Identifying effective literacy instruction programs has been a focal point for governments, educators and parents over the last few decades (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2004Education, , 2006 Council of Ontario Directors of Education, 2011). Given the increasing use of computer technologies in the classroom and in the home, a variety of information communication technology (ICT) interventions for learning have been introduced. Meta-analyses comparing the impact of these programs on learning, however, have yielded inconsistent findings ). The present tertiary meta-analytic review reassesses outcomes presented in three previous meta-analyses, while taking into account instructional variables, specifically training and support, and implementation fidelity, which can significantly impact learning outcomes. When training and support were entered as a moderator variable the traditional small overall effectiveness of the ICTs (ES= 0.18) increased significantly (ES = .57). These findings indicate the importance of including implementation factors such as training and support, when considering the relative effectiveness of l ICT interventions.
This report describes a cluster randomized control trial (RCT) intervention study of the effectiveness of the ABRACADABRA (ABRA) Web-based literacy system using a classroom-level RCT intervention with 1,067 children in 74 kindergarten and Grade 1 or Grade 1/2 classrooms across Canada. The authors closely followed the CONSORT criteria for executing and reporting high-quality RCT studies. Well-trained teachers delivered the ABRA intervention to their regular classrooms for 20 hr per child over one full semester. At posttest, the ABRA intervention classroom showed significant advantages over controls in phonological blending ability, letter–sound knowledge and, marginally, for phoneme segmentation fluency. A secondary analysis exploring the effects of different levels of program implementation showed that with fidelity of implementation (80% of intervention teachers), advantages were evident at posttests in phonological blending, phoneme segmentation fluency, sight word reading, and letter–sound knowledge. It is concluded that ABRA is an effective resource for key skills associated with early reading. Implications for the role of both Web-based technologies and extended professional development for technology in aiding in the scale-up of evidence-based reading interventions are discussed.
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