Computers go to school

The U.S. Department of Education recently published a report that they prepared for Congress summarizing the gains achieved by children using computer-based training in reading and mathematics, comparing randomly assigned classes of children who did or did not use these tools (“Effectiveness of Reading and Mathematics Software Products: Findings from the First Student Cohort”; Report to Congress from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences). If you read this report you would discover, perhaps surprisingly, that the use of computer-based training offers NO measurable advantages over standard teacher/pencil-and-paper/print-based training. Educational publishers and software companies have struggled mightily to “computerize” reading and mathematics training programs. With rare exception, their formulae have followed earlier educational strategies that were originally empirically defined for aural- and print-based instruction. None of them were created as a SUBSTITUTE for standard teaching practices. They are all designed to be augmentative, ancillary, supportive. In this trial, for example, about 90% of the reading training time in the “computer-using” classes was actually spent at conventional classroom reading instruction. Put another way, the reading component of their study could have been titled: “Comparison of conventional classroom t...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Autism Origins, Treatments Brain Fitness BrainHQ Childhood Learning Cognitive Impairment in Children Language Development Posit Science Reading and Dyslexia Source Type: blogs