Laptop Program Research Articles

EDITORIAL: A New Beginning

This volume introduces four interesting and astute works that contribute to our understanding and use of learning technologies. The first is by Bryan Artman and explores the relationship between the perceptions and misconceptions by pre-service teachers of technology use on a 1:1 laptop program for high school students. The second is by Shane Ede, and investigates the use of gamification in classrooms through the lens of Self-Determination Theory. The third, by Betul Czerkawski, reports on digital tools that support the emerging interdisciplinary field of GeoHumanities. The fourth is a book review by Jerry Yamashita of Jennifer Williams’ book Teach Boldly: Using Ed Tech for Social Good. Donna Hess, which exemplifies that instructional design principles backed by a theoretical approach are critical in conceiving compelling foreign language practices. Taken together, these papers explore how learning technologies and their use can influence learner engagement and motivation. Furthermore, this is the inaugural issue of ITLT with me as Editor.

The Effects of One-to-One Laptop Program on Help-Seeking and Homework Completion

Many students prefer to abandon rather than seek help during their homework. However, seeking support is recognized as an effective learning strategy to complete assignments. Technology-supported classroom could have a beneficial impact on this strategy and, therefore, on homework completion. This article aims to compare students from a one-to-one laptop program to others studying in a traditional classroom environment on their 1) help-seeking strategies and 2) homework completion frequency. Quantitative analyses tend to confirm the initial hypothesis. However, they reveal the necessity to sensitize students regarding the appropriate use of technological tools to ensure their beneficial impact on learning.

The Effects of One-to-One Laptop Program on Help-Seeking and Homework Completion

Many students prefer to abandon rather than seek help during their homework. However, seeking support is recognized as an effective learning strategy to complete assignments. Technology-supported classroom could have a beneficial impact on this strategy and, therefore, on homework completion. This article aims to compare students from a one-to-one laptop program to others studying in a traditional classroom environment on their 1) help-seeking strategies and 2) homework completion frequency. Quantitative analyses tend to confirm the initial hypothesis. However, they reveal the necessity to sensitize students regarding the appropriate use of technological tools to ensure their beneficial impact on learning.

Influence of ICT Integration on Performance of Digital Literacy Project in the Public Primary Schools in Nakuru County, Kenya

The Government of Kenya has put in place many initiatives to enhance ICT integration in primary education in order to address equity, access and quality of education offered by schools. Such Initiatives include provision of digital literacy laptop programme for class one (Ministry of Education, 2019) and provision of digital content to schools among others. Despite all these initiatives, studies show that ICT has not been fully adopted in most public primary schools especially in Nakuru County, Kenya. They have not been able to reap the benefit of Digital literacy program even after the government of Kenya introduced the new Learner digital devices; therefore, there is still poor performance on the use of digital literacy devices. The general objective of the study was to determine the influence of ICT integration on performance of digital Literacy project in the public primary schools in Nakuru County. Specifically, the study sought to determine the influence of training, infrastructure and stakeholder's management on performance of the digital Literacy project for public primary schools in Nakuru County. The study was informed by resource-based approach theory, technology acceptance model and stakeholder theory. The study adopted a descriptive survey design with a target population of 681 public primary schools in Nakuru County. Sample size 246 was used. The study used both primary and secondary data. Questionnaires were used to gather the primary data for the study. The secondary data were collected from both published and unpublished information resources that relate to influence of ICT integration. The pilot study was carried out. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS. The study revealed that there exist a positive and significant relationship between training and performance of Digital Literacy Program (r=0.363; p<0.01). The findings of the study also revealed that there exist a positive and statistically significant relationship between infrastructure and performance of Digital Literacy Program (r=0.679; p<0.01). Further, the study indicated that there exist a positive and significant relationship between stakeholder management and performance of digital literacy program (r=0.865; p<0.01). This study concluded that the key issues and challenges found to be significant in using ICT tools by teachers are: limited accessibility and network connection, limited technical support, lack of effective training, and lack of teachers' competency. The study also concludes that availability of a well-equipped computer Laboratories, a steady electrical power supply and internet will improve on performance of Digital Literacy Program positively in schools. The study recommended that teachers should be well-equipped in preparation with ICT tools and facilities which is one of the main factors in success of technology-based teaching; and that the internet to be available, accessible, and adequate to enable participation in the digital world.

