Impediments to Evaluating the Impact of Technology

Citing the research of Glennan and Melmed (1996), Kosakowski (1998) describes three impediments to evaluating the impact of educational technology on student achievement:

• "Most available tests do not reliably measure the outcomes being sought. The measures that are reported are usually from traditional multiple-choice tests. New measures need to be developed which would assess the higher-level skills and other effects often affected by technology."

• "Assessments of the impact of technology are really assessments of the instructional processes enabled by technology, and the outcomes are highly dependent on the quality of the implementation of the entire instructional process. Crucial elements include instructional design, content, and teaching strategies associated with both the software and the classroom environment."

• "The very dynamic nature of technology makes meaningful evaluation difficult. By the time long-term studies are completed, the technology being evaluated is often outdated."

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