Assessing The Impact Of Computer Based Instruction

Can computer applications help improve student performance? For what skills, grade levels, content areas, and type of students are computer applications most effective? Can computer applications improve student attitude toward school and decrease drop-out rates? Discover what the research reveals--in this provocative new book--about these and other crucial questions concerning the impact of computer-based instruction. Assessing the Impact of Computer-Based Instruction provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date summary available on the effects of computer applications on both student achievement and attitudes. Within its pages are also the most extensive bibliography ever prepared on past reviews of research, current reports and articles, and dissertations in the area of computer uses in education. This groundbreaking new book provides educational decisionmakers with the facts they need in order to justify the expense and effort of maintaining and expanding the instructional role of computers in schools. It is also useful as a resource text in the pre-service training of computer educators and for graduate students doing research in instructional computing.

This book is based on the workshop that kickstarted the NATO Science Committee Special Programme on Advanced Educational Technology. We invited the leaders in the field to attend this inaugural meeting and were delighted by the quality of the attendance, the papers delivered at the workshop and this book. Many of the authors have subsequently run other meetings funded by the Special Programme and have, or are in the process of, editing books which focus on particular topics. This book covers all the major themes in the area ranging from fundamental theoretical work to empirical studies of state of the art technological innovations. Tim O'Shea chaired the NATO Survey Group which planned the Programme and the subsequent Panel which disbursed funds in the first two years of the Programme. He would like to thank the other group and panel members, namely, Professor N Balacheff, Professor D Bjomer, Professor H Bouma, Professor P C Duchastel, Professor A Dias de Figueiredo, Dr D Jonassen and Professor T Liao. He would like to offer his special thanks to Dr L V da Cunha the NATO Programme Director for his unfailing support and patience. Eileen Scanlon was the Director of the Workshop which is the basis of this book. She offers heartfelt thanks to the contributors and to the following who provided practical help with the meeting or the production of this book: Mrs Pauline Adams, Dr Mike Baker, Mrs Kathy Evans, Mrs Patricia Roe, Mr Dave Perry and Ms Fiona Spensley.

Together, the words technology and assess-ment have different meaning for different people. Those who work with educational or instructional technology take these words to mean assessing the impacts of technology on teaching and learning. Test developers and psychometricians, however, consider ways in which computer-based technologies can be used to enhance current approaches to student assessment. This book examines technology and assessment from both perspectives by examining past, current and promising methodol-ogies and applications in both fields. The influences instructional uses of technology and the increasing reliance on testing to gauge student and school performance have on one another are also explored. The book concludes by describing an organizational structure that could bring instructional applications of technology and assessment practices into closer alignment.

First Published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The use of computers in the sport and exercise sciences is now unquestioned. They are employed in the functioning of laboratory facilities, data collection, data handling and prediction of forthcoming outcomes. Recent advances are strongly affected by current developments in computer science and technology. In particular, progress in hardware (processor speed, storage capacity, communication technology), software (tools), information management concepts (data bases, data mining) and media (internet, eLearning, multimedia) gives a great impetus.This book, written by leading experts in the interdisciplinary field of sport and computer science, provides an overview on current fields of research and application covering fields such as virtual reality, ubiquitous computing, feedback systems and multimedia.

Choose the right hardware and software for your school! This unique book is the first systematic work on evaluating and assessing educational information technology. Here you?ll find specific strategies, best practices, and techniques to help you choose the educational technology that is most appropriate for your institution. Evaluation and Assessment in Educational Information Technology will show you how to measure the effects of information technology on teaching and learning, help you determine the extent of technological integration into the curriculum that is best for your school, and point you toward the most effective ways to teach students and faculty to use new technology. Evaluation and Assessment in Educational Information Technology presents: a summary of the last ten years of assessment instrument development seven well-validated instruments that gauge attitudes, beliefs, skills, competencies, and technology integration proficiencies two content analysis instruments for analyzing teacher-student interaction patterns in a distance learning setting an examination of the best uses of computerized testing--as opposed to conventional tests, as used in local settings, to meet daily instructional needs, in online delivery programs, in public domain software, and available commercial and shareware options successful pedagogical and assessment strategies for use in online settings a four-dimensional model to assess student learning in instructional technology courses three models for assessing the significance of information technology in education from a teacher?s perspective an incisive look at Michigan?s newly formed Consortium of Outstanding Achievement in Teaching with Technology (COATT) ways to use electronic portfolios for teaching/learning performance assessment and much more!

The Race To The Top program strongly advocates the use of computer technology in assessments. It dramatically promotes computer-based testing, linear or adaptive, in K-12 state assessment programs. Moreover, assessment requirements driven by this federal initiative exponentially increase the complexity in assessment design and test development. This book provides readers with a review of the history and basics of computer-based tests. It also offers a macro perspective for designing such assessment systems in the K-12 setting as well as a micro perspective on new challenges such as innovative items, scoring of such items, cognitive diagnosis, and vertical scaling for growth modeling and value added approaches to assessment. The editors’ goal is to provide readers with necessary information to create a smarter computer-based testing system by following the advice and experience of experts from education as well as other industries. This book is based on a conference (http://marces.org/workshop.htm) held by the Maryland Assessment Research Center for Education Success. It presents multiple perspectives including test vendors and state departments of education, in designing and implementing a computer-based test in the K-12 setting. The design and implementation of such a system requires deliberate planning and thorough considerations. The advice and experiences presented in this book serve as a guide to practitioners and as a good source of information for quality control. The technical issues discussed in this book are relatively new and unique to K-12 large-scale computer-based testing programs, especially due to the recent federal policy. Several chapters provide possible solutions to psychometricians dealing with the technical challenges related to innovative items, cognitive diagnosis, and growth modeling in computer-based linear or adaptive tests in the K-12 setting.

This volume offers an expansion of ideas presented at a recent conference convened to identify the major strategies and more promising practices for assessing technology. The authors -- representing government, business, and university sectors -- helped to set the boundaries of present technology assessment by offering perspectives from computer science, cognitive and military psychology, and education. Their work explores both the use of techniques to assess technology and the use of technology to facilitate the assessment process. The book's main purpose is to portray the state of the art in technology assessment and to provide conceptual options to help readers understand the power of technology. Technological innovation will continue to develop its own standards of practice and effectiveness. To the extent that these practices are empirically based, designers, supporters, and consumers will be given better information for their decisions.