Success Stories: A Case Study In Administrator And Teacher Collective Sensemaking Around 1:1 Computer Technology

ABSTRACT Educational success stories are powerful tools that shape the decisions of policymakers. This study explores the ways in which these stories are crafted and how they differ among various educational stakeholders. Using administrator and teacher interviews from a school district which earned accolades for implementation of a 1:1 laptop program, this study highlights patterns and variation in the ways that teachers and administrators made sense of 1:1 policy goals and outcomes. Findings suggest that stakeholder interpretation of policy purposes and outcomes vary, even while stakeholders rely on common evidence to support their interpretation.

One-to-One Technology and Student Outcomes: Evidence From Mooresville’s Digital Conversion Initiative

This article uses a difference-in-differences strategy to evaluate the impact of a one-to-one laptop program. Teaching practices changed with the introduction of the program, and the district worked to make wireless Internet more accessible in the community. We find that while short-term impacts of the program were statistically insignificant, math scores improved by 0.13 standard deviations in the medium term. Time spent on homework stayed constant, but students spent more of their homework time using a computer. We also investigate the impact of the program on other measures of student behavior as well as heterogeneity in impacts. A limitation of this study is that we cannot distinguish which aspects of the program were most important in improving student outcomes.

Information communication technology policy and public primary schools’ efficiency in Rwanda

Teaching and learning processes have been developed through different methods and materials; nowadays the introduction of computers and other ICT tools in different forms and levels of education have been found to be highly influential in education system of different countries. The main objective of this study was to correlate Information Communication Technology with public primary schools’ efficiency in Rwanda. The study employed the descriptive survey and descriptive co-relational design. One hundred and forty-four primary teachers participated in the study. The level of ICT was poor (M = 1.72); and the level of primary schools’ efficiency (external and internal) was satisfactory with an average mean of 2.53. The relationship between ICT and public primary schools’ efficiency was significant (r-value = 0.56, sig = 0.029). The study recommended that the government ought to distribute enough ICT equipment equally to all primary schools, promote the One Lap Top Per Child Programme in all primary schools, and provide trainings to teachers and head teachers. Keywords : computers in primary schools; ICT policy; primary schools’ efficiency; vision 2020

Parents' Perceptions of the First-Year Implementation of a One-to-One Laptop Initiative in a Midwestern High School

ABSTRACTWith the widespread use and implementation of technology into PK-20 education, one-to-one laptop programs are becoming popular approaches and have been implemented all over the world in PK-20 classrooms. With the enthusiastic implementation of this kind of program, educators and researchers have started to pay attention to evaluating their effectiveness in teaching and learning. Most researchers have focused on teacher and student perceptions and attitudes toward one-to-one programs, omitting the opinions of an important stakeholder, parents. The purpose of this study was to investigate parents' perceptions toward the one-to-one laptop initiative in a Midwestern high school. The researchers used a pre-post design and collected both quantitative and qualitative data from parents and guardians. Results revealed that a majority of parents had high regard for the program. Parents also shared their perceived advantages of and concerns about the program.

Pre-service Teachers’ Reflections: The Influence of School 1:1 Laptop Programs on their Developing Teaching Practice.

Throughout Australia, many government and non-government schools have implemented a one-laptop-per-student (1:1) policy. Whilst there was initial interest in the implementation of these programs, little has been done to track the uptake of digital learning technologies afforded by access to the laptops. This study examined pre-service teachers' reflections on their experiences with 1:1 laptop programs in their secondary schooling. The lens for this reflection was their consideration of their aspirational teaching practice. Qualitative data were collected from two successive cohorts (2014 and 2015) of the first year of a Bachelor of Education course. The objectives of the research presented in this paper were to: capture recollections of the students' experience of 1:1 laptop programs; categorise these recollections into positive and negative experiences; and investigate the impact of 1:1 laptop programs on students' perceptions of teaching with ICTs and their personal learning at university.

