Students and Technology: Reading/Writing Scores Improve on Tablets and Computers

A small Swedish study found that kids read and write better on computers and tablets. The study tested seven-year-old students on their reading comprehension and writing abilities, both on the computer or tablet and with paper and pen. Not surprisingly, the students using technology did significantly better than those without modern technological aides.

"Those using pens could write a few sentences while those on computers wrote long stories up to 2,300 words," Ake Grönlund, the professor who ran the study, said. This is not surprising, as these technologies are often faster than writing by hand. A 1998 study on typing and transcription speeds found that the average was 33 words per minute for transcription and 19 words for composition. The average speed of a "moderate" typist was 35 words per minute (Kayak).
That average must have risen by today's standards when many homes have a computer and typing is taught in high schools across the country. Writing by hand takes more time-- instead of punching a key, writing with a pen requires strokes and movement. It is much easier to punch the key for a letter 'k' than it is to hand-write the same letter. Gronlund's study showed that young children didn't have to focus on writing strokes and had a clearer mind when writing.



While new methods for teaching reading and writing is needed in schools, I have to wonder about whether the focus on technology would then increase the digital divide in schools. Test scores are already higher in schools that have more technology. Even in the schools where I have guest taught this is a noticeable difference. Schools with higher poverty rates in the neighborhood usually mean less access to technology and less familiarity with the technologies available to them in school (if there are).

I'm all for raising test scores of children in reading and writing, but I just wonder about how much further the divide will grow when we are reliant on technologies that not all students have access to. Also, teaching how to use technologies and how to type efficiently needs to be taught before high school if writing and reading tests will be on computers or tablets.

This Swedish study comes on the brink of a massive US overhaul of the testing system. Multiple choice scantron tests will be replaced by computerized tests that use fewer multiple choice questions and more real-world scenarios. According to the New York Times, the tests, which will be available starting in the 2014-2015 school year in 44 different states, "will measure higher-order skills ignored by the multiple-choice exams used in nearly every state, including students’ ability to read complex texts, synthesize information and do research projects." These overhauls are funded by a federal grant program, Race to the Top, which has been under some public scrutiny by educators. It seems, though, that computerized testing, for better or worse, is the future in our school systems.

What do you think? Do kids really read better with technology and are schools ready for this transition? Will the digital divide in test scores get wider as computer-based tests become our model?

1. Karat CM, Halverson C, Horn D, Karat J (1999). "Patterns of entry and correction in large vocabulary continuous speech recognition systems". Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '99). New York, NY, USA: ACM. pp. 568-575. doi:10.1145/302979.303160. ISBN 0-201-48559-1. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/302979.303160.
2. U.S. Asks Educators to Reinvent Student Tests, and How They Are Given
3. Kids read and write better on iPads: Swedish study