Home PublicationsJRTEPast IssuesVolume 29 Number 4

Edited by Diane McGrath, Kansas State University

formerly Journal of Research on Computing in Education

Volume 29 Number 4 -- Summer 1997

Table of Contents

Progressive Comparison of the Effects of Computer-Assisted Instruction on the Academic Achievement of Secondary Students

Edwin Christmann, John Badgett, and Robert Lucking.............................325

Learning Styles in a Technology-Rich Environment

Vicki L. Cohen......................................................................................338

What Do Freehand and Computer-Facilitated Drawings Tell Teachers About the Children Who Drew Them?

Judith B. Harris......................................................................................351

Effects of Gender on Perceptions and Preferences of Telematic Learning Environments

Karin Proost, Jan Elen, and Joost Lowyck..............................................370

Teaching Teleapprenticeships: An Innovative Model for Technology Integration in Teacher Education

Catherine O. Thurston, Evangeline D. Secaras, and James A. Levin..........385

Peer Collaboration in a Hypermedia Learning Environment

Sandra V. Turner and Vito M. Dipinto....................................................392

A Qualitative Evaluation of a Statewide Networking Infrastructure in Education Project

Carol Scott Whelan, Carl Frantz, Juanita Guerin, and Sylvia Bienvenu........403

A Comparison of Computer-Administered and Written Tests

David Zandvliet and Pierce Farragher....................................................423

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Abstracts

Progressive Comparison of the Effects of Computer-Assisted Instruction on the Academic Achievement of Secondary Students

Edwin Christmann and John Badgett

Slippery Rock University

Robert Lucking

Old Dominion University

Abstract

This study employed a meta-analytic technique to compare the academic achievement during a 12-year period of secondary students across a broad latitude of academic areas who were instructed through traditional methodology, traditional methodology supplemented with computer-assisted instruction (CAI), or CAI alone. Moreover, the study compared more recent with earlier research findings. An overall mean effect size of 0.187 was calculated, indicating that, on the average, students receiving traditional instruction supplemented with CAI attained higher academic achievement than did 57.2% of those receiving only traditional instruction. However, a -0.762 correlation between effect size and years indicates that the effect of CAI on academic achievement has declined during this period.

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Vicki L. Cohen

Fairleigh Dickinson University

Abstract

This study investigated whether learning style would change after a year of schooling in a technology-rich educational environment dedicated to a constructivist approach to learning. The subjects were 15 gifted freshmen who had been accepted into a "magnet" high school. The subjects were given Dunn and Dunn’s Learning Style Inventory and a questionnaire before and after the school year. This study could not conclude that learning styles change after one year; however, there are suggestions that learning styles are affected by factors within the environment, such as exposure to technology. Results suggest that a technology-rich environment affects the written and unwritten curriculum within a classroom, especially impacting the social context that exists. The use of computers affected the way the content was explored and presented. A technology-rich environment also seemed to affect the interaction that occurred between students and students, students and teachers, and teachers and teachers. A much more casual social context emerged, which was supportive of exploration and discourse. After one year, some students displayed low preference for learning in this environment; the researcher concluded that instruction must encourage many different forms of learning styles.

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What Do Freehand and Computer-Facilitated Drawings Tell Teachers About the Children Who Drew Them?

Judith B. Harris

University of Texas at Austin

Abstract

A qualitative analysis of data was used to determine the scope and interjudge agreement of personality information communicated to computer-using classroom teachers through three types of children’s drawings (freehand, graphics tablet, and Logo). Each of 10 Logo-literate 9- or 10-year-old students was asked to draw pictures in the three different media. Each student, a parent, and the student’s current classroom teacher were interviewed to develop 10 vignette-style personality profiles. The information contained therein was then compared to what 13 Logo-using classroom teachers intuited about the children’s genders, ages, learning styles, and behavior patterns by looking at the drawings with no prior knowledge of the artists. Viewing teachers were not able to consistently detect artist gender or age by looking at pictures drawn with any of the three media, but 69% of the other statements made by the teachers agreed with information contained in the personality profiles.

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Effects of Gender on Perceptions of and Preferences for TelematicLearning Environments

Karin Proost, Jan Elen, and Joost Lowyck

Catholic University of Leuven

Abstract

This study investigated gender differences in perceptions of and preferences for telematic learning environments (TLEs). We distributed a questionnaire among 1,368 traditional and open and distance learning (ODL) university students. Although we found significant gender differences, none of the variables included in the research could be regarded as important for explaining differences in students’ perceptions and preferences with respect to TLEs. Potential reasons for these results are discussed.

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Catherine O. Thurston, Evangeline D. Secaras, and James A. Levin

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Abstract

Teachers need to be trained to skillfully integrate technology into their instruction. Teaching Teleapprenticeships (TTa), an innovative program in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is in its fourth year of integrating technology into the preservice experience of undergraduate education majors. One group targeted by the TTa researchers has been the year-long project (YLP), which involves elementary education majors. Data were collected on the impact of this program on the YLP through surveys, interviews, video, digital images, and a number of nontraditional measures. Results show that technology has become more than an add on and more than just part of the curriculum they are studying; it is now an integral part of the students’ personal and professional lives.

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Sandra V. Turner and Vito M. Dipinto

National-Louis University

Abstract

This article describes peer collaboration in a hypermedia learning environment and documents the factors that facilitate the development of a collaborative culture among middle school students. Findings from a four-year research study involving middle school students as hypermedia designers are reported. The key research questions investigate how collaboration is encouraged, facilitated, and taught; the benefits of peer collaboration; peer collaboration’s impact on student learning; and the negative aspects of collaboration. We address these three questions, focusing on the factors that help establish and support a collaborative culture in a technology-intensive classroom.

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Carol Scott Whelan, Carl Frantz, Juanita Guerin, and Sylvia Bienvenu

University of Southwestern Louisiana

Abstract

This article outlines the findings of a qualitative and primarily formative evaluation of one state’s Networking Infrastructures for Education pilot program to help develop a statewide educational technology network. This evaluation primarily focused on efforts in five diverse school districts to incorporate Internet applications in the classroom at pilot elementary, middle, and high schools in each district. Although considerable progress was made helping school systems, schools, and teachers develop the capability to use the Internet in the classroom, much was learned that should facilitate similar efforts in other school districts. Thus, this article describes this K-12 project designed to inform state networking and outlines lessons learned from features and approaches in the sites that participants and evaluators viewed as particularly effective or as needing improvement.

Download the full article (PDF, 70 KB, PDF Instructions)

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David Zandvliet

Malaspina University-College

Pierce Farragher

University of Victoria

Abstract

A computer testing program designed by the authors using HyperCard was tested for equivalence with written formats of a test. The study group in this research consisted of 50 adult basic education students enrolled in an introductory computer course at a small community college. Each student completed 3 written and 3 computer-administered tests. Additional information about these tests was collected through the use of student pre- and posttreatment surveys and by an innovative HyperCard script that tracked each student’s path through the tests. The results of the comparative analysis of tests scores indicated that there were no significant differences between computer-based and written test scores. Additionally, survey responses indicated a student preference for the computer-based test over the written format and that this preference increased after exposure to the different test formats. Finally, an analysis of student test-path data recorded by the computer indicated that the computerized tests took, on average, 2 min longer for students to complete. The computer test-path data and survey responses also gave an indication of which test-design features were the most useful for students.

A PDF file of each full article is available. Contact: jrte@iste.org. Please specifiy Volume and Issue number.

Copyright © 1997, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). All rights reserved.