The Social Promise of the Time to Know Program.

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This article explores the effects of the Time To Know program, a comprehensive technologyrich learning environment, on low socio-economic status (SES) students’ learning achievements in Mathematics, Hebrew, and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Israel. The study is based on the assumption that one of the possible solutions for bridging the social gap can be achieved through narrowing the digital divide, particularly by bringing a 1:1 computing social-constructivist learning environment to the low-SES students. The subjects were 49 fifth-grade students from low-SES who joined a Time To Know program in Israel and 42 fifth-grade students who learned in a traditional setting. Findings indicated that learning with the Time To Know program significantly enhanced students’ Mathematics, Hebrew, and EFL achievements. In addition, the findings showed that, as a result of learning in the Time To Know environment, the knowledge and skills gap between the low SES students was significantly narrowed. This article is based on data collected in an evaluation study conducted by Manny-Ikan, and Berger-Tikochonski, (2010). The integration of technology-rich learning environments into educational systems is one of the greatest challenges faced by educators and policymakers. Despite high-profile efforts, and significant investments of resources, educational technology programs have revealed relatively low effects (Bernard et al., 2009; Cuban, 2001; Donovan, Green, & Hartley, 2010; Greaves & Hayes, 2006). Based on the assumption that qualitatively different learning environments offer different kinds of learning experiences, they then serve different learning goals. However, past research has shown that technology-rich learning environments can more effectively promote social-constructivist educational goals, such as learning motivation, teamwork, and higher-order thinking skills in comparison to traditional settings (Rosen & Salomon, 2007). Recognizing the limitations of the digital divide, attributed most commonly to socioeconomic factors, it is possible that educational technology can play a social role in bridging the achievement gap between students (e.g., Jackson et al., 2006; Warschauer, 2003; Warschauer & Matuchniak, 2010). Information and communication technologies (ICT) are perceived by educators, sociologists, and economists as a new mode of information with a profound effect on modern life. Access to new technologies, whether at home or at school, is critical to the development of new abilities and skills, such as collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and information literacy, needed in the information age. The growing role of information and communication technologies in the economy and society serves to highlight their important role in education, especially in promoting educational equity. It is widely Journal of Interactive Online Learning Rosen and Manny-Ikan ! 151 believed that effective deployment and use of technology in schools can help balance the unequal access to technologies in the home environment and thus help narrow educational and social gaps. A comparative study of technology use at schools in high– and low–socio-economic status (SES) communities found that the low-SES neighborhood schools tended to have a less stable teaching staff, administrative staff, and IT support staff, which made planning for technology use more difficult (Warschauer, Knobel, & Stone, 2004). A family’s SES is based on family income, parental education level, parental occupation, and social status in the community. High-SES schools tend to invest more in professional development, hiring fulltime technical support staff, and developing communication among teachers and administration that promoted robust digital networks. This encourages more widespread use of new technologies by teachers. In comparison, the low-SES schools had achieved less success in creating the types of support networks that made technology effective. Another study (Becker, 2000), found that computer use in low-SES schools often involved conventional learning practices, whereas computer use in high-SES schools often reflected more constructivist and innovative teaching and learning strategies. Studies have found that both within and across nations, the level of family income is a strong predictor of student performance and engagement in learning (Baker, Goesling, & LeTendre, 2002; Baye, Monseur, & Lafontaine, 2009). Findings from the Israeli standardized test (Meitzav), show a consistent significant gap in learning achievements among students from different SES backgrounds (RAMA, 2010). Lower SES students are associated with lower learning achievements in Mathematics, Hebrew, and EFL. One possible way to achieve this social effect of SES as a significant predictor of learning achievements is by narrowing the digital divide and increasing learning motivation, particularly by