RESUME OF JOURNAL

First Journal

Tittle   : Technology in Education

This study examines the findings from 174 case studies of innovative pedagogical practices using technology from 28 participating countries. The study looks at how classrooms worldwide are using technology to change the practices of teachers and students. Within many of these classrooms, the use of technological tools and resources supports students as they search for information, design products, and publish results.

Research teams in each of the 28 participating countries formed national panels to select the innovative practices to be included in the international study. The panels consisted of researchers, teachers, school administrators, and policy makers—more than 240 people altogether. The average size of the panel was 8 members, ranging from 5 (Italy) to 18 (U.S.).

According to the case reports, in 83% of the innovations students collaborated with each other, either in pairs or small groups. Students in a large majority of these innovations were actively engaged in constructivist activities, such as searching for information (74%), publishing or presenting the results of their work (66%), or designing or creating products (61%). Only 26% of the cases reported that students collaborated with people outside the classroom.

Beyond the frequency of various classroom practices, the success of innovations may depend on the ways these practices are used together. In addition to looking at the overall tendencies of practices across cases, a cluster analysis was performed to examine how classroom practices were used together within cases (k-means clustering; SAS FASTCLUS procedure). Cluster analysis is an interpretive quantitative procedure: there is no single solution to the analysis and the outcome selected from the various ones generated is the one that is most satisfying, relative to the goals of the analysis (SAS Institute, 1990). This quantitative approach is particularly compatible with the qualitative nature of this study.

The results of SITES M2 and its cases demonstrate that technology-supported innovative classroom practices in many countries around the world have many qualities in common. Based on these selected cases, teachers in many countries are beginning to use ICT to help change classroom teaching and learning, and are integrating technology into the curriculum. Students are working together in teams and using computer tools and resources to search for information, publish results, and create products. Teachers are using ICT to change their role from that of primary source of information to one who provides students with structure and advice, monitors their progress, and assesses their accomplishments.