K/L and Solow Growth Model in Education

Merely adding more computers to a classroom does not increase student achievement. Training teachers how to use new technology does not increase student achievement. In order for student achievement to improve teachers must change the way they teach so that students use the computers in the way they are intended. The paper is here.

This is what happened at Muscatine High School. More and more technology was added to the classroom but teachers, including me, continued to teach in old ways. We have Smartboards, audience response systems, and projection lamps to use, but most teachers use books and worksheets. We continue to use technology in old ways. That is, email, PowerPoint, word processing. We do have a computer lab that that has content that is used for students who are behind in credits. Another conclusion of The Use and Misuse of Computers in Education was that just having a computer lab did not lead to student proficiency.

Using technology isn't just using Web 2.0 tools such as blogs and Wikis. Using technology is intelligent search for information and analysis, synthesis, and interpretation of the information applied to real-world situations. Just to produce a video and upload to YouTube isn't using technology in my opinion. Producing a video and upload to YouTube would be technology if my video was a contribution to the existing knowledge base. That's what Solow meant when he used A in his equation: A represented "total factor productivity" (Y= AF(K, N, eL). When total factor productivity increases, A increases, so how capital and labor interact combines to a higher output.

Using technology improves the current production with less inputs. One example in my life that has improved my efficient is PowerTeacher, a software program for teachers. We take attendance and use it as a grade book. If this is an acceptable example, then anything that allows students to get more done faster would be a technological advance. I have now digressed.