Laptops for Teachers: An evaluation of the TELA scheme in Auckland schools

8. Snapshots in time – 2005 and 2008

In this chapter the responses of those participants who completed surveys in both November 2005 and November 2008 are considered. Differences in the time periods considered by some of the questions in the two surveys (six months in 2005 and twelve months in 2008), mean it is not always possible to make direct comparisons across the two sets of survey data. However, it is possible to compare the two snapshots of the same teachers at different points in time.

There were only 70 participants who met the criterion of completing surveys in both 2005 and 2008. These 70 represent only 17% of the total number of participants who completed at least one of the four surveys administered during the research. The extent to which they are representative of the teachers in the 13 schools that participated is not known. It must be remembered that as they had had their laptops for at least four years, these represent experienced users.

The three areas considered are computer use, participant readiness and impact of the laptops.

Computer use

Figure 8.1 summarises participant responses regarding their average weekly use of the three different types of computers considered for both 2005 and 2008. As it shows, average laptop use for these teachers increased from 15.4 hours per week in 2005 to 23.6 hours per week in 2008. Conversely, the number of hours of school and home desktop use did not change significantly.

Figure 8.1: Overall use of computers by participants over a typical week (hours)

As Figure 8.2 shows, the overall reported use of computers per week for 2008, compared with that reported in 2005, shows an increase across all types of use.

Figure 8.2: Overall levels of use of computers by participants across specific areas of use (hours in a typical week)

Ongoing learning

In 2008, this group of 70 participants reported that their skills had increased in terms of both range and level over the previous twelve months. These data suggest that the participant teachers had continued to be on a learning curve throughout 2008 building on earlier learnings reported in 2005.

Figure 8.3 highlights that their level of skill improved to a greater extent than their range of skills in 2008. It is likely that by 2008 teachers had largely determined what they wanted to use their laptops for and were becoming more proficient in those chosen usages rather than broadening their skill base. That is, they appear to have been developing deeper rather than wider skills.

Figure 8.3: Reported extent of improvement in both range and level of skill for 2005 and 2008

The 2005 and 2008 survey asked participants the extent to which their confidence in using their laptops had increased during the previous six months (2005) or twelve months (2008). In both surveys, participants reported increases in confidence between 3 and 4 (on a six point scale) for all areas except for participating in online professional learning. As with skill, the important implication of these findings is that, in 2008, these teachers were continuing to build on and develop their earlier confidence gains reported in 2005.

Figure 8.4: Extent to which participant confidence increased over the previous year

Impact of the laptops

The third area, for which similar snapshots in 2005 and 2008 can be depicted, is the level of reported impact of the laptops on different areas of their professional lives. Figure 8.5 displays the reported levels of impact at each of these time points. At both times the greatest areas of reported impact were resource preparation, administrative work and professional work. Also of interest is that, at both time points, teachers reported only a moderate impact on academic outcomes although there was increased pedagogical use. This is likely to be due to a common definition of academic outcomes as being related to results measured by standardised tests, such as used for numeracy and literacy, rather than the broader learning outcomes generally associated with ICT usage.

Figure 8.5: Level of reported impact on various areas of professional lives of participants