Attending this year's annual State Education Technology Directors Association (SETDA) Education Forum was like sitting through a timeline of technology integration in schools during the last few years: Participants heard about what's now the norm (interactive whiteboards, or IWBs), what's hot on everyone's list (digital textbooks), and what's on the horizon (national high school reform).

Educators, administrators, and ed-tech vendors from around the country attended the forum, titled "Defining the Future of Learning Today." Of course, before you can define the future, you must remember where you've come from.

In his opening keynote, Robert Marzano, CEO of Marzano Research Laboratory, presented his organization's newest research report, titled "Evaluation Study of the Effects of Promethean ActivClassroom on Student Achievement," which details how interactive whiteboards can affect student learning.

"I was nervous to do this report," Marzano said, "because you always hope for positive results, but you never know what to expect. I'm happy to show you these results, because they clearly show that technology … makes a positive impact on learning."

During the 2008-09 school year, 79 teachers from 50 schools participated in independent studies to determine how using Promethean's ActivClassroom affects student achievement in their classroom.

According to the report, when interactive whiteboards were incorporated into the classroom, there was a percentile gain of 17 overall, meaning students at the 50th percentile would move to the 67th percentile if they had been taught with the help of an IWB.

"We saw that the more the tech was used in the classroom, meaning the more time spent using it, the higher the percentile increase. However, sometimes, during the most prolific uses of the tech, the percentile decreased. This is due to teachers not appropriately using the technology," Marzano said.

He went on to explain that there is a "sweet spot" in using IWBs: If an experienced teacher who's been using technology for two or more years uses the board appropriately for 75 percent of the class time, and has enough training to be confident in his or her use of the technology, student achievement gains were highest.

Whether the IWB was being used correctly also was studied through varying factors associated with IWB use, such as student skill in IWBs, teacher skill, and use of IWB reinforcers (functions such as applause, drag and drop, hidden content, voting, and so on).

"You have to make sure it's not all bells and whistles," said Marzano. "The teachers [who] didn't see improvement with IWBs were usually those who didn't make sure the content, and not the add-ons, came first. Content, and knowing what you're trying to teach, is key."

The study also revealed what teachers need to do to use their IWB correctly and efficiently with regard to presenting content. For example, content should be: