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The Effectiveness of Instructional Technology
George E. Marsh II, Professor

A great deal of money has been spent on computers and software for schools and there is considerable worry about the lack of training for teachers to use these tools effectively. Hundreds of evaluations of computers and software have been conducted but the ones that get the most notice are those that are well funded, include many subjects, and are said to be well controlled.  It also helps if the sponsor or the research group has a good pedigree.  With great fanfare and press releases, results of these studies are issued in encapsulated form and "experts" are asked to make comments.  Since computers were first used for instruction in the 1960s, people have been asking, "Are computers good for learning?"

Although Socrates opposed books, it does not occur to people today to ask, "Are books good for learning?"  Most people accept that people learn from books, and some groups and organizations go to great lengths to keep certain kinds of textbooks out of classrooms and certain kinds of literature out of libraries for fear of what people may learn from them. Research about the effectiveness of books and other materials is not likely to rise to the level of public attention in the media.  The exception to this has been the "look say versus phonics" in the 1950s and the current iteration known as "whole language versus phonics," but these have been about methods of teaching reading because of the assumption that books are important in learning.  Computers are coming under great scrutiny because many opponents believe they are expensive toys that do not contribute to learning, such as Neil Postman, Cliff Stoll, and Oppenhiemer.

There is indisputable proof that computers are highly effective for instruction.  Research over the last 30 years has been preoccupied with comparisons of computerized instruction to conventional teaching, but people keep asking, "Can computers teach?"  While many schools own computers, they are often in labs or the media center, extraneous to daily classroom routines.  Until recently very few schools actually used computers extensively, and most still do not.  But as we approach the time when most classrooms may have computers and access to the Internet, the doubters and faultfinders are intensifying their criticisms of expenditures for computers and questioning the effectiveness of computers in education based on the concept that computers must stand apart and compete with teachers.

In The End of Education,Neil Postman implies that the most enthusiastic idolaters seeking the "god of Technology" are educators, which is a curious notion if one examines the data on teacher training and attitudes toward technology. He fears that children may lose something they now have if we rely upon computer technology as the primary authority. There are many worries.  Will students be dazzled by calculation rather than human judgment? Will speed define intelligence? What will be displaced by the computer that will be forever lost?  What will be made impossible?  Will there be time for reflection?  The computer is here to stay, like it or not.  Of course, similar fears were expressed in the past, most notably when books were first made and again when the printing press made books available to everyone. There are echoes in concerns expressed about the arrival of the cinema, radio, and television.  Children are not impressed with calculation and speed, but older professors are, having slogged away on mainframes and electric (not electronic) calculators.  What once took days or weeks now takes but a minute.  No.  Children are not impressed by speed, because they have never known anything else.  The young cannot lament what they have never known.

Rather than seeing technology as a false God, perhaps we should see it for what it is and try to understand how we may use it more effectively.  Research in instructional technology falls into the following general categories (Clark & Sugrue, (1995):