Posture,Musculoskeletal Activities,and Possible Musculoskeletal Discomfort Among Children Using Laptops or Tablet Computers for Educational Purposes: A Literature Review

Educational ergonomics focuses on the interaction between educational performance and educational design. By improving the design or pointing out the possible problems, educational ergonomics can be utilized to have positive impacts on the student performance and thus on education process. Laptops and tablet computers are becoming widely used by school children and beginning to be used effectively for educational purposes. As the latest generation of laptops and tablet computers are mobile and lightweight compared to conventional personal computers, they support student-centred interaction-based learning. However, these technologies have been introduced into schools with minimal adaptations to furniture or attention to ergonomics. There are increasing reports of an association between increased musculoskeletal (MSK) problems in children and use of such technologies. Although children are among the users of laptops and tablet computers both in their everyday lives and at schools, the literature investigating MSK activities and possible MSK discomfort regarding children using portable technologies is limited. This study reviews the literature to identify published studies that investigated posture, MSK activities, and possible MSK discomfort among children using mobile technologies (laptops or tablet computers) for educational purposes. An electronic search of the literature published in English between January 1994 and January 2014 was performed in several databases. The literature search terms were identified and combined to search the databases. The search results that the resources investigating MSK outcomes of laptop or tablet use of children are very scarce. This review points out the research gaps in this field, and identifying areas for future studies.     

Factors that influence pre-service teachers’ ICT usage in education

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the role of internal factors (e.g. attitudes towards computers and internet, self-confidence, and knowledge) and external factors (perceived support) on the level of information and communication technology (ICT) usage. The participants were 1898 pre-service teachers in Turkey. The results revealed that Turkey, like many other developing countries in the world, is in the early phase of ICT integration in education. Most pre-service teachers reported that they use only basic ICT applications for educational purposes. Internal and external factors were found to be related to each other and to ICT usage level. In general, male pre-service teachers’ knowledge and usage levels of ICT were higher than that of female teachers.     

In care and digitally savvy? Modern ICT use in long-term care institutions

ABSTRACT

Although information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as smartphones, tablets, and the internet, have all become increasingly important in modern society, available studies on the adoption of ICTs have mostly focused on healthy and community-dwelling “young-old” adults. Relatively little is known about ICT use among long-term care residents, such as “old-old” adults, who often have various functional impairments and live in institutionalized settings. The study includes data on ICT use (TV, radio, computers, smartphones, tablets, and internet) among a large sample of 940 residents (mean age: 87.6 years) living in 20 retirement homes in Zurich, Switzerland. Twenty-one percent of residents reported using the internet, 13% used a smartphone, and 5% used a tablet. Younger older adults, those with more education, those with lower nursing-care levels, and those who reported being particularly interested in technology were more likely to own more than one ICT device. Compared with nonusers, internet users were more likely to be younger, better educated, and more interested in technology in general. Modern ICT usage has reached the long-term care sector and appears to play a significant role in many residents’ lives. Researchers should continue to examine the role of ICTs in the lives of older adults in general and for residents in long-term care in particular, given that this population is often ignored in studies of older adults and ICT use.     

Primary school children's use of ICT

This article reports on a study of 267 primary children (Year 2 and 6) in five schools in South and Mid Wales. It examines their use of information and communications technology (ICT) both in school and at home using a combination of interview and questionnaire data. These data reveal that although the vast majority of children are making some use of computers in school, patterns of sustained and varied engagement with ICT are rare; with educational use of computers curtailed by a variety of classroom factors. Moreover, although many children could be considered to be sophisticated and knowledgeable consumers of ICT, their outside-of-school access to technology is varied. The findings raise questions about the nature of ICT use in primary classrooms and the need to ensure meaningful and regular access to technology in school for all children.     

