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

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.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs (NashWorld) the other night and stumbled upon the work of Punya Mishra from MSU. He has done some amazing work highlighting the need for utilizing relevant technology in the classroom with Lee Shulman’s work on Pedagogical Content Knowledge.

This morning I presented to the Technical Services Department five of my favorite ways that teachers are using technology in the classroom. Specifically, I focused on the computer, projector and visualizer.  There are thousands of examples to choose from, so it was nice to have a clean way of organizing my ideas. I leaned heavily on Punya’s work for the presentation below and am quite thankful that he shares his talents.

If you are interested, my attempt at blending Punya’s work with presentation is below in the form of a Google presentation. Below, I’ve added links to the 5 parts of Punya’s video. His videos are definitely worth your time. Check it out!

My Presentation on Creative Teachers | Punya Mishra’s Keynote: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,

Three different pieces of great news:

1. FREE! Supporting Student Learning through Technology Integration (.pdf) CLASS CLOSED
2. Incorporate art into your lessons. http://creativity.denverartmuseum.org/
3. Sound Patterns Boost Language Learning: Article