Extending the Learning Day with Technology Improves Test Scores, Study Concludes
(PRWEB) December 15, 2015 -- Project Tomorrow®, a national education nonprofit, along with Kajeet®, the industry leader for safe mobile student Internet connectivity, today announce the final results from a three-year-long study to evaluate the benefits of 1-to-1 tablet implementation, including Internet access outside the classroom in Chicago Public Schools.
Current discussions around the “homework gap” focus on students’ lack of access to safe and consistent Internet connectivity outside of school as a barrier to doing homework. The Making Learning Mobile 3.0 study took an in-depth look at how access to computer tablets improved teacher effectiveness and student learning within the 5th grade at Falconer Elementary School over the course of three years.
In previous years, the study’s findings concluded tablets at home and school increased student engagement and the awareness of the importance of teacher professional development, and positively impacted students’ reading and writing proficiency.
Final year results from the Making Learning Mobile study included:
• Use of technology at home increased year-over-year. Sixty-nine percent of the 5th graders used the Internet-enabled tablets every day, at school and home, to support their learning this year, whereas last year, 51 percent of the students reported they rarely or never used technology at home to support schoolwork or homework assignments while in 4th grade.
• Falconer Elementary students had the highest percentage of 5th graders scoring at or above the national average RIT (Rasch Unit) in math compared to other comparable Chicago schools, according to the Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) assessment scores.
• Within one class of the cohort, the students’ average RIT score in math improved by 11.26 points from the spring 2014 to spring 2015-- this was 24 percent higher than the overall 5th grade at the school.
• Students identified a change in their learning behaviors that resulted in increased learning opportunities. Sixty-eight percent stated they were more likely to complete homework assignments with Internet-enabled tablets and 76 percent said they had a greater interest in learning.
As part of the Making Learning Mobile study, 85 Chicago 5th grade students and their three teachers were provided with Android tablets using Kajeet Education Broadband™ to connect kids at school and home. The objectives were to evaluate how the students used the devices, in and outside the classroom, to support their schoolwork and extend learning beyond the classroom, focusing on increased literacy. In addition to student use, the research project looked at teacher adoption and integration of technology in daily instruction.
Ninety-four percent of the students in the Chicago focus school are considered low income and 45 percent are qualified as English Language Learners. Just over one-third of the students noted they did not have Internet access at home.
The project was sponsored by Kajeet with funding from Qualcomm Incorporated, through its Qualcomm® Wireless Reach™ initiative. Kajeet and Project Tomorrow will host a webinar on Jan. 28, 4 pm EST to discuss the results, including how the tablets transformed teaching and learning for both students and teachers during the three-year study.
“The Making Learning Mobile initiative at Falconer Elementary School is a landmark study as it has allowed us to examine how various factors within mobile learning must work together to yield positive student outcomes,” said Julie Evans, Chief Executive Officer of Project Tomorrow. “Each factor – the out-of-school access, the mobile-enabled content for the tablets, highly targeted mentoring and coaching for the teachers on implementation strategies, and administrative leadership – were essential for driving the results we noted in this new report.”
“After three years of incorporating tablets and connectivity in the classroom and at home, it is a positive story to tell for these students who not only believe they are doing better in school and enjoying learning, but are also executing on good study habits by completing homework and performing better on assessments,” said Daniel Neal, CEO and founder of Kajeet. “As real action heroes in the community, Chicago Public Schools and the teachers at Falconer took a successful step forward to close the Homework Gap.”
Register for the webinar at http://www.kajeet.net/webinar-mlmreport-3 and download the Making Learning Mobile report at http://www.kajeet.net/hubfs/MLM3-Report.pdf.
About Project Tomorrow
Project Tomorrow®, the national education nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering student voices in education discussions, designed and implemented this program evaluation for Kajeet for Education. Project Tomorrow has 19 years of experience in the K-12 and higher education sector and regularly provides consulting and research support to school districts, government agencies, business and higher education institutions about key trends and research in science, math and technology education.
About Kajeet®
Kajeet, the only wireless service provider dedicated solely to providing safe, mobile connectivity for students, is bridging the digital divide in school districts across the country. Kajeet provides an affordable mobile broadband solution that connects economically disadvantaged students to the resources they need to complete required assignments and projects outside of school. The Kajeet SmartSpot® solution, a portable Wi-Fi hotspot combined with the innovative Sentinel® cloud portal, enables administrators and teachers to provide CIPA-compliant, customizable filtered Internet access that keeps students focused on school work and provides off-campus Internet connectivity without worry of data abuse. Kajeet products and services, which operates on both the Sprint and Verizon network, are protected by the following issued U.S. patents: 9,137,389; 9,137,386; 9,125, 057; 8,995,952; 8,929,857; 8,918,080; 8,774,755; 8,774,754; 8,755,768; 8,731,517; 8,725,109; 8,712,371; 8,706,079; 8,667,559; 8,644,796; 8,639,216; 8,634,803; 8,634,802; 8,634,801; 8,630,612; 8,611,885; 8,600,348; 8,594,619; 8,588,735; 8,285,249; 8,078,140; 7,945,238; 7,899,438; 7,881,697. Other patents are pending. For more information, please visit us at kajeet.net.
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Jenny Hostert, Project Tomorrow, http://www.tomorrow.org/, +1 949-609-4660 Ext: 17, [email protected]
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