Cummins

Jim Cummins, Kristin Brown, Dennis Sayers ="Literacy, Technology, and Diversity"= toc Super Group: Paolo Leveratto Rachel Sanchez-Mitchell Theresa Cao Narine Babuchyn Anahit Ananyan

==Introduction == Even though technology can play a big role in educating children, Cummins states that so far we only see minimal results. No great improvements in literacy and numeracy have been noticed despite increasing the access to technology because the pedagogical focus is towards teaching to high-stakes testing (Cummins).

This article is focused on digital technologies’ educational impact on the modes of oral and literate communication in the past 30 years. The research on the educational impact of technology is done in the context of pedagogy.  In the past decade, wealthy countries have continued funding schools so that their students would have access to computers and Internet. For instance, during 1990’s, the US invested more than $90 billion in computer technology, while the Schools and Libraries Universal Service Support Mechanism (e-rate) invested $2.25 billion a year to help schools and libfraries get affordable internet access. The main purpose of these investments was to assist in the development of 21 st  century literacy skills and to improve traditional learning outcomes, especially for low-income and minority students.  The major problem to increase literacy competencies for all students is due to the tension between inquiry-based and transmission-based orientations to pedagogy. The inquiry-based orientations want to help students build “curriculum-related” knowledge, while transmission orientations want students to interiorize the content of the curriculum. This tension occurs because of the different ways in which technology is used in wealthy and low-income schools(Cummins).

==**Access to and Use of Technology **== Wilhelm and colleagues emphasize the fact that minority children and those from low-income families are least likely to have computers and access to the internet than White children from high-income families. Although schools try to close this apparent gap, major differences persist between these two groups. As Parsad and Jones report in their 2005 article, the percentage of schools with access to internet has rapidly increased from 35% to 100% between 1994 and 2003. Nonetheless, high poverty schools were less likely to have a school website then affluent school. There is still a gap in technology access between minority students and White students; however, that gap has been narrowing in recent years.  Research done by Warschauer and colleagues in 2004 suggests that Black and Hispanic students use new technology for vocational reasons whereas White and Asian students employ technology in academics. Another study indicates that low-income students are taught lower level skills on computers while high-income students are taught higher level cognitive skills. Moreover, teachers in schools populated by low-income minority students are compelled to dedicate the class time on working to raise the standardized test scores. As oppose to teachers in affluent schools, they don’t have much time to engage students in innovative activities that involves the new technology.  Another case study performed by Warschauer shows that students provided laptops in schools spend more time on task and enjoy learning more. They utilize multimedia in the projects which enhances the quality of the work. Nevertheless, these improvements did not reflect the results of standardized test scores which remained the same before and after the introduction of laptops.

[|__http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5ySocUyI7I__]

==**Effectiveness of ICT ( Information and Communication Technology) in Supporting Student Learning** ==

A. The Apparent Lack of Overall Impact  The most serious problems afflicting urban and rural poor schools have little to do with a lack of technology (Cuban 2002). Bennett (2002) notes that between 1994 and 1999, there was minimal overall improvement in educational achievement as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. A recent Rand Corporation (Carroll, Krop, Arkes, Morrison, & Flanagan, 2005) report showed no gains in literacy achievement in California between 1990 and 2003 despite major curricular reforms and significant technology investment. Goolsbee and Guryan (2002) conclude that although the program had certainly increased access, there was no evidence that Internet investment had any measurable effect on student achievement. It is clear that providing access to ICT in schools or homes does little to improve achievement or reduce the gap between White and minority students.  B. Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Studies  Individual research studies (both experimental and qualitative case studies) can contribute to understanding how ICT might influence learning under specific conditions and in particular areas, such as reading development.Fletcher's review (2003) concludes that technology based instruction suggests that it will most probably lower costs and increase effectiveness for many applications. Willis (2003) summarizes a range of meta-analyses of computers in schools that conclude that computers can positively impact learning. Burns and Ungerleiter (2002/2003) could only make four unambiguous claims on the basis of their research literature on the impact of ICT in elementary and secondary education:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1) Student attitudes toward computers and computer-related technologies improve as a consequence of exposure to them. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 2) The use of ICTs for group work can be beneficial if teachers are able to take into account the complex interplay among the age of the students, the kind of task, and the amount of independence allowed. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 3) The use of ICTs for mathematics instruction has a significantly positive effect on teaching high-level concepts to students in grade 8 or above. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 4) The majority of the research reviewed is contradictory and/or seriously flawed.



