ERIC Number: EJ925728
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1366-4530
EISSN: N/A
Laptops for Teachers: Practices and Possibilities
Cowie, Bronwen; Jones, Alister; Harlow, Ann
Teacher Development, v15 n2 p241-255 2011
The Laptops for Teachers scheme in New Zealand provides teachers whose schools opt into the scheme access to a laptop for their exclusive use. This paper reports on the findings of the three-year evaluation of the impact of the laptops on secondary teachers' work. The findings indicate that school leadership has been pivotal to the provision of the technological infrastructure and organisational support needed for teacher use of the laptops. Departmental leadership has been crucial in supporting teacher use of laptops for teaching and learning. Teachers described gains in expertise, indicating that they used the laptop for a range of purposes to support their teaching. These included lesson planning and preparation, and reporting. Where teachers had easy access to a laptop-plus-data projector they found that students responded to material that included images and up-to-date real-world examples. Colleagues were identified as the main source of professional development for the use of the laptop for teaching purposes. The findings of the study suggest schools are advised to consider how to support teachers to work collaboratively to share expertise as a way of supporting and extending teacher use of laptops. (Contains 3 notes.)
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Instructional Leadership, Teacher Attitudes, Educational Practices, Laptop Computers, Access to Computers, Program Effectiveness, Program Evaluation, Technology Uses in Education, Questionnaires, Secondary School Teachers, Experienced Teachers, Use Studies, Performance Factors
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New Zealand
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A