Evaluating the Impact of 1:1 Laptops on High School Science Students and Teachers

This thesis is the culmination of a 6-year-long longitudinal study into the impact of 1:1 laptops on the experiences and achievements of high school science teachers and students. Set in the context of 16 Sydney high schools during the Australian Digital Education Revolution, this thesis explores the practices of teachers and students with 1:1 laptops in the sciences, the impact of the 1:1 laptops on student attainment in standardised external examinations, and ultimately investigates the reasons behind the findings. As a thesis-by-publication, this thesis consists of two introductory chapters, five journal papers (four of which have been published in peer-reviewed journals, with the fifth under review) making up five chapters, an overall discussion and a self-reflection. Ultimately, this thesis provides a detailed, mixed methods commentary of the experiences of schools, teachers and students over the five years of the much maligned Digital Education Revolution, something that is missing in the national public domain. Within the larger sphere of educational technology research globally, this thesis contributes to filling in some of the gaps existing in the extant literature, particularly in terms of quantitative analysis and statistically significant findings. Future research would benefit from the methodologies, visual representations and overall findings contained within this thesis. In fact, several recent eminent literature reviews and meta-analyses include some of the papers that make up this thesis