I want to encourage my students to take a look at this very interesting article. Each of us as educators must do our best to begin embracing the technology that is at hand so that we will be able to utilize it to our best ability. Tools that are at our disposal are only as good as we enable them to be through truly integrating them. Doc Tatom
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=58362
Study: Ed tech leads to significant gains
Experienced, skilled teachers make a particular difference, says a study examining the use of Promethean's ActivClassroom suite
By Laura Devaney, Senior Editor
By Laura Devaney, Senior Editor
Primary Topic Channel: Instruction
Students whose teachers used Promethean's ActivClassroom demonstrated significant achievement gains. Integrating Promethean's ActivClassroom--a suite of educational technologies that includes an interactive whiteboard, teaching software, and student response systems--into instruction can raise student achievement by an average of 17 percentile points, according to new research that also confirms the experience, comfort, and skill level of teachers in using the technology has a huge impact on how effective they'll be.
The study determined that student achievement can really soar if a teacher has 10 or more years of teaching experience, has been using the technology for two or more years, has high confidence in his or her ability to use the ActivClassroom suite, and uses it 75 to 80 percent of the time in the classroom.
During the 2008-09 school year, teachers and students took part in independent studies to find out whether using Promethean ActivClassroom can improve student achievement. The study included 1,716 students whose teachers used ActivClassroom to augment their instructional practices, as well as 1,622 students whose teachers--the same teachers as in the experimental group--used other strategies and materials to facilitate instruction.