Examined how children approached digital imaging technology to produce a visual image and the knowledge and experience student teachers need to develop children's literacy. Found that children developed a range of strategies to assist them with technical skills. Student teachers needed support in analyzing the nature of the children's learning and…

Examined writing development of 12 children in prekindergarten classes using computers in self-selected language experience activities. Found that 3-year-olds steadily improved in spelling and story writing, and improvement continued the next year. Children who were exposed to writing as 3-year-olds showed greater gains in spelling accuracy the…

Studied videotapes and interviews to examine students' use of learning strategies and encoding processes while engaged in a hypermedia concept lesson on propaganda techniques. Found that even among high-ability fifth graders, there was a wide variation in strategy use and encoding processes, not always leading to successful posttest performance.…

A two-year, follow-up teacher survey to a 1993 study was conducted in 1994-95 to learn how changes in hardware and software markets have changed computer use in early childhood classrooms. Assessed what teachers viewed as important software characteristics, software market perceptions, and future software market directions. Found shifts in kinds…

An experimental group of fourth and fifth graders received training in Logo computer programming. This group and a control group that did not receive training completed a posttest that involved drawing of designs. No differences were found in posttest design production between the groups. (LB)

Investigated second graders' ability and motivation to create and manipulate simulations using KidSim software. Found that using KidSim was a motivating experience and the students were able to develop complex simulations. The dominant motivational factors were the freedom to create original characters and the rules to direct them. Other…

Examines children's understanding of the variation of sunlight and heat of the sun as experienced on the earth related to the positions of the earth and the sun in space, while using a pictorial computer simulation of the phenomenon. Suggests that, through the exploration of the program, children seemed to follow a correctly directed conceptual…

Examined the extent to which kindergartners used computer speech during narrative writing and the relationship between this use and the linguistic properties of their written products. Found that length of text, grammatical cohesion, and lexical density were strongly associated with use of computer-generated spoken feedback. Narrative types and…

Used children's drawings and interviews to examine the impact of age, gender, and school setting on elementary children's thinking about computers. Found that younger children drew computers much larger than themselves and set computers in home or school settings, whereas older children drew computers in proportion to themselves and placed…

Examined changing beliefs, practices, and reflections of two elementary teachers who engaged students in project-based learning in a technology-rich environment. Found core beliefs related to knowledge construction: (1) strategic knowledge of how to find and organize information is important; (2) construction of projects leads to constructing and…

Educational microworlds are defined and their potential for developing learners' thought processes is hypothesized to be more realizable than has previously been thought. A structured programing methodology that uses a point-and-click technique and that requires little syntactic sophistication on the part of the participant is presented. (LB)

Compared the effects of LOGO Computer-Aided Instruction (CAI), and a standard curriculum without computer exposure among grade three Zimbabwean children. No significant differences were found between the groups exposed to LOGO and to CAI, but both achieved significantly greater gains that the groups without computer exposure. Results suggest that…

Explored relationships among gender, play style, and skilled performance in LOGO computer-based tasks of four-year-old children. Found no significant gender differences in play styles and LOGO skills. Predictors of LOGO competence were differentiated by gender. Suggests that boys' and girls' routes to competence differ, though both genders display…

A total of 475 kindergarten through fifth-grade students, 231 parents, and 34 teachers at a Texas elementary school were surveyed about their attitudes toward computers in the classroom in 1991 and again 1 year later. Attitudes toward computers among the student population were very positive, and levels of computer anxiety declined significantly…

Surveyed 112 early childhood teachers, administrators, college faculty, curriculum specialists, business representatives, and students on the current status of computer integration in early childhood classrooms. Found that 79% of the respondents used computers with children aged 3-5 years and that the majority stressed that computer software for…