A regression analysis of elementary students’ ICT usage vis-à-vis access to technology in Singapore

This paper explores the relationship among ICT infrastructure (i.e., computing devices and Internet), one-to-one computing program and student ICT activities in school. It also looks into the differences of how ICT is being used in the teaching of English, mathematics and science at the elementary school level in relation to the availability of computing devices, Internet connection and one-to-one program. A total of 360 Grade 5 students from three schools (120 students from each school) in the western part of Singapore participated in a questionnaire adapted from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) ICT Familiarity Component for Student Questionnaire regarding students’ ICT use. One of the participating schools has implemented a school-based one-to-one computing program for all its students for the past nine years, with the school providing the necessary computing devices for all its Grade 1 to 3 students and a student computer ownership program to encourage all its Grade 4 students to procure their own computing devices to be used till completion of elementary education at Grade 6. The regression analyses suggest that how ICT is being used plays a more significant role in predicting the frequency of ICT use for the various subject areas than ICT infrastructure and one-to-one computing program. Further analysis also reveals that one-to-one computing program and availability of computing devices have a significant interaction effect on the frequency of ICT usage for English but not for mathematics and science—the presence of computing devices seem to have an impact for the usage of ICT for English but not the other two subject areas. The findings concur with earlier studies that there are differences in frequency and how ICT is being used in the teaching of English, mathematics and science.     

The Facilitation of Information Processing in Learning Disabled Children Using Computer Games

Abstract The aim of the study was to improve the information processing and concentration skills of learning disabled (LD) children by using computer games in a procedure that enhances self‐verbalisation and mediated learning. Of the 21 LD children who participated in the study, 14 were trained in the specific procedure, while at the same time the seven children in the control group participated in regular tutorial activities in small groups. Subsequently, in the second training period, the control group was instructed to play commercial strategic games, with no stress on self‐verbalisation procedures and the experimental group participated in regular classroom tutorial activities, without computers. The following measures were used to assess the effect of the training: MFFT, Progressive Matrices and three subtests of the WISC‐R. The results demonstrated that the computer games presented within the framework of self‐verbalisation procedures and peer‐interaction facilitate the information processing of LD children. The interactions of passive and impulsive LD children with computer‐related activities should be examined in future research within the context of their ecological environment.     

Mind,Brain, and Education in the Digital Era

Computers are everywhere, and they are transforming the human world. The technology of computers and the Internet is radically changing the ways that people learn and communicate. In the midst of this technology‐driven revolution people need to examine the changes to analyze how they are altering interaction and human culture. The changes have already permeated societies around the world, altering learning, teaching, communication, politics, and most aspects of human interaction. The possibilities for improving educational effectiveness seem powerful, as a result of an information revolution with online access to infinite information and numerous teaching and learning activities of adults and children at school, at home, and in public places. An urgent need is for systematic longitudinal studies of what happens with learning and teaching as people use computers and play with the Internet. Perhaps the new technologies make possible a new kind of constructive dialogue, with intertwining of teaching and learning in a dynamic double helix of questions and answers, of modeling and experimentation. This special section will deal with (1) uses of new technologies to help people teach and learn more effectively, (2) uses of individual laptops to help children learn, (3) creation of new tools for learning and assessment, and (4) techniques that image brain structure and activity.     

Factors (not) affecting what students do with computers and internet at home

This paper presents the results of an analysis of secondary students’ computer use, aimed at understanding how different factors influence the profile of activities carried out by students with computers. The analysis is based on the data from a national study aimed at measuring students’ Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills for learning. A factor analysis was carried out to categorize students’ activities with computers and several indexes were constructed to define the comparison groups. Finally, a multiple linear regression analysis was performed to explain the frequency of the activities. Results show that students with access to computers at home mainly perform activities categorized as Socializing, Academic, Gaming and Production and that although the absolute frequency of these activities differs across groups, the profiles of computer use are surprisingly similar for groups based on students’ socio-economic group, experience with ICT, and self-confidence in the use of ICT. The only variable that discriminates user profiles is gender. Based on these findings, it can be claimed that Chilean secondary students with access to computers at home tend to show a rather homogenous computer-use profile, once access is equated.     

