How Does Technology Affect Access in Postsecondary Education?

The National Postsecondary Education Cooperative Working Group on Access-Technology reports on a study of the relationship between technology and access to postsecondary education, and identifies four basic themes:

• technology and access to postsecondary education in general;
• access to technology-based learning;
• preparation for using technology; and
• the effectiveness of technology in learning.

Key observations:

• In spite of the considerable number of computers available to teachers in elementary and secondary schools, some analysts assert that since teachers are not trained to use technology or given opportunities to develop creative uses for technology, computers are merely used as glorified typewriters. Even teachers who became serious users of computers did not change their classroom practices (Cuban 2001).
• nternet-based distance education appears to be evolving its own pedagogy with the introduction of more audio and video and broadband access. Online courses have characteristics that are unique to the technology, which allows the exploration of new and richer pedagogical models. Experimental studies comparing distance education courses with campus-based courses are based upon the premise that campus-based courses are the “gold standard,” which is open to question. Therefore, it may be advisable to abandon these studies, not only because of their inherent methodological problems, but because more productive research can be conducted by addressing how students learn and focusing on outcomes assessment.

[1] National Postsecondary Education Cooperative, Working Group on Access-Technology, "How Does Technology Affect Access in Postsecondary Education? What Do We Really Know?" September 2004 (Webpublished : November 13, 2004), http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2004/2004831.pdf ( 224 KB)