is broad consensus among educators, communication scholars, sociologists, and economists that the development and diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICT) are having a profound effect on modern life. This is due to the affordances of new digital media, which bridge the interactive features of speech and the archival characteristics of writing; allow many-to-many communication among people without regard to time and space, including mass collaborative editing of texts; facilitate the creation of a global hyper-indexed multimodal information structure; and enable content production and distribution in both writing and multimedia on a scale previously unimaginable (Jewitt, 2008; Warschauer, 1999). For all these reasons, computer-mediated communication can be considered a new mode of information (Poster, 1990), or a "fourth revolution in the means of production of knowledge" (Harnad, 1991, p. 39), following the three prior revolutions of language, writing, and print. The previous revolution, brought about through the development and diffusion of printing, took centuries to unfold, as its full impact depended on the industrial revolution that Gutenberg's printing press preceded by several centuries (Eisenstein, 1979). Today, though, the development and diffusion of computers and the Internet occur simultaneously with a new economic revolution, based on transition from an industrial to an informational economy (Castells, 1996). This helps explain both why new media have spread so fast and also why they are so crucial to enabling full social and economic participation. As Castells (1998) concludes, based on his exhaustive socioeconomic analysis of this postindustrial stage of capitalism, "information technology,

New Technology and Digital Worlds: Analyzing Evidence of Equity in Access, Use, and Outcomes

There are now a large number of initiatives designed to make laptops with wireless connectivity available to all students in schools. This paper synthesizes findings from research and evaluation studies that analyzed implementation and effects of one-to-one initiatives from a range of countries. Factors related to successful implementation reported in the research include extensive teacher professional development, access to technical support, and positive teacher attitudes toward student technology use. Outcome studies with rigorous designs are few, but those studies that did measure outcomes consistently reported positive effects on technology use, technology literacy, and writing skills.

/pdf/implementation-and-effects-of-one-to-one-computing-19fh5f941s.pdf

Implementation and Effects Of One-to-One Computing Initiatives: A Research Synthesis

This chapter suggests that a dual-level theory of new literacies is a useful approach to theory building in a world where the nature of literacy continuously changes. It begins by making a central point: Social contexts have always shaped both the function and form of literate practices and been shaped by them in return. The chapter discusses the social context of the current period and explain how this has produced new information and communication technologies, and the new literacies that the technologies demand. It explores several lowercase new literacies perspectives that are emerging. The chapter argues that a dual-level New Literacies theory is essential to take full advantage of this important and diverse work. It presents one lowercase theory of new literacies, the new literacies of online research and comprehension, to illustrate how a dual-level theory of new literacies can inform new literacies research that takes related but different theoretical perspectives.

New Literacies: A Dual-Level Theory of the Changing Nature of Literacy, Instruction, and Assessment:

This paper examines the educational impacts of the Berkshire Wireless Learning Initiative (BWLI), a pilot program that provided 1:1 technology access to all students and teachers across five public and private middle schools in western Massachusetts. Using a pre/post comparative study design, the current study explores a wide range of program impacts over the three years of the project’s implementation. Specifically, the current document provides an overview of the project background, implementation, research design and methodology, and a summary of the quantitative results. The study details how teaching and learning practices changed when students and teachers were provided with laptops, wireless learning environments, and additional technology resources. The results found that both the implementation and outcomes of the program were varied across the five 1:1 settings and over the three years of the student laptop implementation. Despite these differences, there was evidence that the types of educational access and opportunities afforded by 1:1 computing through the pilot program led to measurable changes in teacher practices, student achievement, student engagement, and students’ research skills.

/pdf/one-to-one-computing-a-summary-of-the-quantitative-results-wji3e5650c.pdf

One to One Computing: A Summary of the Quantitative Results from the Berkshire Wireless Learning Initiative

/pdf/digital-and-media-literacy-a-plan-of-action-1qnfa3nz1i.pdf

Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action

/pdf/the-impact-of-maine-s-one-to-one-laptop-program-on-middle-29opcsyf46.pdf

The Impact of Maine's One-to-One Laptop Program on Middle School Teachers and Students

/pdf/a-middle-school-one-to-one-laptop-program-the-maine-29guh7yo8b.pdf

A Middle School One-to-One Laptop Program: The Maine Experience

/pdf/the-maine-learning-technology-initiative-teacher-student-and-2yowz9n31l.pdf

The Maine Learning Technology Initiative: Teacher, Student, and School Perspectives, Mid-Year Evaluation Report

/pdf/the-relationships-between-school-poverty-and-student-2d7t35zzcf.pdf

The Relationships between School Poverty and Student Achievement in Maine.

/pdf/does-maine-s-middle-school-laptop-program-improve-learning-a-31711e3ra8.pdf

David L. Silvernail

Papers

The Impact of Maine's One-to-One Laptop Program on Middle School Teachers and Students

A Middle School One-to-One Laptop Program: The Maine Experience

The Maine Learning Technology Initiative: Teacher, Student, and School Perspectives, Mid-Year Evaluation Report

The Relationships between School Poverty and Student Achievement in Maine.

Does Maine's Middle School Laptop Program Improve Learning? A Review of Evidence to Date. Occasional Brief.