==**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Impact of ICT on Reading Development **== <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Studies on the impact of ICT programs on reading are largely inconclusive. Independent studies suggest that teacher-based training is more effective than computer-based training, while commercial industry studies report strong gains in reading performance.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Commercial Programs used widely in classrooms across the United States include:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read 180 (Scholastic)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Accelerated Reader

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4e4e4e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">From the Renaissance Learning website:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4e4e4e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Highly popular and successful for over 25 years, Accelerated Reader (AR) is a powerful tool for monitoring and managing independent reading practice. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4e4e4e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> AR now has a beautifully redesigned student interface with improved navigation and tablet compatibility, while maintaining the great benefits that you've come to know and love, including the ability to:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4e4e4e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Monitor students' progress toward College and Career Readiness expectations with the new <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|CCR Report] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4e4e4e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4e4e4e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Personalize and guide independent reading practice.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4e4e4e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Develop lifelong readers and learners.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4e4e4e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Tap into unlimited access to all quizzes and enjoy online support.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4e4e4e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Increase parental support with web-based, school-to-home communications.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read Naturally

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read Naturally's structured intervention programs combine teacher modeling, repeated reading, and progress monitoring — three strategies that research has shown are effective in improving students' reading proficiency. Using audio support and graphs of their progress, students work with high-interest material at their skill level.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Does technology inherently increase motivation?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">One issue still currently debated is whether gains in student performance are related to computer software and ICT or to students' intrinsic excitement for engaging with technology. Recent studies (Meskill and Mossop, 2000) report that students display increased moti <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> vation for learning that includes technology use. Language learners in particular show greater participation and active use of creative thinking when working with technology-supported instruction strategies. ELL students report positive attitudes toward learning and computer use.

==<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> **The Issue of Cost-Effectiveness** ==

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Computer programs are motivating to students, but are they cost-effective?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">...Cummins argues that the additional cost is not worth the purchase for these computer programs in place of other traditional programs that have proven by research to also be effective for ELL’s.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The one exception to this might be for those with specific reading or learning disabilities. Stephen Krashen, one of the many skeptics of computer-based interventions, argues that successful reading programs can be attained “much more simply and at much less cost” with traditional reading programs such as traditional books. Also, Krashen concluded through research and lack thereof that “simply reading” various texts is much more beneficial than the support included in electronic texts.

Would you still invest in ICT programs for reading development in your classroom?

**Conclusion:**
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The article discusses that there is still a learning gap between what children are learning but what children really need to know. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> "A Research Brief published by the RAND Corporation expressed this point clearly: "Despite recent progress in reading achievement among children in primary grades, many children are not moving beyond basic decoding skills as they advance to the fourth grade and classes in history, mathematics, and science"" (RAND Education, 2004, p. 1).

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Technology can help people learn but there are certain criteria in order to be effective. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> "So the issue becomes: What software programs or technology- supported learning activities will (1) promote deep understanding, build on learners' prior knowledge, and permit learners to control the learning process, and (2) engage learners in extensive reading, support them in accessing auricular content, and enable them to harvest the language they are rea <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> ding? (108) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Criterion 1: Does it relate the new to the known? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Criterion 2: Does it promote active, in-depth processing of new words? Criterion 3: Does it provide multiple exposures to new words? Criterion 4: Does it teach students to be strategic readers? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Criterion 5: Does it promote additional reading? (109)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">More criteria would be: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> "1. Does the technology-supported instruction provide cognitive challenge <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and opportunities for deep processing of meaning? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 2. Does the technology-supported instruction relate instruction to prior knowledge and experiences derived from students' homes and communities? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 3. Does the technology-supported instruction promote active self- regulated collaborative inquiry? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 4. Does the technology-supported instruction promote extensive engaged reading and writing across the curriculum?" <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Chapter Four Technology <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 5. Does the technology-supported instruction help students develop strategies for effective reading, writing, and learning? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Does the technology-supported instruction promote affective involvement and identity investment on the part of students?" (Cummings 109-110)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"technologies should not support learning by attempting to instruct the learners, but rather should be used as knowledge construction tools that students learn with, not from. In this way, learners function as designers, and the computers function as Mindtools for interpreting and organizing <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> their personal knowledge. Mindtools are computer applications that, when used by learners to repre- sent what they know, necessarily engage them in critical thinking about the content they are studying. (1998, p. 24) (Cummings 110)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So technology should not be the answer or the solution to learning problems, it should be more of a cane that allows students to learn.

==**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Citation: **==

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cummins, J., Brown, K., & Sayers, D. (2007). Literacy, technology, and diversity: Teaching for success in changing times. Boston: Pearson.

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