bringing an appropriately implemented 1:1 computing social-constructivist learning environment to low-SES students. Over the past decade, there has been a growing interest in 1:1 laptop technology initiatives, whereby the teachers and the students have full access to a technology-rich learning environment (Jaillet, 2004; O’Dwyer, Russel, Bebell, & Seesley, 2008; Lei & Zhao, 2008; Weston & Bain, 2010; Zucker & Light, 2009). Most results emerging from 1:1 technological initiatives have been largely positive. However, the emphasis on using technology in education should not imply that the technology is the goal of the educational process. Rather, the goal should be to have a technological learning environment as a mechanism for paradigmatic change of learning, teaching, and promoting new abilities and skills needed in the information age (Cuban, 2003, 2006; Salomon & Perkins, 2005). One of the most recent studies on learning with laptops (Warschauer, 2006) revealed positive results regarding the potential of these programs for alleviating inequity. In these programs, well-trained and highly committed teachers were able to use laptops to help raise low-SES students’ test scores while simultaneously engaging students in more opportunities for critical inquiry and in-depth learning. The present study examines the possible effects of a 1:1 computing constructivist learning environment, focusing on low-SES students. More specifically, the study explores the effects of learning in the Time To Know program on Mathematics, Hebrew, and EFL achievements of low-SES students, compared to learning in a traditional setting. Time To Know’s teaching and learning environment is designed with a socialconstructivist approach to learning and teaching (Fosnot, 2005; Prawat & Folden, 1994; Roschelle, Pea, Hoadley, Gordin, & Means, 2000; Von Glasersfeld, 1995) and it consists of five main components (Walters, Dede, & Richard, 2009; Weiss & Bordelon, 2010): Journal of Interactive Online Learning Rosen and Manny-Ikan ! 152 � Infrastructure: 1:1 laptop environment with a workstation for the teacher. � Interactive year-long core curriculum: Recommended sequences of interactive learning activities that are aligned with state standards. Teachers can modify these sequences by uploading their own “best practice” materials directly into the lesson flow. � Digital Teaching Platform (DTP): A platform that enables the teacher to plan and conduct a lesson, receive formative and summative assessment reports during and after the lessons (see Figures 1-4). � Pedagogical support: Every teacher who joins the program takes part in a professional development course and receives ongoing guidance from a Time To Know coach who has specialized in the field of knowledge in which the teacher is working. � Technical support: There is technical support during all classroom hours in every school where the program is in operation. The Time To Know program contains a structured Mathematics, Hebrew, and English Language Arts curriculum of guided learning sequences for elementary schools that includes open-ended applets and discovery environments, multimedia presentations, practice exercises, and games. For example, in mathematics, the teacher opens the lesson with an animation which is used as a trigger for a specific learning topic, such as fractions. Next, a class discussion on the topic increases the curiosity of the students who then explore the topic and perform guided experiments individually using the fraction applet. The students then submit their work to the class digital gallery where the teacher projects the work and engages the students in a discussion. Another example is the use of the Live Text applet to explore written text in Language Arts context. The student can highlight and emphasize different parts of the text, such as words and paragraphs. The student can also use the textual navigator which automatically emphasizes different units, such as verbs, pronouns, and emotions. The student can then review pre-defined “hot words” in order to view additional explanations or information about those words. The Time To Know DTP was designed to present differentiated materials to different groups simultaneously and support diverse learning levels for the same topic. The class may be divided into homogenous groups of students with similar mastery levels on a given topic. In this way, every student works according to his own ability. Journal of Interactive Online Learning Rosen and Manny-Ikan ! 153 Figure 1. Planning a Lesson in Time To Know Digital Teaching Platform (DTP) Figure 2. Learning Activities in Time To Know DTP Journal of Interactive Online Learning Rosen and Manny-Ikan ! 154 Figure 3. Interactive Animations in Time To Know DTP Figure 4. Assessment Reports in Time To Know DTP T2K DTP suggests a new paradigm in educational technology. Combining a digital teaching platform and interactive core curriculum into a teaching and learning environment, which is lead by the teacher who is empowered but not replaced.