Resource 2.2.1 - The Value of Tailored Instruction [24]

Technology-based Instruction

An argument for technology-based instruction may be roughly summarized as the following:

• Tailoring instruction to the needs of individual students remains an instructional imperative. Despite heroic efforts to the contrary, in today's classroom instruction does not achieve this.

• Tailoring instruction to the needs of individual students requires very low teacher to student ratios - specifically the one-to-one ratios found in individual tutoring. Absent dramatic changes in public policy, such individualization remains both an instructional imperative and an economic impracticality.

• Technology-based instruction can make this imperative affordable and feasible.

• Technology-based instruction is more effective than current instructional approaches across many subject matters - because of its intense interactivity and individualization.

• Technology-based instruction is generally less costly than current instructional approaches, especially when many students and/or expensive equipment or instrumentation is involved.

• Technology-based instruction will become increasingly affordable and instructionally more effective.

The Value and Affordability of Tailored Instruction
The argument for technology-based instruction usually begins with an issue that is separate from the use of technology. It concerns the effectiveness of classroom instruction, involving one instructor for 20-30 students, compared to individual tutoring, involving one instructor for each student.

Bloom (1984) combined findings from three empirical studies comparing one-on-one tutoring with one-on-many classroom instruction. That such comparisons would show the tutored students learning more is not surprising. What was surprising was the size of the difference. Overall, it amounted to two standard deviations of difference in achievement. This finding means for example (and roughly) that, with instructional time held fairly constant, one-on-one tutoring raised the performance of mid-level 50th percentile students to that of 98th percentile students. These and similar empirical research findings suggest that differences between one-on-one tutoring and typical classroom instruction are not only likely, but very large.

Why then do we not provide these benefits to all students? The answer is straightforward and obvious. With the exception of a few critical skills, such as aircraft piloting and surgery, we cannot afford it - or choose not to. The primary issue is cost.

Can computer technology help fill the gap between what we need and what we can afford? To answer this question it may be well to examine what accounts for the success of one-on-one tutoring. Fundamentally, its success appears to be due to two capabilities.

• Tutors and their students can engage in many more interactions per unit of time than is possible in a classroom.
• Tutors can adapt (individualize) their presentations and interactions on demand and in real time to the needs of their students.

Interactive, computer-based technologies can provide both of these capabilities.

Interactivity
With regard to the first tutorial capability (intensity of instructional interaction), Graesser and Person (1994) reported the following:

• average number of questions by a teacher of a class in a classroom hour: 3
• average number of questions asked by a tutor and answered by a student during a tutorial hour: 120-145
• average number of questions asked by any one student during a classroom hour: 0.11
• average number of questions asked by a student and answered by a tutor during a tutorial hour: 20-30

Is this level of interactivity found in technology-based instruction? One study found that students taking reading and arithmetic instruction were answering 8-10 questions a minute (Fletcher, in press). This level of interactivity extrapolates to 480-600 such questions an hour, if students were to sustain this level of interaction for 60 minutes. These students worked with the computer-based materials in 12-minute sessions, which extrapolates to 96-144 individually selected and rapidly assessed questions the students received each day for each subject area. This level of interactivity is certainly comparable to what they would receive in one-on-one tutorial instruction. Similar findings have been reported elsewhere.

Individualization
Tutors can and do adjust the content, sequence, and difficulty of instruction to the needs of their students. These adjustments affect pace - the rate or speed with which students are allowed to proceed through instructional material.

Differences in the speed with which students learn are not surprising, but (as with tutoring) the magnitudes of the differences are. The challenge this diversity presents to classroom instructors is daunting. Typically they focus on their slower students and leave the faster students to fend for themselves. It has long been noted that technology-based instruction allows students to proceed as rapidly or as slowly as needed.

Payoff: Time Savings
One of the most stable findings in comparisons of technology-based instruction with conventional instruction using lecture, text, and experience with equipment concerns instruction time savings. Studies have shown that, overall, it seems reasonable to expect technology-based instruction to reduce the time it takes students to reach a variety of objectives by about 30 percent.

Payoff: Costs
Obviously, such time savings reduce expenditures for instructional resources, instructors' time, and student pay and allowances as in the case of industrial training. These cost savings can be substantial..

