Haertel, G., & Means, B. (2000). Stronger designs for research on educational uses of technology: Conclusions and implications. SRI International: Menlo Park, CA.
This report is a synthesis of ten papers commissioned by the U.S.
Department of Education and written by research methodology experts.
The papers address the need for guidelines to steer a national research
agenda focused on technology use in education emphasizing the effects on
student learning and achievement. The authors report two common
mistakes in technology evaluations. These are using scores from
standardized tests that measure content unrelated to the intervention,
and using measures of opinion, implementation, or consumer satisfaction
in place of measures of student learning outcomes.
The report addresses the debate among educational researchers about the value of three general strategies for research designs: multiple contextualized evaluations, multi-level longitudinal research, and random-assignment experiments. Multiple contextualized evaluations that aggregate contextual findings across multiple settings explain how context influences the impact and the implementation of the technology-related intervention. Multi-level longitudinal research explains how district, school, classroom and student level phenomena affect short-term and long-term outcomes of technology-related interventions. Random-assignment experiments trace the effects of a given treatment to the observable differences in outcomes between the treatment group and the non-treatment group. Well-designed experiments and evaluations clarify if the treatment or intervention is responsible for the outcomes observed. The report explains the applicability of the three strategies for designing research studies to address a variety of questions about technology-related interventions. It contains six “exhibits” in the appendices that showcase a variety of ways to research and/or evaluate technology-related interventions including technology-based assessment, contextualized evaluation, quasi-experimental approach, formative evaluation and correlational analysis.
The report also calls for a national repository of instruments and outcome measures appropriate to studying technology-related interventions and for consortia of researchers who share and aggregate data from individual projects to inform educational technology policy and funding decisions on a national basis. Finally, it provides recommendations for a five-part national research agenda to include:
The report addresses the debate among educational researchers about the value of three general strategies for research designs: multiple contextualized evaluations, multi-level longitudinal research, and random-assignment experiments. Multiple contextualized evaluations that aggregate contextual findings across multiple settings explain how context influences the impact and the implementation of the technology-related intervention. Multi-level longitudinal research explains how district, school, classroom and student level phenomena affect short-term and long-term outcomes of technology-related interventions. Random-assignment experiments trace the effects of a given treatment to the observable differences in outcomes between the treatment group and the non-treatment group. Well-designed experiments and evaluations clarify if the treatment or intervention is responsible for the outcomes observed. The report explains the applicability of the three strategies for designing research studies to address a variety of questions about technology-related interventions. It contains six “exhibits” in the appendices that showcase a variety of ways to research and/or evaluate technology-related interventions including technology-based assessment, contextualized evaluation, quasi-experimental approach, formative evaluation and correlational analysis.
The report also calls for a national repository of instruments and outcome measures appropriate to studying technology-related interventions and for consortia of researchers who share and aggregate data from individual projects to inform educational technology policy and funding decisions on a national basis. Finally, it provides recommendations for a five-part national research agenda to include:
- Information system for educational context measures.
- 21st Century skills, indicators, and assessments.
- Research on naturally occurring practices of technology use in schools.
- Research on mature innovative teaching and learning with technology programs.
- Research on technology and effective teacher professional development.
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