Children's Conceptions of Information Communications Technology

This study draws upon qualitative data to examine children's understanding of computers and how they work. The study involved interviewing a sample of 10 and 11 year old pupils in two primary schools. The results showed that children who have experience of ICT in the home as well as the school have a better understanding of the computer system and its functions. These children drew analogies of computers to related activities. Those with no computer access at home had limited knowledge of what computers are used for.     

浅谈幼儿角色游戏的开展及建议

众所周知,爱玩游戏是儿童的天性,也是儿童有效认知客观世界的主要途径之一。在游戏活动参与过程中,儿童不仅可以获得积极的心理体验,还可以获得知、情、意、形等的协同发展。对此,文章在幼儿园教学活动中,立足儿童身心发展特点和游戏教学价值,利用角色游戏来激发儿童的参与积极性,促进其有效发展。     

The Primary School

Research on the nature of and support for systemic sustainable innovation with ICT is converging with research on policy implementation and studies of school change and improvement to highlight the complex interplay of personal and contextual factors that enable and constrain innovation. In each of these fields, leadership has been found to play a crucial role in initiating and sustaining change and innovation. This leadership is not however the prerogative of any one individual but rather it is distributed over people at all levels of the system and across policies, practices and material resources. Leadership for innovation around and with ICT technologies is also distributed across time because of its substantial financial and knowledge implications. In this article, we illustrate the distributed nature of the leadership that supported teachers and schools to make use of teacher personal laptops accessed through the New Zealand government Laptops for Teachers scheme.     

Information and Communication Technologies Usage by Students in an Israeli High School: Equity, Gender, and Inside/Outside School Learning Issues

This study describes and analyses a survey that was conducted with 384 students from grades 7–12 in a typical urban High School in Israel. The students reported on the extent and characteristics of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) usage within and beyond school time and location. Its focus is on (a) equity issues regarding the extent, purposes and scope of ICT usage and students self perception in ICT proficiency; (b) gender and age differences in ICT use; and (c) relationship between inside/outside school learning processes. The findings show that 10% of the students are non-users of ICT, two thirds are common-users and only 25% are skilled users. About half of the students use the Internet to some extent. Major Gender differences were found: in general, more boys used ICT more extensively than girls did. Differences among age groups were found mainly with respect to the use of complex applications, but not regarding Internet usage. These results are discussed in the light of the three focal issues: equity, gender, and integration of learning processes taking place within and outside school.     

Concept-Mapping as a Research Tool: A Study of Primary Children's Representations of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

This paper presents an approach to concept-mapping that was used in an EU-funded project to study ten year old pupils' representations of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The research task – to draw a concept map of computers in today's world – was administered to children in six EU countries twice. In England this took place immediately before and after the introduction of networked PCs in their schools. They were asked to use their maps to communicate their ideas through drawing to the researchers and other children who did not all speak the same language as them. The maps were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively, using phenomenographic methods combined with semiotic interpretation. The maps showed that the children had well-developed mental representations (secondary artifacts) of the role of ICT in today's world, even when they had little or no practical experience of using the Internet. Psychological theories suggest that learning depends to a considerable extent on the development of secondary artifacts of this kind. The extent and variety of knowledge about computers demonstrated by all children in the cohort came as a surprise and suggested that they would be very well prepared to develop sophisticated ICT skills once they had good access to ICT tools. Current approaches to ICT use in primary schools, involving explicit, systematic teaching of ICT skills, may therefore not be making the most cost-effective use of scarce resources. Exploratory use of ICT within open-ended project work, reflecting the kind of use that computer-literate adults make of ICT, might be more likely to provide the context for children's rapid development of a complex range of ICT skills.     

