Better News for One-to-One Laptop Programs

In this Education Week article, Leo Doran and Benjamin Herold report on a first-of-its-kind meta-analysis of 15 years of research on the impact of one-to-one school laptop initiatives. Contrary to skeptical reports in recent years, this study found a statistically significant positive impact on student test scores in ELA, writing, math, and science when students were given one-to-one access to laptops. A further review of 86 additional papers found modest evidence of more student-centered and project-based instruction, improved student engagement, better teacher-student relationships, and increased student use of technology for reading, writing, Internet research, note-taking, and completing assignments. Students expressed “very positive” attitudes about using laptops in school, and studies consistently found higher student engagement, motivation, and persistence when laptops were used. (The researchers cautioned that their study applied only to laptops, not tablets, smartphones, and desktop computers.)

“It’s not like just providing a laptop to every student will automatically increase student achievement,” said study honcho Binbin Zheng of Michigan State University, “but we find that it’s the first step.” That said, the effect of laptops was noticeably less than other interventions such as smaller class size or individual tutoring. Laptop results, says Zheng, are “small but noteworthy.” The real benefit of using laptops, says Elliot Soloway of the University of Michigan, is going beyond “instructive” electronic-worksheet activities to “constructive” learning, from “teaching kids to remember something to teaching them how to figure something out.”

“Many of the benefits of 1-to-1 laptop programs are not detected by standardized tests,” says Zheng. “For the many programs whose purpose is to help each student be a better 21^st-century citizen, we need to develop and use corresponding measures.”

“1-to-1 Laptop Initiatives Boost Student Scores, Study Finds” by Leo Doran and Benjamin Herold in Education Week, May 18, 2016 (Vol. 35, #31, p. 11), www.edweek.org; the full study is entitled “Learning in One-to-One Laptop Environments: A Meta-Analysis and Research Synthesis” by Binbin Zheng, Mark Warshauer, Chin-Hsi Lin, and Chi Chang, published online in early 2016 in Review of Educational Research, available for purchase at http://rer.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/02/03/0034654316628645.abstract?rss=1. 

From the Marshall Memo #638