Here’s “Part 1 of Dr. Robert Marzano addressing the question “What do we know about the effect of technology on student achievement?” at the CUE 2009 Conference on March 6, 2009.” (thanks Ivan)  Not surprisingly his studies show an increase in student achievement when instructional technology is used effectively and a decrease in achievement when instruction is focused on the tool rather than the learning.

The deciding factor of success is whether the teacher has a good understanding of pedagogical and content knowledge prior to using instructional technology. This just underscores for me the importance of teaching how to use instructional technology within the framework of instructional strategies. This is definitely an ongoing pursuit for me, as I tend to skip directly to how to use the technology rather than when or why.

Anyway… if you are preparing to write a grant soon for instructional technology, this is a great resource to book mark. The points that Marzano speaks of, relate directly to the work that the recipients of the DoIT Grant have worked to achieve with the technology they received. They have done some fantastic work! Check out their projects… and be sure to check out Marzano’s presentation.

image by Punya Mishra

Gwynn Moore & Shannon Wentworth have teamed up with the AEA to offer the Technology Integration Caucus (Flyer). Excerpt from flyer below.

Course Title: Creating Successful Learning Environments for the Self-Controlled Classroom

Instructor: Jenna Harp

Description: Instructing educators to effectively use the Self-Controlled Classroom Model in their classroom. “The vision of the Self- Control Classroom Model is to prevent disruptive, delinquent, and violent behavior, and to encourage accountability, achievement, integrity, and duty to others through adult/youth interaction, emphasizing trust, caring, and respectful relationships, and the use of effective, expert instruction.”

Course Schedule
Dates: 6/9/09- 7/23/09

Times: Online blog discussions and 1 page self-reflections/chapter for 7.0 hours (1 hour every Tuesday starting June 9th and ending July 21st. Seminar for 30 minutes Thursday, July 23rd.) Times of the online discussions: TBA

Location: online blog/seminar at Boston K-8

NOTES: Presentation

This evening, Aaron Berthold and I presented to the Technology Steering Committee. Our focus was illustrating where netbooks fit in to education and how the netbooks are being used. Aaron spoke about from macroscopic perspective and I presented from the microscopic perspective of how teachers are using netbooks.

The presentation I created follows closely Robert Marzano meta-research for classroom strategies that have the greatest impact on student achievement. Presentation (ppt) The presentation contains links to many useful resources that are free.

This video below was created by Tom Fox and clearly demonstrates the benefits of using 1 to 1 computing with blogging to foster greater literacy among students. Watching the video, you’ll notice that several of the strategies that Marzano writes about are mentioned; summarizing & notetaking, reinforcing effort & providing recognition, and providing feedback.