The California State University (CSU) has established the Educational Technology Professional Development Program, designed to encourage institutions of higher education and K-12 organizations to work together to help teachers use technology in their classrooms. The program is intended to help teachers reach the highest level of competency in the…

This study described the experiences of a communications technology course for first-year students in a communications department, arranged in 1994-96. The learning process was monitored by means of a qualitative analysis of diaries written by 161 first-year students at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, complemented by a survey of the…

The purpose of this study was to find out how teachers use computers in education, and how they perceive the use of computers in education in Turkey. Data was obtained through a 90-item questionnaire, from 202 teachers working in the schools of one mid-sized and three major Turkish cities. The following questions were addressed in the study:…

The purpose of this study was to examine current attitudes and knowledge of pre-service teachers towards assistive technology and to develop, implement, and evaluate a mini-workshop on assistive technology to better prepare regular classroom teachers for the inclusive classroom. A pre-post survey design was used. Data from the pre-survey provided…

A writing instructor has grappled with how both to integrate and to complicate critical perspectives on technology in the writing classroom. In collaboration with another instructor, a computer classroom pedagogy was constructed emphasizing imperatives of cultural studies practice as outlined by James Berlin. The pedagogy is similar to Berlin's…

This study examined college students' perceptions of course Web sites as an instructional resource for classroom-based courses. The focus was on identifying functions on the sites that students perceived as supporting and fostering their learning experiences. Subjects were 142 students responding to a 60-item questionnaire and open-ended…

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…

A study of 115 female and 87 male college students in an introductory computer science course surveyed student attitudes in relation to gender, experience, and parental encouragement and determined that females were less interested in computers and less confident than males and that males were more experienced. After the one semester course,…

Describes a study of grade 6 and 7 students in Australia that focuses on two factors that may contribute toward the development of student attitudes toward computers: (1) the amount of access to classroom computers; and (2) the nature of the computer tasks. Results indicated that increased access resulted in a decline in liking computers.…

Describes the development of an instrument for measuring the attitudes toward computers and information technology of post-compulsory students ages 16-19 years in the United Kingdom. Highlights include a theoretical model; reliability and validity; internal consistency; test-retest reliability; and criterion validity. A copy of the Computer…

Describes a study that evaluated the effects of computer experience, gender, and academic performance on computer attitude and user information system satisfaction in a university setting. Results of an analysis of variance showed that the personal characteristics made a difference in computer attitudes but not in academic computer system user…

Discusses the digital divide between Latinos and non-Latinos in computer use and considers the role of affective factors. Highlights include negative attitudes of elementary Latino students; relationships between computer practices and student performance; beliefs about the usefulness of computers; and implications for educators. (LRW)

Discussion of teacher attitudes toward computer-assisted instruction (CAI) highlights a study that examined the relationship between Eysenck's personality factors (i.e., extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism), religiosity, and attitudes toward CAI in a sample of 190 female teacher trainees at Bar-Ilan University (Israel). (36 references)…

Studied the attitudes and perceptions of children towards computers in classrooms. For one school year, questionnaires were distributed to children in grades four through seven before and after single computers were placed in each classroom. Overall, the children had positive attitudes toward computers, although girls were less positive than boys.…

Examines, via computer-use attitudes, the influence of gender stereotypes on the motivation of gender-constant children in mastering gender roles. Results from 206 children confirm that attitudes towards computer use would be less positive only for 5- to 9-year-old gender-constant girls who also had rich gender stereotypes and that these gender…