One-to-One Technology and Student Outcomes

New technologies offer many promises to improve student learning, but efforts to bring them to the classroom often fail to produce improvements to student outcomes. A notable exception to this pattern is one-to-one laptop programs. While early evaluations of these programs have been encouraging, they are costly to implement, and no study has investigated the impact of a one-to-one technology program implemented on a large scale over a multiyear period. With administrative school data, this paper uses a differences-in-differences strategy to evaluate the impact of a one-to-one laptop program implemented in a midsize school district. We find that while short-term impacts of the program were modest, math scores improved by 0.15–0.17 standard deviations in the medium term (4–5 years post-implementation). We also investigate heterogeneity in impacts on test scores and the impact of the program on several measures of student behavior.

The impact of technology exposure on student perceptions of a 1:1 program

Many school districts across the United States have enacted one-to-one (1:1) programs to boost students’ “21st Century Skills”. These programs provide a laptop or other personal digital device to every student, with the expectation that teachers will employ modern instructional processes and students will benefit from greater access to knowledge, tools, and both collaborative and individualized instruction. The transformative potential of 1:1, along with the varied contextual variables, makes program implementation difficult. This paper discusses the partial results of a year-long 1:1 laptop program evaluation in one Pennsylvania district. The study employs multiple methods to obtain an initial view of the programs’ impact on students. The study found that, overall, students did not have positive perceptions of the 1:1 program or its impacts, and a significant decline was found for many indicators between semesters. Regression analysis of the collected data suggests that greater use of the 1:1 laptops, along with a robust IT infrastructure, significantly predicts the perceived level of impact a 1:1 program has on students. The information obtained from this case study provides further insight into how attitudes, behavior, and perceptions of students are impacted by these programs.

Learning in One-to-One Laptop Environments

Over the past decade, the number of one-to-one laptop programs in schools has steadily increased. Despite the growth of such programs, there is little consensus about whether they contribute to improved educational outcomes. This article reviews 65 journal articles and 31 doctoral dissertations published from January 2001 to May 2015 to examine the effect of one-to-one laptop programs on teaching and learning in K–12 schools. A meta-analysis of 10 studies examines the impact of laptop programs on students’ academic achievement, finding significantly positive average effect sizes in English, writing, mathematics, and science. In addition, the article summarizes the impact of laptop programs on more general teaching and learning processes and perceptions as reported in these studies, again noting generally positive findings.

Protocol for a Systematic Review: Provision of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for Improving Academic Achievement and School Engagement in Students Aged 4‐18

Protocol for a Systematic Review: Provision of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for Improving Academic Achievement and School Engagement in Students Aged 4‐18

A Narrative Approach to Understanding the Development and Retention of Digital Skills Over Time in Former Middle School Students, a Decade After Having Used One-to-One Laptop Computers

Although there is a common result in recent research and practice that digital skills are important for every educated citizen, little is known of how these skills are evolving over a long period of time. Our study looks into the development and use of digital skills in former middle school students who had an individual access to the laptops a decade ago and are now entering the workforce. Using a qualitative approach, we look at results from an earlier study on one-to-one laptop use in middle school students, as well as results from follow-up interviews with three students from that cohort. More specifically, we present narrative stories offering a rich description of the personal experience of digital skill acquisition through information and communication technology (ICT)-assisted learning and the sustainability of these skills later in adulthood. Our findings indicate three specific types of digital skills, namely, technological resourcefulness, digital self-efficacy or empowerment, and open-mindedness toward technology, that emerge as key elements of the participants' perception of postsecondary academic and eventual further career success. The results of this study can be used to better understand how ICT skills are acquired and how they evolve over time in young people who grew up (or are growing up) in a digital world and how this process can be enhanced by educational institutions and workplaces. (Keywords: digital literacy, ICT, middle school, one-to-one laptop programs)

Pre-service teachers’ reflections on their participation in 1:1 laptop programs

Pre-service teachers’ reflections on their participation in 1:1 laptop programs

Exam performance and attitudes toward multitasking in six, multimedia–multitasking classroom environments