Instructional Effectiveness
Do these savings in time come at the expense of instructional effectiveness? Research data suggest the opposite. An aggregation of many studies - "meta-analysis" (analysis of analyses) produced an estimation of effect sizes. Roughly, effect sizes are normalized measures found by subtracting the mean from one collection of results (e.g., a control group) from the mean of another (e.g., an experimental group) and dividing the resulting difference by an estimate of their common standard deviation (Hedges and Olkin, 1985). Because they are normalized, effective sizes can be averaged to give an overall estimate of effect from many separate studies undertaken to investigate the same phenomenon.

Figure 2.2.1 shows effect sizes from several reviews of studies that compared conventional instruction with technology-based instruction.

Figure 2.2.1- Effect Sizes for Studies Comparing Technology-Based Instruction with More Conventional Approaches

'Computer-based instruction' summarizes results from 233 studies that involved straightforward application of computer presentations that used text, graphics, and some animation-as well as some degree of individualized interaction. The effect size of 0.39 standard deviations suggests, roughly, an improvement of 50th percentile students to the performance levels of 65th percentile students.

'Interactive multimedia instruction' involves more elaborate interactions adding more audio, more extensive animation, and video. These added capabilities evidently increase achievement. They show an average effect size of 0.50 standard deviations, which suggests an improvement of 50th percentile students to the 69th percentile of performance.

'Intelligent tutoring systems' involve a capability that has been developing since the late 1960s (Carbonell, 1970), but has only recently been expanding into general use. In this approach, an attempt is made to directly mimic the one-on-one dialogue that occurs in tutorial interactions. The important component of these systems is that computer presentations and responses are generated in real-time, on demand, and as needed or requested by learners. Instructional designers do not need to anticipate and pre-store them.

This approach is computationally more sophisticated and more expensive to produce than standard computer-based instruction. However, its costs may be justified by the increase in average effect size to 0.84 standard deviations, which suggests, roughly, an improvement from 50th to 80th percentile performance. In 5 empirical comparisons involving a single intelligent tutoring system, SHERLOCK, Gott, Kane, and Lesgold (1995) found an average effect size of 1.05 standard deviations, which suggests an improvement of the performance of 50th percentile students to the 85 percentile.

The more extensive tailoring of instruction to the needs of individual students that can be obtained with generative, intelligent tutoring systems can be expected to increase. Such systems will raise the bar for the ultimate effectiveness of technology-based instruction.

Conclusion
The above research data along with other findings, suggest a conclusion that has been called the rule of "thirds." This conclusion states that technology-based instruction will reduce the costs by about a third and either increase achievement by about a third or decrease time to reach instructional objectives by a third.

In sum, the above review suggests the following:

• Technology-based instruction can increase instructional effectiveness.
• Technology-based instruction can reduce time and costs needed for learning.
• Technology-based instruction can make individualization affordable and thereby help ensure that all students learn.

References

• Bloom, B.S. (1984). The 2 sigma problem: The search for methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring. Educational Researcher, 13, 4-16.
• Carbonell, J. R. (1970) AI in CAI: An artificial intelligence approach to computer-assisted instruction. IEEE Transactions on Man-Machine Systems, 11, 190-202.
• Fletcher, J.D. (in press) Technology, the Columbus effect, and the third revolution in learning. In M. Rabinowitz, F. C. Blumberg, and H. Everson (Eds.) The Impact of Media and Technology in Instruction. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Gott, S. P., Kane, R. S., & Lesgold, A. (1995) Tutoring for Transfer of Technical Competence (AL/HR-TP-1995-0002). Brooks AFB, TX: Armstrong Laboratory, Human Resources Directorate.
• Graesser, A. C., & Person, N. K. (1994). Question asking during tutoring. American Educational Research Journal, 31, 104-137. Hedges, L.V. and Olkin, I. (1985) Statistical Methods for Meta-Analysis. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

Resource 2.2.2 - Radio and Television Programs [25]

The Case of Ethiopia

Ethiopia has a rich experience spanning more than three decades in using radio and television to support primary, secondary and non-formal education. The Educational Media Agency (EMA) of the Ministry of Education, which has provided the leadership in this area, currently manages an extensive broadcasting infrastructure dedicated to supporting education. EMA has large facilities, employs approximately 160
persons, operates eleven transmitters, each with two channels, throughout the country, and runs 12 recording studios at the center and the regions, with more planned construction in the coming years.

