Computers provide particularly powerful environments in which to examine individual differences in cognitive processing and learning outcomes. The computer's capacity to collect and record response protocols facilitates detailed process analysis. Such analyses contribute to increased understanding of how individuals differ in their ability to…

Based on data gathered and analyzed for the Home Information Technology Study (HITS), which was jointly sponsored by the Center for Education Statistics in the U.S. Department of Education and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to study informal, nonschool learning in households, this report focuses on the use of computers in home study. The…

The introduction of computer technology into social science education in elementary and secondary schools in England stands to inhibit some of the positive developments in these subjects in recent years. Currently, objectives of social science education for the multicultural society in Britain are the enhancement of respect for self and of respect…

Karl Marx's theory of stages can be applied to computer use in the schools. The first stage, the P Stage, comprises the entry of the computer into the school. Computer use at this stage is personal and tends to center around one personality. Social studies teachers are seldom among this select few. The second stage of computer use, the D Stage, is…

This investigation of the effect of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) on the performance of elementary students in the area of language arts skills compared the performance of students receiving CAI with that of students receiving only regular classroom instruction. Two software programs were created for use in the study. Word Breaker, designed…

The scientific and technical publications summarized in this report describe research on intelligent instructional systems sponsored by the Personnel and Training Research Programs, Psychological Sciences Division, of the Office of Naval Research. Abstracts of the following papers are presented: (1) "Understanding Reflective Problem…

Addressing the difficulty encountered by many vocational students in narrowing, focusing, developing, and structuring their ideas for technical writing projects, a computer program was designed to provide these students with a simple, time-saving method of brainstorming and organizing their thoughts. By asking thought-generating questions…

This report (1) describes a Nebraska school district's implementation of a central data processing capability and (2) summarizes study findings researched in cooperation with International Business Machines (IBM). In the mid-seventies, the district hired data processing personnel and introduced microcomputers into buildings; lack of…

Workshop and seminar summaries and abstracts of papers from the eleventh international conference on improving university teaching are presented. Topics addressed by theme and seminar presentations include: quality control in higher education, institutional approach to academic improvement, interactive video, international evaluation and an…

Computer software style and usage checkers can encourage students' recursive revision strategies. For example, HOMER is based on the revision pedagogy presented in Richard Lanham's "Revising Prose," while Grammatik II focuses on readability, passive voice, and possibly misused words or phrases. Writer's Workbench "Style" (a UNIX program) provides…

Expectations of 432 college students regarding the following six teaching formats were studied: lecture, discussion, laboratory, personalized attention, computer-assisted instruction, and television instruction. Factor analysis procedures revealed three factors for each format: (1) evaluative had characteristics of preference and goodness and/or…

In October and November 1986, the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) sponsored a series of forums for elementary teachers to share ideas about the use of computers in the classroom. During the forums, each teacher took from 15 to 30 minutes to explain how he or she taught the lesson that was being shared. The informality of the…

A study was made of the effects of group size and time-on-task on the ability of 259 fifth- and sixth-grade students to learn in the context of computer assisted instruction. Predominantly Jewish, subjects attended one of three schools in an upper-middle-class area of Montreal. After the Basic Word Vocabulary Test and a background/demographic…

A study determined whether students with an average interest in reading would become more interested in reading if they used interactive fiction computer games involving a quest or solving a problem in conjunction with required reading. Eight students in grades five through eight participated in a workshop that met 3 hours a day, 4 days a week,…

Focusing on the application of new technologies to the creation of rich environments for writing, this project entailed the assembling of a low-cost microcomputer system that included a microcomputer, speech synthesis, voice recognition, and videodisk player. A variety of alternative input devices were explored, and software that permitted the…