Overview of Findings

Past studies of the Buddy System Project have shown that Buddy graduates are sophisticated computer users. They've mastered basic computer skills, and not only know their way around computers but are also used to doing much of their schoolwork, and homework, on them. More advanced Buddy students can handle complex applications, programming, trouble-shooting, and repairs. Their multimedia and telecommunications skills rival those of college students or business executives. For the last few years of their elementary careers, these Buddy students have used technology as a tool to solve problems, and indeed may see tackling a hard assignment much like solving a challenging problem.

In this study of three veteran Buddy sites, we asked former Buddy students and parents, along with secondary school teachers, what happens to these advanced skills in middle and high schools. We asked how computer-savvy students are using their skills, and how the secondary schools themselves are changing in response to students with an impressive array of technology skills. Although this study sampled a relatively small number of Buddy graduates and secondary teachers, the results are consistent across sites and with what we have heard, repeatedly, in our previous studies of the Buddy System Project, and we feel confident in presenting the following general conclusions:

Parents believe that invaluable Buddy skills outlast middle and high school.

Parents say that the ease with technology, the confidence, the new friends, new community contacts, and the comfort with presentations are all lifelong skills. Our data included stories of a farm family whose agricultural fortunes changed dramatically because of the skills both parent and student learned through Buddy, and of a child with a communicative disorder whose Buddy skills not only kept him in good stead through secondary school but also gave him the confidence to study computer science in college.

 

Secondary business and computer teachers say Buddy students far outshine their non-Buddy peers.

The basic computer skills Buddy students bring to secondary schools serve them well: those with excellent keyboarding skills place out of basic classes, type papers with ease, and impress business and computer teachers with their expertise. Several business or computer teachers enlist Buddy students to help solve technical problems and encourage them to explore, and sometimes explain, new technologies.

Other subject-matter teachers are generally less aware of the skills Buddy graduates possess, in large part because they don't see students using them.

Although one history teacher noted that Buddy students have superior research skills, most secondary subject-matter teachers do not have the opportunity to see these students using such skills. The computer and business teachers and media directors, rather than the English, history, math, or science teachers, generally know more about Buddy students' skills. They see more evidence of skills that distinguish Buddy students from their peers, and they see more ways these skills can be used in secondary schools.

Limited access is a significant barrier to technology use in secondary schools.

Complex schedules limit students' and teachers' access to technology, which is most often available in computer labs that are fully booked with computer classes. Although the schools we surveyed are increasing their use of technology and expanding offerings, "computers" is still typically a class and computer labs are the primary locus of technology use.

 

Subject-matter teachers not only lack access: they also lack the training and support necessary to begin using technology as a tool and integrating it into their curriculum.

Some subject-matter teachers are aware of - and excited about - the software available for their particular disciplines and the computer applications that might be very useful in their classrooms. They generally do not, however, have the specialized training and experience they need to use these tools, and consequently have not established requirements and expectations for students to use them.

Departmentalized curriculum and instruction, accountability, and other challenges both teachers and students face in secondary schools also make it difficult to use technology the way elementary Buddy schools do.

Secondary teachers say that the accountability issues they face differ from those in elementary schools; they must focus on competencies in specific subjects and prepare students for statewide testing. They also have shorter periods and see far more students daily than elementary teachers. These realities can preclude the long-term, interdisciplinary projects Buddy encourages. Students also focus on individual courses, grading periods, and requirements; they think about typing papers rather than doing projects. Having just made probably the biggest jump they make in the course of their schooling, students are also preoccupied with things other than utilizing the skills they arrive with.

Both parents and teachers who believe in Buddy's staying power call for changes that would enable students to use their expert skills beyond elementary school.

Although parents believe that certain skills gained in Buddy endure through secondary schooling and beyond, many worry that their children are losing valuable computer, research, and study skills. They do not think that secondary schools offer the same kinds of technology opportunities that Buddy students had in elementary school. Many were eager and eloquent in their suggestions for bridging the gap, which are included with our own below. Secondary teachers, who know that there is generally a lack of coordination between elementary and secondary schools, would also like to find ways to use, and enable students to use, more technology.

 

Additional Conclusions...

• Parents believe that Buddy teaches problem-solving and in-depth research skills, and encourages students to use technology as a tool and look beyond school to the community, research libraries, or the vast resources available through telecommunica-tions to enhance their learning experiences. Parents reported less of this kind of instruction in secondary schools than in elementary schools. Where elementary schools have most successfully trained Buddy students in research and problem-solving skills, parents seem most concerned about what happens when children leave.

   

• Generally the technology skills beyond word processing get less use in middle and high schools than in elementary schools. Although former Buddy students type papers and conduct some Internet research, they do not routinely do homework on computers, conduct in-depth research, use databases and spreadsheets, solve problems with technology, or communicate with teachers&emdash;in essence do those things Buddy promotes. Because teachers lack experience, and often underestimate not only the skills but also the technology students have available at home, they have not established routines and requirements for student use of technology.

   

• Students generally have more technology available to them in elementary Buddy schools than they do in secondary schools, and they have fewer teachers who have the training and experience to use technology for instruction. One teacher compared asking Buddy students to use the technology available in the secondary school to asking soldiers who have been trained to drive M-1 tanks to drive jeeps.

   

• Scheduling and transportation requirements, along with other institutional realities of secondary schools, limit both students' and teachers' access to the technology that is available. Although labs are open before and after school, students and teachers may not be able to come early or stay late. During lunch, computer or other teachers may not be able to supervise.

   

• Although changes are occurring, technology also is clearly less integrated into the curriculum in middle and high schools than in Buddy elementary schools. Some subject-matter teachers gladly encourage students to use computer labs for the research and word processing involved in reports, but again access is problematic

   

• In our survey, the business or computer teachers not only saw more advanced technology skills, but also cited more significant changes in secondary schools that have come about as a result of Buddy - not only more technology, but also more training and staff development and more sharing with elementary schools.

   

• Gradually, secondary schools as well as elementary schools are adding more technology, and some sharing is taking place between elementary and secondary schools. Buddy has instigated some of that sharing, but could also speed that process along.

   

• All the teachers we spoke with or who filled out our surveys seem eager to learn more about technology and use it for instructional purposes; some use computers themselves, for personal productivity and for grade keeping and other managerial purposes. Many subject-area teachers, however, are limited not only by the lack of access and time but also by a lack of knowledge of technology resources and examples of curriculum integration.

   

• In time, any advantage in technology skills Buddy students have may disappear as others, with the addition of more technology in non-Buddy elementary schools, become proficient and former Buddy students get accustomed to using skills in labs rather than in classrooms.

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