Sun, J., Schneider, R., (2003)
Wired vs Wireless: Is Wireless Worth It, Technology & Learning, May, 2003 - Volume 23(10)

This excellent article details a controlled experiment at the Katonah/Lewiston (New York) school district in upstate NY. Prompted by the need to acquire more classroom space, the school district set out to explore freeing up its 3 dedicated computer labs to make room for additional instructional classrooms. To free up the required space, meant "untethering" its computers from their hard-wired connections. These computers were outfitted for wireless internet access, throughout the school building. This in turn allowed the classroom teachers to conduct computer based lessons away from the "fixed" computer lab. Portable laptops could be loaded onto carts and brought around to (almost) any location in the building. An experimental was conducted to compare the quality of the "wired" teaching experiences vs the wireless lessons.

The experiment had mixed results. That is some teachers adapted their lessons and methods to exploit the newfound mobility of being connected to the internet wirelessly. Other teachers simply "relocated" their wired-based lessons to a different location (using wireless laptops). Little improvement in learning was demonstrated. It is not surprising. For those teachers using the wireless mobil computers, and had to spend extra time to roll in the computer cart, set up and later break-down and roll out the computer cart, the mobil equipment for each class actually detracted from instructional time.

Just like with the major affect resulting from subtle changes like introducing small handhelds into a learning group, so too introducing wireless (vs wired) tools can have a major affect - BUT, the new features of our tools, untethering them in this case, must be exploited if we want to demonstrate its benefits. Lessons must be developed that take advantage of the physical freedom provided by these learning tools.

The article, excellent in most respects, understates this point. Elliot Soloway discovered that there is a threshold of device "size," below which the experiences of using small portable handheld computers in the class may be vastly different than experiences using larger devices. In a similar way, the "subtle" liberation (untethering) of internet connected and inter-connected computers for every student in a classroom opens tremendous possibilities. Dr. Soloway's Hi-Ce program is studying this very thing.

In the world of Computer Aided Instruction (CAI, CBI, CMI,.......) a computer response time to evaluate a student's answer/guess to a question is crucial to that child's experience in that learning session. Response times of .5 seconds or less may be acceptable to maintain students' interest in the CAI lessons and motivate them to continue, while a response time of 1 second or more will probably produce a useless (perhaps negative) learning experience. Why is this relevant? It is another example of a subtle threshold above and below which, different student behaviors can be observed.

As Senge, et al, points out in STL, we should tailor our lessons to each student's individual intelligences. Basically we get "the most bang for our buck" when we do. The same can be said about out "teaching tools" as well as our "learning students." With technology, we should tailor our lessons to the teaching tools available to us. We should exploit what is unique in our tools and creatively apply them to our subject and grade context.

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review by Jerry Garfunkel