Although many colleges and universities have implemented laptop programs, the use of these technologies in the classroom doesn't guarantee increases in exam performance. Used improperly, these technologies can hinder the learning process. An experiment was conducted comparing how the use or non-use of technology affected exam performance between six different classroom environments. Consistent with predictions based on theories of multitasking and multimedia processing, participants performed worst on an exam when distracted with social media. Moreover, having had this experience, participants in five of the six conditions showed a decrease in perceptions of their abilities to efficiently multitask from pre-test to post-test. Results are discussed in terms of theory and recommendations are made for the integration of experiential learning sessions into orientation programs to help promote a healthy classroom learning environment.

Innovation Configuration mapping as a professional development tool: the case of one-to-one laptop computing

This article illustrates how findings from a study of teachers’ and students’ uses of laptop computers in a secondary school in Singapore informed the development of an Innovation Configuration (IC) Map – a tool for identifying and describing alternative ways of implementing innovations based on teachers’ unique feelings, preoccupations, thoughts and considerations. The authors used a descriptive case study design and qualitative data (interviews, lesson observations and focus group discussions) that identified policy–practice gaps and teacher uncertainty about the practicalities of the laptop programme. They suggest IC Maps are particularly useful in three specific areas of classroom and professional practice: (i) information and policy direction setting, (ii) aspirations relating to an innovation, and (iii) planning activities around areas of personal need and interest. The article concludes with some suggestions about how teachers’ professional development and growth can be facilitated through the mediating and socially coordinating roles of IC Maps.

Having a go: Looking at teachers’ experience of risk-taking in technology integration

Risk is an integral part of change. Technology-related change in teachers’ practice is guided by confidence engaging in and beliefs about integration. However, it is also affected by how teachers feel about taking risks, experimenting and change. This paper presents a theoretical framework of affect and emotion to understand how teachers experience and take risks in technology integration. The emphasis of this approach is on how individual teachers cope with risk and how it relates to learning. To illustrate the use of this approach, one teachers’ experience with technology integration over 3 years in an Australian one-to-one laptop program is presented. Analysis of their experience using technology and experimenting through emotions of anxiety and happiness reveals the development of specific coping strategies to support integration. Successful coping strategies resulted in decreased concern about using new technologies in teaching and increasingly positive beliefs about student learning through technologies. Implications for supporting change and experimentation are discussed.

Instructional principles and practices in a digital storytelling one-to-one laptop English language program

This study presents a narrative account of an English teacher's experiences of teaching digital storytelling in the context of a school-wide one-to-one laptop program. The results show that the transfer of exemplary language performance from the oral physical realm is not as straightforward as it first appears. While there is certainly potential to enhance storytelling digitally, there is also a need to understand and practice how stories are constructed and how meaning making is designed and realised through various semiotic modes of representation.

The Intersection between 1:1 Laptop Implementation and the Characteristics of Effective Middle Level Schools

The number of middle level schools adopting 1:1 laptop programs has increased considerably during the past decade (e.g., Lowther, Strahl, Inan, & Bates, 2007; Storz & Hoffman, 2013; Texas Center for Educational Research, 2009). The cornerstone practices of the middle school concept (National Middle School Association, 2010), therefore, often serve as the backdrop for 1:1 implementation. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the intersection between 1:1 program implementation and the characteristics of effective middle schools associated with the middle school concept over a four-year period. Through ongoing participant observation, individual interviews, focus groups, and reviews of digital student work and documents, we explored the implementation of a 1:1 program by one middle school team that also espoused the middle school concept. We begin by providing perspectives on 1:1 programs and on the middle school concept from research and theoretical lenses. We then describe the qualitative methodology we employed to conduct this study. Next, we present an analysis of our findings, illustrating the opportunities, tensions, and trajectories that appeared when we examined 1:1 implementation alongside the characteristics of effective middle level schools. Finally, we explore the implications of these findings for middle level educators, school leaders, and other stakeholders as they adopt 1:1 programs in schools for young adolescents.