Boon, R., et al. (2006). The Impact of Cognitive Organizers and Technology-Based Practices on Student Success in Secondary Social Studies Classrooms. Journal of Special Education Technology, 21 (1), 5-10. Retrieved from ProQuest Database on April 26, 2007.

Summary
The authors conducted a study to look at the impact of using cognitive organizers (Inspiration 6) in an inclusive high-school social studies class. The two classes involved in the study included students in both general and special education. The rationale behind doing the study came from problems with traditional textbooks--the incorrect assumption of background knowledge, lack of clarity about events and relationships, and overload of information. The researchers chose to use Inspiration because of previous research that showed its effectiveness for students with learning disabilities as well as those without. The purpose of the study was to see whether technologically-enhanced organizers (Inspiration) could increase learning in a content-area class. The study used two classes--one that followed traditional textbook materials to cover the unit, while in the other, the teacher utilized Inspiration software during lectures and had students use it to outline and map the unit afterwards. Both students and the teachers involved had a small amount of training in how to use Inspiration before the study took place. A pre- and post-test was used to determine how well the material had been learned in both groups. The results showed that students using the cognitive organizers performed significantly better than those using the traditional textbook--both students with and without learning disabilities. The authors did recommend that further research with a larger sample be done before generalizing the results, they seemed confident that this software would have a positive effect in other classes as well.

Response
I chose this article because I am presenting on Inspiration in class in a few weeks, and I was curious about what research has found in terms of its effectiveness. This study made it sound promising, and did describe a use of Inspiration that I wouldn't have thought of--using an LCD projector to map out concepts during a lecture and having students take notes from that. When I first read that, I thought, yeah, but is that really using technology in a new way? Isn't it just like an overhead? But then I saw that they had the students get on the program and turn their map into an outline, which is one of the features that I really like about Inspiration. I'm not surprised that students who went through this process recalled the information more readily on a test than those who did traditional textbook work. My only question would be whether or not this same trend would continue once kids used the technology more than once--or was some of the positive outcome based on the novelty of using something new? The article referred to this briefly at the end, but didn't address it directly. But I suppose that if it's just used as a once-in-a-while resource (so students don't lose interest), it could be a great way to motivate students and help some of them organize information that would otherwise be overwhelming.