[Catalist] ACER Research Developments: Digital Learning

[Michael McGarry]

Greetings Science and Computing Science Colleagues,


Has this Question been Answered? Did the 2008 - 2013 Digital Education Revolution High School 1:1 Laptop Program for Students in Years 9 to 12 result in significant and sustained improvement in Learning Outcomes in Australian High School classrooms?

These 3 ACER Research Development Reports into Digital Learning provide some insight into a possible answer to the above stated Question. In my current knowledge there was never any attempt from governments at the time to answer the above Question?


Taking stock of progress in ICT literacy: URL: https://rd.acer.edu.au/article/taking-stock-of-progress-in-ict-literacy <https://rd.acer.edu.au/article/taking-stock-of-progress-in-ict-literacy>

"The survey found that Australia had the highest percentage of students who used computers at school at least once a week (81 per cent), while 87 per cent reported using their home computers at least once a week."

"Despite strong growth in the use of digital technologies, there are claims that the ICT skills of Australian students are falling behind as other countries continue to include higher level computing activities in the curriculum at a much younger age than in Australia, so it is worth asking about the state of ICT literacy in Australia."

"Although Australian schools are rich in ICT resources, with each student having access to one computer compared to the international average of 18 students to one computer, there remain obstacles for ICT teaching and learning. According to ICT coordinators surveyed in the ICILS survey, for 75 per cent of Year 8 students in Australia the biggest problem reported was lack of ICT skills among teachers. More than two-thirds of Year 8 students attend schools where teachers report there is insufficient time for teachers to prepare lessons, while around half attend schools in which there is perceived to be a lack of effective professional learning resources for teachers or a lack of incentives for teachers to incorporate ICT use in their teaching.”


Examining the impact of computer games on achievement: URL: https://rd.acer.edu.au/article/examining-the-impact-of-computer-games-on-achievement <https://rd.acer.edu.au/article/examining-the-impact-of-computer-games-on-achievement>

"The study, administered in 2013, assessed the computer and information literacy, or CIL, of Year 8 students in 18 countries. CIL is defined as ‘the ability to use computers to investigate, create and communicate in order to participate effectively at home, at school, in the workplace and in society’."

"The results showed that Australian students played computer games less often on average compared to their international counterparts."

"ICILS indicates that just over one-quarter of Australian Year 8 students play computer games every day for recreation outside of school."

"Across the board, Australian students achieved an average score of 542 points on the CIL scale, significantly higher than the international average of 500." 

"Australian students who played every day for recreation achieved a similar CIL assessment score (536 points) to their peers who never played computer games out-of-school (533 points)."

"In Australia, female students attained a higher CIL assessment score than males, irrespective of how often they played computer games for recreation."


Assessment for targeted teaching: URL: https://rd.acer.edu.au/article/assessment-for-targeted-teaching <https://rd.acer.edu.au/article/assessment-for-targeted-teaching>

"Appearing as a pre-recorded keynote speaker at Research Conference 2015 in August, Emeritus Professor Dylan Wiliam from the Institute of Education, University of London, said that while the core purpose of assessment is to support students’ learning by informing teaching, accurate measures of educational change remain a challenge for teachers."

‘Good teaching involves constant assessment, which informs how teachers adapt what they do to meet the needs of each student,’ Professor Wiliam said. ‘Teachers need to have the depth of pedagogical and content knowledge to understand what students need to know in order to tackle a particular task, and to understand the likely outcomes for students."


QUESTION: Does teaching Science from Textbooks and showing ClickView videos allow students to conceptually reconstruct their naive pre - instructional science conceptions (ideas)? Science Education Research shows that the answer to this Question is No!

Best Wishes,

Mike McGarry   

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