Radios, including 500 solar-powered sets, have been distributed to almost all schools nationally, and 800 color televisions have been sent to almost all secondary schools.

The radio and television programs enrich education in the following manner:

• Improve the quality of primary education by producing at the regional level radio programs in local
  languages for all primary school grades in most subjects
• Strengthen the teaching of English through the development of interactive radio instruction (IRI)
• Improve the quality of secondary education and reduce regional disparities by producing radio and
  television programs in many secondary school subjects
• Improve the qualifications of teachers by creating new distance education programs for upgrading
  under-qualified primary school teachers.

The Venezuelan Experience with Interactive radio for Math [26]

Interactive Mathematics for Basic Education is a program designed to raise the quality of Mathematics teaching in the first phase of Basic Education in Venezuela, which corresponds to the first, second and third grades. The program was developed by the National Center for the Improvement of Science Education, CENAMEC, under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. At first, it was financed by the Venezuelan private sector, then by the World Bank during the period of its greatest expansion.

The program was created in order to help resolve the problem of low levels of quality learning in this subject. Additionally, given that this problem is greatly tied to deficiencies in the training and updating of math teachers, the program was devised as a system of permanent training for teachers through the use of their own resources. In order to accomplish these objectives, the program offers the following support to participating classrooms: a radio, a teacher's guide, a package of complementary materials, the daily transmission of a radio program "Matemática Divertida" [Entertaining Mathematics], teacher training and follow up.

The typical Interactive Mathematics lesson or "encounter" contains three important aspects: preparation, listening to the radio program and carrying out activities suggested in the guide. During preparation, the teacher organizes the students and ensures that they have the necessary materials ready for the transmission. During the radio program, varied and intensive activities are carried out, monitored by the teacher. To wrap up the "encounter," the teacher carries out activities of evaluation and reinforcement, going more in depth as suggested in the guide, in some cases supported by the complementary materials the teacher receives.

Various evaluations of the program have been carried out. Comparative studies of the children's learning between an experimental group and a control group indicated the following:

• First trial of first grade. Initially, the students in the experimental group were below the level of the control group students. By the end of the year, the experimental group reached the control group, achieving learning gains that were significantly greater than those of the control group.
  
• Measurement of knowledge of children entering fourth grade. A comparative study was carried out between fourth grade students who had studied under the Interactive Mathematics system and others who had followed traditional methods in the Federal District and the states of Lara and Mérida. The experimental group had significantly higher results than the control group.

Cost figures are:

• Development cost per program: $ 3,000
• Recurring cost per school year per classroom or section
  • Follow-up and training $ 25
  • Radio Transmissions $ 9.37
  • Radios and teachers guides $ 9.6
  • Complementary materials and batteries $ 9
  • Total recurrent cost per class or section $ 53
• Total recurrent cost per student $ 1.76

The Case of Guinea [27]

The Republic of Guinea provides an example of how a multi-channel learning approach and IRI can and do improve instruction on a nationwide scale. To reach the roughly 22,000 primary teachers in need of support and in-service training, a series of materials has been produced, each of which relies primarily on a different "channel" to communicate important concepts and topics to students and teachers. There are 66 IRI programs per grade for every grade from 1 to 6. The children access this learning channel three times a week during their French and math classes. In addition, there are materials that rely primarily on "print" to channel information toward the student: student workbooks for children in grades 2-6, and short-story readers for children in grades 1-2. Finally, there is a primarily visual channel: color posters, of which every primary school classroom has a set.

The addition of IRI programs and print materials to the teachers' spoken explanations of French vocabulary and basic math provide the children with a second auditory learning "channel" (the IRI programs), a more stimulating visual "channel" than their own notebooks (the color posters), and a number of kinesthetic "channels" supplied by the activities recommended in the IRI programs, on the backs of the posters, and in the teacher's editions of the workbooks and readers. All of the different materials are specific to the Guinean context and use objects/examples from the students' surroundings, thereby drawing on the learning "channel" to which students are exposed the most: the one that links them to their homes, families, and communities.

