Predictors of teachers’ use of ICT in school – the relevance of school characteristics,teachers’ attitudes and teacher collaboration

This paper is based on the research question of what predictors (school characteristics, teachers’ attitudes, teacher collaboration and background characteristics) determine secondary school teachers’ frequency of computer use in class. The use of new technologies by secondary school teachers for educational purposes is an important factor regarding school and teaching processes. The use of digital media in schools is, among other things, associated with the goal of supporting learning processes and improving the quality of education. This contribution identifies relevant factors by means of multiple regression analyses of the teachers’ frequency of computer use for instruction in five countries (the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, Poland and Germany) to get an idea of how to support the frequency of the use of computers in class. The analyses and findings are based on the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) study of International Computer and Information Literacy Study 2013 (ICILS), which investigates the computer and information literacy (CIL) of secondary school students and the contexts in which students develop CIL in 21 countries. Antecedents concerning school characteristics, teachers’ attitudes and teacher collaboration on the process level and background characteristics of secondary school teachers (N = 8.920) are examined in order to gain further insight into the nature and effect of predictors for secondary school teachers’ in-class use of information and communications technology. The analyses show that there are more country-specific results than similarities between the countries selected. In all countries, antecedents concerning teachers’ attitudes are more relevant for teachers’ in-class use of computers than school characteristics or teacher collaboration on the process level.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

This article reports on the distribution of the use of graphic calculators over the whole secondary school population in a Local Education Authority (LEA) in the United Kingdom. Quantitative and qualitative census data on the extent and nature of graphic calculator use have been obtained. A feature of this project is in the use of a teacher research team to gather data naturalistically. This work was designed to augment previous work in this area by providing census details for an entire LEA and by including reasons why graphic calculators are not used. The authors found that the key factors which contributed to use were: expertise within mathematics departments; regard for graphic calculators as learning aides from mathematics staff and as information and communication technology from senior staff; a ‘critical mass’ of older/higher attaining students. Key factors which inhibited use of graphic calculators were: lack of time to learn how to use the calculator and how to teach with it; concern over recent examination restrictions; perceptions of computers being a resource priority     

A Systemic Approach to Teacher Development: lessons from a national Logo‐based computers in education program

ABSTRACT

Teacher training is a key component of any computers in education program. This article addresses how success in teacher training depends on long‐term planning and on a flexible systemic approach to training and support. It describes the system of teacher development established within the context of a widespread national program reaching one out of three elementary school children in Costa Rica and the lessons learned over a five year implementation process.     

Children’s informal learning in the context of schools of the knowledge society

This paper builds on a key finding of a 5-year Danish research project con-cerning children in the 7 to 15 age group: children’s principal use of computers and the internet takes place in their spare time, and it is during their spare time that the majority of children really learn how to use interactive media. The project shows that in children’s spare-time use of ICT they employ informal forms of learning based to a large extent on their social interaction both in physical and virtual spaces. These informal learning forms can be identified as learning hierarchies, learning communities and learning networks; they are important contributions to the school of the knowledge society. The ICT in New Learning Environments project based on anthropologically inspired methods and social learning theories shows that students bring their informal forms of learning into the school context. This happens particularly when the school has undergone physical alterations and when its organisation of learning and teaching are also restructured, with project-based learning becoming an important part of the school work and with the media available in the learning environment. Using organisation theory, the school working with ICT and project-based learning is shown to simultaneously constitute a mixed mode between the school of the industrial and the knowledge society. The research shows that it is possible to tip the balance in the direction of the school of the knowledge society, and thus of the future, by comprehensively using ICT and project work in the day-to-day activities of the school, alongside and integrated with the traditional forms of learning, and not least by employing the informal learning processes children develop outside school. For teachers this will mean an extension of their function: no longer merely communicators of knowledge, they will have to become knowledge managers and overall leaders of projects, and this entails much more dialogue with the pupils.