Computer-mediated communication and the Gallaudet University community: a preliminary report

The study examined the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) among individuals involved in a conflict sparked by the appointment of an administrator as president-designate of Gallaudet University in 2006. CMC was defined as forms of communication used for transmitting (sharing) information through networks with digital devices. There were 662 survey respondents. Respondents reported overwhelmingly (98%) that they used CMC to communicate. Students and alumni reported CMC use in larger proportions than any other group. The favorite devices among all respondents were Sidekicks, stationary computers, and laptops. Half of all respondents also reported using some form of video device. Nearly all reported using e-mail; respondents also identified Web surfing, text messaging, and blogging as popular CMC activities. The authors plan another article reporting on computer and electronic technology use as a mechanism connecting collective identity to social movements.     

The teacher's role when pupils work on task using ICT in project work

The present study examined possible changes in the computer experience and attitudes of 11-12-year-old and 15-16-year-old students following a period in which ICT has become much more widely used in the school curriculum. In comparison with findings from a similar study undertaken in the early 1990s, there was some evidence of a reduced gender gap, particularly in the use of computers for applications such as word-processing, graphics, programming and maths. In addition, more recently introduced applications such as e-mail, accessing the internet and using CD-ROMs showed no overall gender difference in frequency of use. However, some gender differences remained, particularly in attitudes. Boys still liked computers more, were more self-confident in their use and, unlike previously, sex-typed them less than girls. They also used computers more frequently out of school, particularly for playing games. There was some evidence that, as found previously, older girls held the least positive attitudes, and it is suggested that their approach to computers may be influenced by the cultural pressures of gender stereotyping. More general age differences in use and attitudes were also found, and these may result from the different computing applications used by Year 7 and Year 11 pupils at school. In summary, although we found evidence of some change since the early 1990s, increased exposure to computes has not closed the gender gap.     

The impact of computer usage on academic performance: Evidence from a randomized trial at the United States Military Academy

We present findings from a study that prohibited computer devices in randomly selected classrooms of an introductory economics course at the United States Military Academy. Average final exam scores among students assigned to classrooms that allowed computers were 0.18 standard deviations lower than exam scores of students in classrooms that prohibited computers. Through the use of two separate treatment arms, we uncover evidence that this negative effect occurs in classrooms where laptops and tablets are permitted without restriction and in classrooms where students are only permitted to use tablets that must remain flat on the desk.     

儿童视角下我国数学活动游戏化的现状与应对策略

按照《幼儿园工作规程》"以游戏为基本活动,寓教育于各项活动之中"的要求,幼儿园需要开展符合幼儿特点,易受幼儿接受,深受幼儿喜爱,具有游戏精神的数学活动.采用文献调研、实地调研、会议调研等相结合的方式,研究发现目前我国幼儿园的数学活动中缺乏具有游戏精神的真游戏.基于此,提出渗透绘本游戏、数学区域游戏、户外游戏的应对策略,...     

The Use of Video Games by Kindergartners in a Family Child Care Setting

In this interpretive study of children’s social interactions in a family child care setting, children were seen to spend a significant portion of their time playing, watching others play, and distracted by video games. When children were focused on video games, their interactions with one another were disjointed, rushed, and ineffective. Because children’s interactions are considered to be important learning opportunities, the prevalence of video games in child care settings and the implications of their use should be studied more closely.     

Factors affecting information and communication technology use and eHealth literacy among older adults in the US and South Korea

ABSTRACT

This study examined ways in which Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays a role in contexts between two countries: the US and South Korea, comparing individual situations and structural factors that support the use of ICT among older adults. Surveys were administered to 113 US and 104 Korean community-dwelling respondents, inquiring about their ICT use, eHealth Literacy, and Social Capital. Significant differences between the two countries were found in respondents’ educational levels, marital status, and types of social activities. A vast majority of Korean elders (77.9%) reported being current users of the Internet, compared to 63.7% of their US peers. A greater level of eHealth literacy was found among Koreans. In both groups, factors affecting eHealth literacy included educational levels and confidence in using ICT. In both countries, ICT can provide a diverse array of online resources for low-income elders to manage their health problems and maintain social connections. Hence, further services are needed to help older adults become more involved in technology in order to maximize the utilization of ICT.