Resource 2.2.3 - The Case of IVEN

Science and mathematics are supposed to provide conceptual and technological tools that allow people to describe and explain how the world works with power and precision, and to achieve a richer understanding and appreciation of the world they experience. Unfortunately though, school conditions, in most cases, have reduced the wonderful, dynamic and multidimensional world of science into flat texts, scripted demonstrations and occasional cookbook experiments. Similarly, the world of mathematical constructs, concepts and relationships has been transformed into drill and practice of computations and abstract problems.

To address this problem, The Inter American Development Bank financed in 1999, the International Virtual Education Network (IVEN) for the Enhancement of Science and Mathematics Learning, a pilot collaborative cross-country project in Latin America. The project was designed by Knowledge Enterprise, Inc., which also acted as the International Coordinating Secretariat through early 2002. .The participating countries are Brazil, Peru and Venezuela. Argentina and Colombia participated for a short time. The project is now in its implementation stage.

The backbone of the pilot project is the development of multimedia modules for the whole science and math program for the last two years of secondary schools. However, it is comprehensive involving: the setting of learning standards, translation of standards into teaching/learning activities, production of multimedia curricular materials, staff training, distribution, testing and refinement of curricula, educational materials and pedagogical approaches, learning achievement assessment and program evaluation.

IVEN is composed of three phases:

Phase 1. Preparation and Capacity Building

This phase covers the preparatory activities in terms of design, training, infrastructure and tools that set the necessary ground for full scale implementation. This covered the following steps:

1. Strategy Seminars with officials and project managers for orientation about the potential of project, benefits, pre-requisites for success, implementation strategies and long-term vision.
   
2. Finalization of agreements among parties
   
3. Preparation of Design and Implementation Plan, including educational and instructional approaches, process of development of multi-media modules, institutional setup, specifications for hardware and software, profile of instructional design teams and their training program, and evaluation scheme.
   
4. Selection and training of Instructional Teams. For each discipline, there is a content team composed of master teachers and science or math education advisers as well as programmers, graphic designers, producers and web specialists.

Phase 2. Development

This phase involves the development and testing of curriculum-related multimedia modules to be applied and tested in experimental schools in the three countries. The phase includes the following steps:

1. The most difficult task in the process of production was to agree on a common list of modules and a common approach to developing them, because the modules are supposed to be integrated into each country's curriculum without requiring a curriculum reform.
   • The first step involved reaching a consensus on the approaches to the teaching of science and mathematics. This was accomplished by highlighting these approaches in the Project Design, discussing them with the Steering Committee and incorporating them into the training program of the production teams.
     
   • The second step was to ask each country to translate its science and math curricula into a logical grid of teaching/learning modules. Each of these modules was to be described in terms of objectives, content and technological tools. Each country went through this exercise and sent its results to the International coordinating Secretariat.
     
   • The third step was to harmonize the country lists of modules, arrive at a common list, and reach an agreement about distribution of production responsibilities among participating countries.
     
2. Production teams have been developing modules and testing them for implementability and effectiveness
   
3. The program of modules will be tested in a limited number of experimental schools.

Phase 3. Application in schools

1. Teachers in the pilot schools will be trained in the use of technology and in the application of the above modules
   
2. Pilot schools should be equipped with the appropriate technological infrastructure
   
3. The developed and tested modules will be distributed to the pilot schools using a web distributional platform. They will be applied under experimental conditions and revised accordingly.

Phase 4. Scaling Up

The pilot phase will be submitted to a rigorous formative and summative evaluation to test for feasibility, effectiveness and cost benefit before expanding on a larger scale.

At the end of this pilot phase the following "products" will have been achieved:

• A fully developed multi-media program covering the total two-year science and mathematics program.
• A trained cadre of multimedia production specialists in each participating country.
• Trained personnel in the use of science and math learning modules in all the pilot schools.
• A physical infrastructure within schools and across countries.

