Computers in 2001: Preparing educational administrators

Conclusions These findings are important to educational leaders, especially those in higher education, who are responsible for allocating resources for microcomputers. Recommendations for the selection of appropriate hardware can be derived from this analysis of current computer use and of expected changes. That computer facilities need upgrading in the next decade is clear. The purchase of new Macintosh and MS-DOS microcomputers would fit the needs of a majority of educational administration students. Of the program coordinators and professors with computer expertise who responded to the survey, 43 percent believe that their graduate students are gaining more access to computers in places other than the university. College of Education computer laboratories should be more open to students in educational leadership programs, and these programs should make the availability of appropriate hardware and software a priority. Understanding the extent to which educational administration programs train their students in computer use is of paramount importance in assessing curriculum development and its concomitant hardware demands. She has published reviews and articles on various aspects of computers in education.     

Bottom‐up processing and reading comprehension in experienced adult readers

Previous research has indicated a weak to moderate role for word recognition skill in contributing to reading comprehension efficiency in highly experienced adult readers. The goal of this study was to re‐evaluate the strength of this association, including assessment of the contribution of skill in discriminating unfamiliar shapes and identifying letters. Unexpectedly, the results revealed a very strong association between efficiency in reading connected text and word recognition skill, as measured by efficiency of access to the orthographic lexicon. Ability to identify letters rapidly and accurately also contributed to orthographic access skill. These associations were only minimally reduced by controlling for skill in discriminating unfamiliar shapes. The results were interpreted in terms of the verbal‐efficiency theory, according to which rapid and accurate lower‐level processing liberates resources for equally crucial higher‐level comprehension processing, ultimately resulting in more efficient text comprehension.