The effectiveness of computer and tablet assisted intervention in early childhood students’ understanding of numbers. An empirical study conducted in Greece

The present study aimed to assess the effect of two different types of digital technologies (computers and tablets) in early childhood students’ understanding of numbers. Three hundred and sixty-five children (mean age in months, M?=?62.0, SD?=?5.5) from 21 kindergarten classes were randomly assigned to two intervention groups and a business-as-usual control group. The interventions were conducted over 24 half-hour lessons. Data was collected during the 2013–2014 school year using a three-step research procedure. Students’ knowledge about numbers was assessed using the Test of Early Mathematics Ability-3 (TEMA-3). Findings were that (a) both experimental groups significantly outperformed the control group on the posttest, (b) the group that used tablet computers significantly outperformed the group that used personal computers on the posttest, and (c) there was no significant difference between genders on the posttest. Our findings support that computers and especially tablets, when combined with the use of developmentally appropriate software into the children’s daily routines, may provide a substantial contribution to early childhood students’ comprehension of numbers.     

Education policy and school segregation of migrant students in Catalonia: the politics of non-decision-making

This article shows how the Catalan government has not developed an agenda to tackle school segregation despite the growing number of migrant pupils who arrived over the course of the last decade. Education policy has explicitly disregarded the possibilities of improving the regulatory framework for tackling segregation; it has exercised insufficient control over the effective application of education regulations on the balanced schooling of pupils with specific educational needs; and it has taken decisions on education policy which have even accentuated school segregation. This article provides empirical evidence on the characteristics of school segregation in Catalonia and on the education policies developed by the Catalan government in the domain of the schooling of migrant pupils. The study illustrates how the absence of an explicit school desegregation policy is an example of the politics of non-decision-making and a case which clearly manifests the need to overcome behavioural analysis in policy decision-making.     

Review and Discussion of Children’s Conceptions of Computers

Today’s children grow up surrounded by computers. They observe them, interact with them and, as a consequence, start forming conceptions of how they work and what they can do. Any constructivist approach to learning requires that we gain an understanding of such preconceived ideas and beliefs in order to use computers as learning tools in an effective and informed manner. In this paper, we present five such conceptions that children reportedly form about computers, based on an interdisciplinary literature review. We then evaluate how persistent these conceptions appear to be over time and in light of new technological developments. Finally, we discuss the relevance and implications of our findings for education in the contexts of conceptual pluralism and conceptual categorisation.     

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.     

一种简易宽带路由器的制作

路由器是网络互联的重要设备，适用于需要共享宽带线路和建立防火墙的局域网，对外它能隐藏局域网内其它电脑的IP地址，同时通过网外一个有效的IP地址，让局域网内的电脑能同时共享一条宽带线路上网。本文提供一种用淘汰的旧电脑制作简易宽带路由器的方法，满足学校机房局域网共享一条宽带线路访问Internet需求。     

建立综合测评管理信息系统模型初探

综合测评管理信息系统是利用计算机实现的学生综合测评管理系统。它是采用C S数据库前台开发工具Power Builder6 .0 ,运用面向对象的方法开发的 ,适合于学校对学生进行综合测评的各管理部门。系统最大特点是对学生的综合测评更科学、更合理。     

对高等师范小学数学专业教材内容的认识及思考

随着三级师范向两级、一级师范的全面过渡,师范教育小学数学专业教材内容也随之发生了根本的变化,同时,各版本教材以其名称、编写思路等的不同,也呈现出百花齐放的局面。如何根据学生实际情况选择合适的教材,并针对学生实际情况调整、补充教材内容,是从事师范教育教学教师应不断思考的问题。     

现代教育技术对学校体育发展的影响

“现代教育技术是以计算机为核心的信息技术在教育、教学领域中的应用”。笔结合自身实践探讨了现代教育技术在学校体育工作中的运用问题。     

Why the Computer is not Dominating Schools: a failure of policy or a failure of practice?

Despite the hyperbole that has continually surrounded the area of educational computing, for the last 20 years the computer has noticeably failed to permeate the school setting. This has traditionally been attributed to a failure of educational practice to adapt to, and provide for, the educational ‘IT revolution’. However, this article argues that a wider critique of educational computing should be adopted if‐we are to really understand the apparent failure of computers to be integrated into the compulsory educational setting. By examining how educational computing has been, and continues to be, constructed in both educational policy and discourse, the article considers how this ‘writing’ of educational computing is fundamentally at odds with the structure of the school organisation it is meant to merge with     

Accessing ICLAS Network Log Data to Study Student Computer Usage,Course Performance,and Attitude Change

