ABRACADABRA in the hands of teachers: The effectiveness of a web-based literacy intervention in grade 1 language arts programs
This study explored how teacher variations in use of a web-technology of known effectiveness, affected growth in literacy. Teachers used ABRACADACABRA (ABRA) (http://grover.concordia.ca/abra/version1/abracadabra.html), in Grade 1 Language Arts classes. Children (N = 60) across three classrooms were exposed to ABRA activities and a control class followed the regular provincial literacy program. Interventions were run by briefly-trained teachers for a total of 16 h. Each teacher chose to use the program in qualitatively distinct ways that corresponded to the first three stages of Sandholtz, Ringstaff, and Dwyer's (1997) technology integration model, namely: Entry, Adoption and Adaptation. Growth in literacy between pre- and post-test revealed significant differences associated with technology integration style across all measures of literacy and related language skills. The largest and most-widespread effects were evident for the Adaptation group that linked technology content to wider learning themes in the classroom. In terms of overall growth in standardised literacy scores across all six such measures used. Adaptation proved to be 60% more effective than Adoption. Results suggest that explorations of exactly how teachers use technology have important implications for practice as well as for the interpretation of field-based studies of the effectiveness of educational technology. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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