Title Page

Highlights of the Evaluation Report 1995-2000

Table of Contents

Introduction 

Overview of the SURWEB Evaluation

Chapters:5

1| 2| 3| 4| 5

References

Additional References

Appendices:

A | B | C | D | E
F | G | H | I | J

Contacts:

SURWEB
Dr. F. Lynn Bills
Director
435-637-1173

Media, Analysis & Practice
Kathleen Tyner 
About the Author

Page 1

Appendix C

SURWEB - Using  Educators' Uses of Technology Resources

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I.  Introduction

SURWEB is a project of the Southeastern Utah Education Service Center in Price, Utah.  It was initiated with major funding from the Technology Innovation Challenge Grant program of the Office of Technology, U.S. Department of Education.  Extensive formative evaluation was used to guide the project’s development since its inception in 1995.   These evaluation activities provide a context and a baseline for comparison about the ways that students use a range of educational technologies at home and in the classroom. 

In spring 2000, forty teachers identified as SURWEB users were asked to complete and questionnaire and also to administer a questionnaire to their students in order to gather evidence of the effectiveness of SURWEB as a tool for educational improvement. SURWEB-Using Educators’ Uses of Technology Resources reports the results of the questionnaire. 

The survey instrument was designed to collect information about teacher access to technology; barriers to technology use for learning; teacher skill with various technologies; purposes for using technologies; classroom pedagogies as they relate to technologies; and teacher uses of SURWEB. Teachers were also asked to speculate about their students’ uses of various technologies.

The current study was designed as a follow-up to two previous studies of Utah teachers and technology use conducted in 1995 and 1997 by WestEd (Tyner & Chow, 1995; Aronson & Chow, 1997).  Comparison of the results of the 2000 study can be found in Appendix B of the SURWEB 2000 summative report (Tyner, 2000).

Although the samples in 1995 and 1997 were robust and representative, results in 2000 are statistically unreliable due to the targeted sample and subsequent small response rate.  For that reason, results cannot be generalized to a larger population of technology-using teachers.  Nonetheless, the study points to some possible effects of the SURWEB intervention and raises important question about the uses of technology for learning.  These questions inform subsequent hypothesis, research design and evaluation of technology teaching and learning strategies.