What's that you say about technology use?

So the research in question was mentioned in on the BBC and then other websites such as Scoop that picked up the story. With all of these sorts of things the negative is often offered first and so was the case here. 
The article talks about the lack of improvement in Literacy and Maths results but fails to report on other possibe influences. How was the data collected? Did they supply schools with 1:1 devices and then compare the achievement results before and after with the same students? I find it interesting that they have in fact looked at the results over a number of years and attributed the decline in results in Reading to the influence of technology. Could this not be a lack of professional development in these areas or perhaps the widening gap between the haves and have nots in these countries. I know that the widening gap has certainly been proven in New Zealand and Australia. Just take a look at people's thoughts about inequality in New Zealand today. You can find facts and figures on this blog link. Very interesting reading indeed.

Were the teacher's properly provided with professional development on how to integrate their devices?
This article in The Sunday Star Times presents a counter view of why the impact of technology and integration if not implemented well can have adverse effects. 

Unfortunately as a teacher using it I often reflect daily on things that have an have not worked with my students. As with absolutely everything in teaching it is very much trial and error. There is no tried and true method to fit each child. So reflection is very much part of being a teacher that uses 1:1 devices.

At the bottom of the BBC article there is a piece where a principal, John Morris, says that we are not spending too much on technology. I agree. I think that what we do in primary education flows through to the workforce. If we can be the start of something and equip our students with new and exciting ways of integrating technology then they will take what they learn and adapt it.

Of course technology should not take the place of skills based learning. Teaching Reading strategies need to be taught using discussion and rich texts. Even more important is using hard copy books along with digital copies. The Sunday Star Times article talks about the difficulty of retaining information and understanding texts that are in digital form and from my own personal experience and discussion with my students, I believe this to be true. There needs to be a merging of digital and traditional.

I look forward to more research on this topic.