Evaluating Educational Technology

After a school or district has written a technology plan, and after this plan has been in the implementation stage for a year or more, the natural question is "how are we doing?" As we all know by now, the processes of building a technology infrastructure, training users, and integrating technology with the curriculum are extraordinarily expensive in terms of time, resources, and money. How does a school know that these efforts are paying off in terms of that bottom line indicator -- student impact?

The answer to this question is not simple. It would be wonderful if educators could point to simple statistics and other quantitative information to show a generic correlation between technology and student achievement. Unfortunately, there is no such correlation that works in all cases -- with all students, all technology, and in all classrooms. Nevertheless, educators do not need to throw up their hands and rely on blind faith that their technology tools are having some impact. Of course, as with so much else, work is required to develop alternatives to blind faith.

The first step to evaluating technology's impact on student achievement is to develop satisfactory indicators of achievement. Test scores are not the only, or best, indicators especially when one considers that the types of learning best supported with technology are those not traditionally measured by traditional assessments such as standardized tests.

Technology evaluation is the "next stage" of technology planning. Successful evaluations tie back to the vision, goals, and objectives of a well-written technology plan. The basic indicators of success should be the those very same impacts envisioned when the technology plan was originally written and implemented. The question then is one of how to measure those intended impacts. This is the ideal. Often we find that a very common problem faced by would-be technology evaluators is that the original technology plan either does not exist (i.e., implementation was by the seat of the pants) or was not very visionary in the first place (i.e., the original plan was mostly an infrastructure or wiring plan).

The specific indicators, rubrics, and evaluation reports for school and district technology efforts is unique to each evaluation effort. No one can tell you whether you have done what you set out to do without understanding your vision, goals, and unique environment. Still, certain tools and processes can be suggested that will help any school or district develop a truly useful evaluation that not only assesses progress and impact but also helps focus and direct on-going technology implementation efforts.

The following pages present some of the tools that Sun Associates uses with its evaluation clients. For more information about these tools and the context in which they are modified and used, please contact us.

Domains of Technology Integration

The following five domains are intended to help evaluators categorize their indicators as to domain of impact or engagement. After reviewing the domains, users should refer to our page on developing indicator rubrics.

Please note that this page is under construction. We are working hard to improve the utility of these informational pages.

I. Level of student engagement

• A. Students use technology to support higher levels of learning
• B. Achievement of school expectations for student technology literacy
  

II. Level of teacher engagement

• A. Teachers use technology to design improved opportunities for learning and authentic assessment
  

III. Availability and accessibility of appropriate resources

• A. A curriculum that fosters meaningful learning
• B. Alignment of the curriculum with learning and assessment strategies that make use of appropriate technology tools
• C. Allocation of technology tools and resources that supports their constructive use in the teaching and learning environment
• D. Equitable access to technology by the school/learning community
  

IV. Organizational supports

• A. Organizational supports crosscut all aspects of technology integration. Specifically, a strong organizational capacity for integrating and implementing technology to improve teaching and learning would be indicated by:
  • Transformations in school leadership to support technology and change
  • Staff-development programs that support capacity-building for improving teaching and learning
  • Use of technology as an information management tool by teachers and administrators

V. Community involvement

• A. The school community supports, through participation in and contributions to, the school's integration of technology in its teaching and learning environment

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