SGER: Assessing the Educational, Career, and Social Impacts of the XO Laptop Program in Birmingham, AL City Schools

伯明翰市长向阿拉巴马州伯明翰市学校的中学生提供为期两年的XO笔记本电脑贷款。在这个探索性研究的小额赠款中，研究了课堂上发生的教育和社会变化以及对几个学生成绩的影响。预计技术的使用将改变课堂上的教育和社会环境，并影响学生的学习成绩。数字鸿沟问题在弱势少数群体中很严重，本研究探讨了由于使用和获取技术而发生的变化。鉴于当地政府计划向中学生分发XO笔记本电脑，该项目利用这种教育干预来研究其对学生成绩的影响。XO笔记本电脑的独特之处在于，它们通过提供用户界面和网状网络来强调协作学习，以便与他人合作工作。样本由随机选择的6所中学的所有六年级和七年级学生组成。该计划负责收集学生使用科技的水平和类型、教育和职业兴趣和抱负的前后数据。数据收集在两个时间点进行：收到笔记本电脑后的6个月和12个月。重复测量设计允许对技术使用水平和类型的趋势进行研究。本研究的一个重要目的是探讨技术接触的增加与学生学习内容和技能的关系及其职业意向。该研究还调查了科技的使用如何影响学生对社会关系、归属感和个人表达的看法。数据分析包括描述性统计和多层次的变化模型，使用HLM程序。除了来自大约2500名学生的全样本的纸和铅笔调查数据外，还在两个时间点对20名学生进行了深入访谈，以详细探讨获取和提高计算机技能如何影响教育和心理社会结果。使用教师数据和课堂数据，研究了课堂文化的变化，由于技术的使用而导致的教学变化。这应该能更准确地反映学生的学习环境。为了控制教师能力的可能影响（在第二级或第三级模型中），将教师数据与学生数据联系起来，以估计控制教师影响的模型。

+h mayor of Birmingham is making a two year loan of XO laptops to middle school students in the Birmingham City Schools in Alabama. The educational and social changes that will occur in classrooms and the effects on several student outcomes are studied in this Small Grant for Exploratory Research. It is expected that access to technology will change the educational and social environment in classrooms and affect student outcomes. The problem of digital divide is acute among the disadvantaged minority community and this study examines the changes that will occur due to the use and access to technology. Given the local government's plan to distribute the XO laptops to the middle school students, the project takes advantage of this educational intervention to study its effects on several student outcomes. The XO laptops are unique in that they emphasize collaborative learning by providing user interface and mesh networking for cooperative work with others. The sample consists of all 6th and 7th grade students in 6 randomly selected middle schools. The project undertakes the collection of pre and post data on students' technology usage levels and types, education and career interests and aspirations. The data collection takes place at two time points: 6 and 12 months after receiving the laptops. The repeated measures design allows the study of the trend in levels and types of technology use. An important goal of the study is to explore the relationship of the increased technology access to students' learning content and skills and their career intentions. The study also examines how the technology use affects students' perceptions of social connections, belonging and personal expression. Data analyses include descriptive statistics, and multilevel models of change, using HLM program. In addition to paper and pencil survey data from the full sample of approximately 2500 students, twenty students are interviewed in-depth at two time points to probe in detail how the access and increased computer skills influence educational and psycho-social outcomes. The changes in classroom culture, pedagogical changes due to the use of technology are studied, using teacher data and classroom data. This should provide a more accurate picture of the students' learning environment. In order to control for possible effects of teacher ability (at 2nd or 3rd level models), the teacher data is linked with student data for estimating the models controlling for the teacher effects.