D. LaMont Johnson

First steps toward a statistically generated information technology integration model

SUMMARY One hundred and two case studies relating to integrating information technology into the classroom were analyzed using logistic regression. The purpose of this procedure was to generate a statistical model that would reflect the significant components present in successful case studies. In order to accomplish this, we identified instructional components that were common to all case studies. Through this process, we identified six instructional components that we labeled: Use of Software, Use of Web-Based Instruction, Use of Web Information Resources, Use of Problem-Based learning, Instructional Design Choice, and Tailoring Multimedia Courseware. These six instructional components were considered variables in the statistical analysis. Three of the six variables were statistically significant and were incorporated in the model (i.e., Use of Software, Use of Problem-Based Learning, and Instructional Design Choice). We recommend this model in teacher training in order for teachers to be prepared to successfully integrate information technology into the classroom. Suggestions are offered for further investigation and refinement of this model.

Web-Based Resources and Applications: Quality and Influence.

Abstract This paper evaluates the quality of two major types of Web resources for K-12 education–information for research, and interactive applications for teaching and learning. It discusses an evaluation on the quality of 1,025 pieces of Web information (articles, research reports, news, and statistics) and 900 Web applications (tutorials, drills, games, and tests) used by K-12 teachers and students over a six-year period from 1998 to 2004. Findings suggest that (a) quality differs among information from different Web domains (.com, .org, .edu, and .gov); (b) quality differs among applications by different designers (professional designers, college students, K-12 teachers, and university professors); and (c) the quality of a Web-based learning application influences a students using and learning with it. Challenges and potentials of using the two types of Web resources to improve learning are discussed. A design-quality model is developed and tested.

Introduction: Effectiveness of Information Technology in Education

ABSTRACT This article highlights some of the difficulties that have led to assaults on integrating information technology into the schools. It acknowledges the scarcity of solid evidence to support claims that inserting information technology into education does improve learning. Some currently existing roadblocks to integration are reported. The article, however, points out that positive examples do exist and highlights one of the major research articles in this collection authored by the guest editors, Gerald Knezek and Rhonda Christensen.

External Validity and Research in Information Technology in Education

The end of another academic year is upon us, and this seems an appropriate time to reflect on our past successes and failures. As we look back over 30 years to the beginning of the information technology movement in education, we can point to many positive developments that have taken place. Hardware and software have improved greatly, become much less expensive, and are widely available. Computers are ubiquitous in classrooms at all levels. In fact, in the last 10 years or so, computers have achieved a secure place in today’s public school classrooms and in the classrooms of the foreseeable future. On the other hand, very few educators would argue that information technology has succeeded in bringing about a paradigm shift in instruction. In fact, most educators would agree that lecture-centered instruction remains the norm at every level, particularly in higher education, including teacher education (Morrison & Salcito, 2008). Most, like Watters (2012), take the position that technology has had very little impact on instruction:

Type II Applications of Technology in Education

This special double issue of Computers in the Schools is dedicated to articles exploring the use of Type II applications of technology in education. The Type I/Type II concept has its origin in countless early conversations involving the two of us, and to a 1984 article published in the introductory issue of this journal entitled Educational Microcomputing: The Need for Research (Maddux, 1984).

Information Technology in Higher Education: Tensions and Barriers

Over the last few decades, higher education has been increasing its reliance on information technology (Price, Richardson, & Jelfs, 2007; Richardson, 2005). This trend has taken place in spite of a number of problems. Barriers to the use of technology in higher education have been studied and conceptualized in a number of ways. Bingimlas (2009) reviewed the literature on barriers to the use of information and communication technology across a variety of teaching and learning environments. He points out that there have been various schemes for classifying barriers. For example, they can be classified as extrinsic or intrinsic barriers, as teacher-level barriers versus school-level barriers, and as material or non-material barriers. He concluded that the major barriers can be classified as lack of confidence, lack of competence, and lack of access. Lin and Ha (2009) studied the role of subcultures in higher education to help explain the use of information technology in higher education. They concluded that subcultural factors of utility and normative variables combine to influence the use of information technologies. Utility refers to perceived appropriateness, usefulness, and importance of technology. Normative variables refer to the cultural norms at work in various units of an organization, with some unit norms being more favorable toward technology than the cultural norms in other units. Gearhart (2001) focused on technology in distance education. She identified insufficient collegial attention to pedagogy as the major barrier to efficient use of technology in distance education. Olsen (2010) emphasized the importance of problems directly affecting students. These include limited access, difficulty in evaluating the quality of information, difficulty in adapting to the changing roles as students become more active and instructors become less directive, lack of sufficient training,