Once this pilot phase is successfully completed and the evaluation results are incorporated into the structure of the Virtual Network, then the Network can be scaled up over time in four directions:

• More secondary schools in the pilot countries
• More countries in Latin America
• Other levels of science and mathematics education
• Other school subjects

Resource 2.2.4 - Simulations

Examples of Web Science Simulations

• "ExploreScience.com" includes a substantial number of simulations about building blocks, mechanics, wave motion, electromagnetism, optics, astronomy, and life sciences. The mechanics simulations include those of two colliding masses, an inclined plane, and freefall. The user can change the variables and visually see what happens. There are no instructional guides or lesson plans to go with the simulations. http://www.explorescience.com
  
• The "Annenberg Teachers' Lab" provides interactive simulations. While presented as a teacher preparation tool, students could also use the site. http://www.learner.org/teacherslab
  
• The following site provides simulations in astronomy: http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/astro101/java/simulations.htm

Other Simulations [28]

The following are examples of math simulations on the Web. Many of these sites require Shockwave, Flash, and sometimes other plug-ins.

• The "Mathforum" site offers early primary education "activities" in basic geometry and measurement. For each activity there are stated objectives, a manipulative exercise with materials widely available in schools and homes, a "technology activity" to be conducted with a colorful interactive simulation, and references to children's books that treat the same topic. This is an easy-to-use site for both teachers and students. http://mathforum.com/varnelle/index.html
  
• "BBC Online Education" offers an all-purpose education site. It has many instructional aids, including some simulations, but the site is difficult to navigate. A click on "Schools" takes one to a page with resources organized by grade level, with links to various subjects. For instance, for the age 4-11 group, click on "MegaMaths,'" then on "World of Tables," then on "Pick a Number," then to any card shown, and then on "Patterns and Hints" to reach a dynamic multiplication table. "Table Tournament" provides a fast-paced multiplication table game with captivating graphics that, for instance, require the users to answer multiplication problems quickly before a rolling bolder crashes into them. "Tell Us Your Top Tips" offers tips on doing multiplication quickly. http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/home/
  
• "ExploreMath.com" offers a series of high school mathematics simulations, most of which show the relationship between equations and their corresponding two-dimensional graphs. The user can modify the equation and see how that affects the graph, or modify the graph and see how that alters the equation. This is one of the few simulations that permit the latter form of interaction. There is also a library of lesson plans that make use of the simulations. http://www.exploremath.com
  
• University of Minnesota's "Geometry Center" offers several interactive simulations of college-level geometry. Generally the user specifies functions or coordinates, and then sees the geometric representation. The simulation includes hyperbolic triangles, Lorenz equations, projective conics, and Teichmuller navigation. These interactive components are in the two-fold link titled, "Interactive Web and Java Applications." There are brief instructions for using the simulations, but no instructional guides or lesson plans. This site also offers downloadable software and other resources for teachers of advanced geometry. Although the site is no longer being maintained, it remains functional. http://www.geom.umn.edu
  
• The "Visual Calculus" site has an extensive set of visual resources to accompany a two-semester college course in calculus. Some of the resources are Web-based interactive simulations and some are free downloadable simulation software that can be run from individual microcomputers. Ironically, many of the simulations are of the TI-85 and TI-86 graphing calculators. Short tutorials precede the visualizations. The professor who developed this site also has posted the syllabi for the courses that he teaches with these Web-based resources, so that other instructors can see how they are integrated with the course. http://archives.math.utk.edu/visual.calculus

Resource 2.2.5 - Connecting with the World

United States, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

GLOBE has three main objectives: improve mathematics and science education, raise environmental awareness, and contribute to a worldwide scientific database about Earth. To attain these objectives, GLOBE scientists help teachers and students develop meaningful science projects, such as measurements of pH in the water or analyses of temperature readings to observe changing patterns. GLOBE projects can be implemented in different ways: as part of a science class, a separate class, a club, a lunch group, and any other creative venue. In kindergarten and grades 1-3, GLOBE teachers work with fewer than ten children per project. Groups for older children can be much larger.

A four-year evaluation of GLOBE found that participating students perform better than their peers in activities that require understanding of science, including ability to interpret data and apply science concepts. They also showed a greater appreciation of science. In addition, the project instills in the students pride for their work, which is taken seriously by scientists and community members.

Currently, about 9,500 schools in more than 90 countries participate in GLOBE, and participation continues to grow, although only a small percentage of these schools contribute data to the central database. A recent training of new GLOBE teachers in Katmandu, Nepal, congregated more than 80 teachers from seven Asian countries and New Zealand. Information on GLOBE, including evaluations of the project, can be found at http://www.globe.gov.

