width="560"

//Dalea High (high SES school)//

- At least two computers in each class and several have enough to accommodate every student -12 technology facilitators from teaching staff - Made sure at least one teacher out of the 12 technology facilitators were free for each period of the day - Full time media specialist - Students also help out as aides to the specialist and technology facilitators
 * Selected individuals who have undergone extensive in service training

//Bergania (low SES school)// - Has a greater ratio of students to computer than Dalea high - Poor communication between people running the computer labs - The staff hired to oversee the computer labs seemed not to be familiar with the software on the computers - No network of facilitators to support teachers with technology
 * Two computer labs had internet installed for more than 5 months before teachers were told students could go online
 * Led to scheduling frustrations for teachers

**Complexity**
Many teachers found it challenging to integrate computers in their instruction. In all eight schools that were studied, which included both, high and low SES schools, there were three common factors with the complexity of computer integration and technology use in the classroom:

//__High-stakes testing__:// All teachers of the eight schools feel the pressure of high-stakes testing, particularly low SES schools where student test scores are lower. During many of the teacher interviews, a common issue is that there is not enough //time// to instruct the necessary concepts needed for the high stakes test. This limited of time to teach important material to the students sets integration of technology into the curriculum to the very bottom of their lists of things to do or even, not have computer use at all. This is a very important implication for low SES schools where instruction is focused on raising test scores will completely take up the time that could be used for technology in meaningful ways. The most up-to-date research shows that low SES schools dedicate much of their instruction/classroom time for test preparation in comparison to high SES schools.

//__Differentiated home computer access:__// The uneven access to computers at home is the second contributing factor to the complexity of this study. Teachers in high SES schools feel that students can learn online and computer applications at home so they use class time to go over academic material. These teachers are also more readily to assign extra credit and even post lecture notes strictly online for their students to access it. Teachers in low SES schools, however, underestimate how many of their students actually have computer access with internet at home. As a result, these teachers shy away from assignments that require online access to complete. Most of the time spent in class during technology time is spent on non-academic work such as writing essays rather than academic reasons like high SES schools did (ie. analyzing data).

//__English language learners:__// A third contributing factor to complexity is the challenge of teaching English learners. There is, once again, a disproportion between low and high SES schools. There are, on average, about 30% English learners in low SES schools, which is roughly three times more English learners than high SES schools. The types of assignments that teachers of high SES students would involve more higher-level thinking and academically driven than those students who were low SES since the teachers shared that English learners have a difficult time with even typing in the URL in the search engines. English learners of low SES schools still need to be instructed in their spelling and grammar, so much of the focus when using computer is learning how to write versus actual research like high SES students do. For example, low SES students click accept on Microsoft Word during grammar checks without actually understanding and reading through their grammatical errors since they do not understand their mistakes.



Basically, computer use matched the academic level of the class. If student is in an advance class, his/her computer use is for more advanced material. Low advance, just use computer for like basic knowledge and essay writing.

Assessment
Based on the findings and patterns, think up some suggestion of how to fix the inequality of technology in Low SES schools. <[|Poll Everywhere]>

**Discussion/Conclusion**
While more and more computers are accessible to low SES students, the presences of technology is not enough to close the academic achievement gap. In some cases, technology may even widen the gap. Therefore, the research offers these suggestions on how to fix problem while implementing the available technology.
 * 1) Have higher numbers of well-trained and experienced teacher, staff, and administrators to teach students effective computer use.
 * 2) Focus less attention to mastery of soft skills like Powerpoint and Internet Explorer and more towards the use of scholarship research and inquiry.
 * 3) Addressing unequal access to home computer (Though, it’s not a great as a problem now, but it still exist). Encourage the use of public computers.