2004 Assessing the Impact of One to One Technology Immersion on Student Attendance: Chasing Shadows or the Panacea for Educational Reform?
Date: 2004
Author: Wesley A. Fryer
Affiliation: College of Education Texas Tech University
Keywords: attendance, technology immersed schools
Summary:
This study attempted to determine, with a limited data set, if rates of student attendance are higher within a technologically immersed school environment as predicted by advocates of these immersion projects. Student attendance rates at one of the twenty-two immersion campuses participating in the 2004-2006 statewide Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP) project in Texas were gathered, aggregated, and analyzed.
Key Findings:
* As expected by this researcher, but not predicted by the prevalent cultural faith in instructional technology to bring about positive instructional change in the classroom, the immersion of the Floydada JHS student body and teaching faculty in fall 2004 did not significantly impact rates of student attendance.
* This result is not surprising, especially given the fact that the TIP project is only in its first semester, and only the first 34 days of student immersion with laptop computers were analyzed in this formative research study.
* It is possible that as the academic term progressed, more frequent extra-curricular activities required greater numbers of students to be absent from school.
* It is also possible that as harvest time for crops grown in the Floydada area approached later in the term, larger numbers of students were needed to assist family members with extra farm duties.
Source Article: http://www.wesfryer.com/onetoone/onetoone_attendance.pdf