The Jason Project [30]

The Jason Project was created to encourage scientists and students to collaborate on research expeditions using advanced communications technologies. A prominent scientist, explorer, and educator, Dr. Ballard and his visionary project have bridged the scientific and education communities by making scientific research an exciting adventure for students and teachers in the classroom, through a series of real expeditions in which scientists, teachers and students participate

Teachers begin the JASON Project by participating in professional development workshops. These workshops model new methods of teaching science content using JASON's suite of multimedia tools. They guide students into the expedition by discussing novels and conducting classroom activities about the geography, history, and culture of the expedition site. Through readings, videos, and Internet chat sessions, students make personal contact with host researchers and observe how they work. Then, through a series of inquiry-based exercises, including local field studies, gathering and analyzing data, designing experiments, and building models, students emulate the field research conducted at the expedition site and conduct their own investigations. During JASON XII, for example, students have created GIS maps of lava flows, classified fish species located in Hawaii's deep reefs, participated in ecological restoration projects, transformed classrooms into lava tubes, and compared aquatic data from their local site with data from sites from around the country.

Throughout the year, teachers and students use several online tools, such as workshops, message boards, simulations, and contests, in order to facilitate year-long interactivity between scientists and our global community. One highlight of the JASON expedition is a live, two-week satellite broadcast during the late winter. During the broadcast, a small group of researchers, teachers and students (known as Argonauts) shares its discoveries from the expedition field site with classrooms all over the globe

To learn more about the JASON Project, visit www.jasonproject.org.

Resource 2.2.6 - MIT Clubhouses [31]

Computer Clubhouses are very different from most telecenters and community technology centers. The aim is not simply to teach basic skills, but to help young people learn to express themselves and gain confidence in themselves as learners. If they are interested in video games, they don't come to the Clubhouse to play games; they come to create their own games. They don't download videos from the Web; they create their own videos. In the process, youth learn the heuristics of being a good designer: how to conceptualize a project, how to make use of the materials available, how to persist and find alternatives when things go wrong, how to collaborate with others, and how to view a project through the eyes of others. In short, they learn how to manage a complex project from start to finish.

The Computer Clubhouse approach strikes a balance between structure and freedom in the learning process. As Clubhouse youth work on projects based on their own interests, they receive a great deal of support from other members of the Clubhouse community (e.g., staff members, volunteer mentors, and other Clubhouse youth). There is a large collection of sample projects on the walls, shelves, and hard drives of the Clubhouses; these provide Clubhouse youth with a sense of the possible, and multiple entry points through which they can start.

Consider Mike Lee, who spent time at the original Computer Clubhouse in Boston. Mike first came to the Clubhouse after he had dropped out of high school. His true passion was drawing. He filled up notebook after notebook with sketches of cartoon characters. At the Clubhouse, Mike developed a new method for his artwork. First, he would draw black-and-white sketches by hand. Then, he would scan the sketches into the computer and use the computer to color them in. His work often involved comic-book images of himself and his friends.

Over time, Mike learned to use more advanced computer techniques in his artwork. He also began working with others at the Clubhouse on collaborative projects. Together, they created an online art gallery. Once a week, they met with a local artist who agreed to be a mentor for the project. After a year, their online art show was accepted as an exhibition at Siggraph, the world's premiere computer graphics conference.

As Mike worked with others at the Clubhouse, he began to experiment with new artistic techniques. He added more computer effects, and began working on digital collages combining photographs and graphics, while still maintaining his distinctive style. Over time, Mike explored how he might use his artwork as a form of social commentary and political expression.

As he worked at the Clubhouse, Mike Lee clearly learned a lot about computers and about graphic design. But he also began to develop his own ideas about teaching and learning. "At the Clubhouse, I was free to do what I wanted, learn what I wanted," says Mike. "Whatever I did was just for me. If I had taken computer courses [in school], there would have been all those assignments. Here I could be totally creative." Mike remembers-and appreciates-how the staff members treated him when he first started at the Clubhouse. They asked him to design the sign for the entrance to the Clubhouse, and looked to him as a resource. They never thought of him as a "high school dropout" but as an artist.