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…

Explores the use of Information Technology in preschool education as a tool for the understanding of ideas which are familiar to children in a naive way. Suggests that computer programs can provide a safe environment for children to experiment and play with processes and ideas and for teachers to banish their preconceived notions about what…

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…

Assessed 32 kindergartners' prior knowledge of left and right, then exposed experimental group to software program "Jellybean Hunt" from Edmark Corporation's "Trudy's Time and Place House." Found that students exposed to the software significantly increased their scores on the posttest measure of their understanding of the…

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…

Reviews the literature investigating children's ability to use the computer mouse. Results suggest that the mouse is suitable for children. Identifies issues requiring further attention, including the role of individual characteristics and previous experience in competent mouse usage. Examines adequacy of measurement tools used, stressing the…

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…

Describes the introduction into a fourth-grade classroom with access to technology, a new pedagogy emphasizing prior learning, social interaction, and learning processes. Notes the tensions that arose within the class as well as between the class and segments of the local educational system, as well as specific incentives and impediments to change…

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)