ABSTRACT

This study demonstrated how network usage logs such as those generated by the IBM Classroom Local Area Network Administration System (ICLAS) can be used to study student use of software available on a local area network. Software instrumentation was developed to convert ICLAS log files to a format (?.DIF) usable by spreadsheet and statistics software. Data on 163 students enrolled in an ‘Introduction to Computers in Education’ course during the Summer, 1992 session at the University of South Florida were compiled for exploratory analysis. Correlations of lab use time to course grade, change in knowledge, and change in attitude were performed. It was found that amount of lab use correlated significantly to general attitude toward computers, but that it did not correlate significantly to change in attitude toward school uses of computers or to change in knowledge of course topics.     

灵活运用Excel巧妙解决财务问题一例

计算机的应用越来越广,但要把计算机应用“用好用活”可不容易,本文利用Excel中的单变量求解给出了学校中普遍存在的授课酬金的统计模型,体现了对计算机常用软件的深层次开发和应用。     

The effects of computers on children's social development and school participation: Evidence from a randomized control experiment

Concerns over the perceived negative impacts of computers on social development among children are prevalent but largely uninformed by plausibly causal evidence. We provide the first test of this hypothesis using a large-scale randomized control experiment in which more than one thousand children attending grades 6–10 across 15 different schools and 5 school districts in California were randomly given computers to use at home. Children in the treatment group are more likely to report having a social networking site, but also report spending more time communicating with their friends and interacting with their friends in person. There is no evidence that computer ownership displaces participation in after-school activities such as sports teams or clubs or reduces school participation and engagement.     

Adolescence and computers. Dimensions of media‐related identity formation,self‐formation and religious value as challenges for religious education

Computers play an important role in adolescent youth culture. This adolescent use of computers has much deeper implications than simply developing specific technical skills. Focusing on the relation between adolescent subjects and computers reveals three issues of particular interest: individual identity formation, self‐formation and ‘fluid’ forms of religion. The following is an overview of the main dimensions of these issues and their implications for religious education. All the results presented are related to a larger qualitative empirical research project on adolescents and computers. The final pedagogical conclusions in this paper are developed from a perspective of religious education within the Protestant tradition as it is practised within the German school system, but have wider implications.     

Student‐teachers’ Use of Computers during Teaching Practice in Primary Classrooms

It is argued that teacher readiness is crucial to the realisation of national goals for educational computer use and that the preparation of student teachers can make an important contribution. This study investigated student‐teachers’ dispositions towards computers and their use of computers in primary‐school classrooms during a final‐year practicum. The student teachers generally viewed computers positively but lacked confidence in their knowledge of computers. While they were nervous about using computers in classrooms, almost two‐thirds did use a computer at least once during a four‐week practicum and were more likely to do so if the supervising teacher modelled such use. The most frequently experienced problems in using computers were organisational. Based on the findings of this study it is suggested that preservice courses should focus on the pedagogical issues associated with computer use and they should provide students with opportunities to observe and practise classroom computing.     

多媒体辅助英语课堂教学的实践与思考

信息技术的飞速发展为多媒体辅助课程教学提供了现实条件。多媒体技术具有容量大、信息多、趣味浓、效率高等特点,其优越性是无与伦比的,但在多媒体辅助课程教学中存在这样或那样的问题。本文以《新思维综合英语》中的一课为例,结合课堂教学设计,说明如何运用多媒体课件辅助英语课堂教学。     

Training Teachers to Use Computers in Third World Schools

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on research on the use of computers in Third World schools undertaken with the help of a grant from the Harold Macmillan Trust and the assistance of teachers and others in 23 Third World countries. In it we stress tfft importance of training all staff concerned in the introduction of computers into Third World schools, including the policy makers. We discuss training in the early days of introducing the innovation, and how a training cascade may or may not help. We examine the link between motivation to be trained and the prospect of leading change. We point out the virtues of teachers learning about computers in private and the need for software evaluation criteria for teachers to use. We look briefly at the links between training, the curriculum and assessment and at the training of programmers and technicians. We conclude that policy makers need to share with school principals, teachers, teacher educators and computer education specialists or consultants the task of reframing policy while reliable understanding of the state of the innovation emerges and the innovating group matures as a training resource in its own right