The Web in education: asset or liability

Summary Computers, the Internet, and the Web are popular educational tools that seem destined to assume even more prominent roles in the future. The question is not whether information technology will survive in schools, but whether or not it will have a revolutionary, or even a positive, effect on teaching and learning. Education in general is facing an array of formidable problems, including sustained and vicious attacks by politicians and business leaders. Possible causes of these attacks are discussed, including generalized anger in the population, the profit motive in the private sector, a belief in “the magic of the marketplace,” excessive faith in standardized testing, and growing availability of sophisticated technology for distance education. It remains to be seen whether or not public educators can use information technology to improve traditional, campus-based public education while resisting the pressure to water down their programs for impersonal mass delivery by distance education.

Future Trends in Information Technology in Education

Predicting the future in any field related to technology of any kind is a difficult task, as a host of self-styled “technology futurists” have learned, much to their chagrin. Futurists in the past have erred spectacularly, both by forecasting developments that never took place and by failing to predict many other important developments that did come to pass. A well-known example of a popular prediction about aviation technology that failed to come about was made in 1944 by Frank Piasecki and echoed by many others over the years. Piasecki and others predicted that helicopters would soon be so easy to learn to fly and so inexpensive that they would be found “in every garage” (Maksel, 2009). The most spectacular example of the failure to predict an important development that did occur comes from our own field of information technology, since no one successfully predicted the development and subsequent popularity and ubiquity of the Internet and the World Wide Web. (Although Vannever Bush is sometimes credited with predicting the Web, his idea for construction of a memex machine was a far cry from today’s Web. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that his prediction was for development of hypertext, not for the development of the Web itself [Maddux, Johnson, & Willis, 2001].) These and other examples show that the decision to predict the future is a risky one. However, there may be some lessons from the past that can be used to make predictions about the future, and these predictions might be less likely to be incorrect than those made without reference to past lessons. Recently, we have suggested that innovations that succeed in education are ones that first become popular in the culture at large. In other words, successful innovations succeed in education only if they have attained a significant degree of cultural momentum (Maddux, in press; Maddux & Johnson, 2011).

Technology in Education and the Concept of Cultural Momentum

Every educator knows that the field is subject to fad and fashion. Although many of us would prefer to think that trends and issues in education are determined primarily by research, program evaluation, and expert opinion, it is obvious that such is not always the case (Maddux, 2003). More than 30 years ago, Benjamin Bloom (1981) alluded to the problem of fads in education. More recently, Masters (2002) has suggested that education today seems to “lurch from one fad to the next” (p. 1), and Haswell (1992) identifies fads as the primary reason for the lack of systematic progress in education. In the past, we have written about the problem of fads in education and the destructive cycle they often initiate. That cycle begins with early, unrealistic optimism directed at some innovation. A vocal advocacy forms around the innovation followed by practitioner adoption before the development has been subjected to a body of research to help establish its efficacy. When the innovation fails to live up to the premature and unrealistic expectations fostered by advocates, the innovation is then dropped before it has been given a real chance to succeed. The field then moves on to the next innovation and the cycle begins anew (Maddux & Cummings, 2004). As we define it, an innovation obtains fad status because it is abandoned before it has been given a real chance to succeed and before research has established its efficacy one way or the other. Early examples in the field of information technology in education include educational film, educational television, and many hardware innovations often categorized under the general topic of audiovisual aids. A few more fads include drill-and-practice software, BASIC programming for all students, authoring systems, Logo as a cognitive amplifier, integrated learning systems, and personal digital assistants (Maddux & Cummings, 2004).

Information Technology in Education: The Need for a Critical Examination of Popular Assumptions

The field of information technology in education is currently in a stage that is characterized by the presence of certain assumptions that are taken for granted and seldom questioned. This article presents some of those assumptions and presents reasons why they should be questioned. The article explores reasons that may explain why these assumptions have come to be regarded as established facts. The article concludes that it may be wise for the field to move back toward empiricism and objectivity.