Access-Use-Effectiveness Framework

Design Method · All design methods
Evidence · no claims cited

Description

Davies and West (2014) argue that technology-integration efforts should be evaluated as progressive stages rather than as a single access/no-access binary. Their three stages: (1) access — do teachers and students have working, adequate technology available; (2) use — do they actually use it for instructional purposes, as opposed to administrative tasks or passive consumption; and (3) effectiveness — is the technology used in pedagogically sound, student-centered ways that measurably facilitate learning.

The framework was developed as a corrective to access-only indicators (such as the earlier LoTi Framework) that treat widespread device availability, or even pervasive use, as itself sufficient evidence of quality integration. Davies and West's review of national survey data shows most schools plateau at stage 1 or 2: 97% of teachers report daily computer access, yet 29% of those with daily access rarely or never use it instructionally, and even when technology is used, it more often serves record-keeping or information-gathering than pedagogically-driven redesign of instruction. This is the crux of the framework's diagnostic value: a school reporting high device saturation and high classroom use can still be evaluated as failing at stage 3 if the use amounts to digitized worksheets rather than a pedagogical change technology specifically enables.

The framework operates at the institutional or programmatic level — evaluating a school's or district's overall technology-integration effort — which distinguishes it from Technology Integration Levels (SAMR / RAT / PIC-RAT), which judge the effect of a single lesson's or task's specific technology choice, and from TPACK, which assesses an individual teacher's knowledge rather than an institution's implementation.

Implications

Context

Requirements

• Data collection at all three stages — device/access counts alone are insufficient; usage logs or observation are needed to distinguish use from non-use, and pedagogical review is needed to distinguish effective from merely administrative use

Constraints

• Access is a necessary but nowhere near sufficient condition for effective integration — treating 1:1 device rollout as the endpoint of a technology-integration initiative, rather than its starting condition, is the framework's central warning
• Moving from stage 2 to stage 3 (use to effectiveness) typically requires professional development in pedagogy, not additional technology — throwing more devices or software at a use-without-effectiveness problem does not resolve it

Target Learners

• Not learner-facing directly — an evaluative framework for school/district technology leaders and instructional designers assessing an institution's technology-integration program, in the same category as Performance Technology

Target Learning Objectives

• Not a learning objective — an institutional diagnostic for whether a technology investment is translating into pedagogically meaningful classroom practice

Claims

Related Principles

• Technology Integration Levels (SAMR / RAT / PIC-RAT) — judges a single lesson or tool choice's effect, complementary to this framework's institutional/programmatic scope
• TPACK — assesses an individual teacher's integrated knowledge, distinct from this framework's institutional-level access/use/effectiveness diagnosis

Examples

• A district reporting 97% daily device access, where survey data still show large shares of teachers rarely using the devices instructionally — stalled at stage 1–2
• A classroom using tablets daily only for digitized worksheets and drill exercises — stage 2 (use) without stage 3 (pedagogically transformative effectiveness)

Key Sources

• Davies, R. S., & West, R. E. (2014). Technology integration in schools. In Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology (4th ed., pp. 841–853). Springer. Prepublication version in R. West (Ed.), Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology. EdTech Books. https://edtechbooks.org/lidtfoundations/technology_integration

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	method
id	access-use-effectiveness-framework
title	Access-Use-Effectiveness Framework
description	A three-stage framework for evaluating school or district technology integration — having devices (access) does not imply using them for instruction (use), and using them does not imply doing so in pedagogically sound, student-centered ways (effectiveness).
status	review
generated	by claude/unspecified on 2026-08-29
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content

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