Computers in High School:
What is Used
and What are the Effects?
Chris Walker, Ami Adi Goshi, Calvin Ly
I. Introduction
Technology is a constantly growing and
changing aspect of the 21st century, and within the field of
education, it is an important aspect that has nearly a fifty-year history (Roblyer, 2003).
Though classroom resources and technology have changed over time, there
are still issues that need to be resolved.
One of such issues is the challenge of having sufficient technology in
classrooms and then proceeding to integrate it into teachers’ daily curriculum
and student’s daily lives.
II. What types of technology are being used?
A. Access to computers in high school
1. Hardware access
a. According to NCES reports, most public
schools that have computers have at
least one gigabyte or more of storage space and 16 megabytes or higher of
memory.
b. By the end of the '96-'97 school
year, Tennessee elementary and middle
schools will have the country's largest statewide computer network, with physical connections to more
than 15,000 computers, or an average of about 10 per school.
c. Sam Lucas conducted a
study to measure computer utilization in selected high schools of Middle
Tennessee. Analysis of the data from the 28 usable questionnaires
returned indicate that:
i. There were 23,280
students in grades 9-12 enrolled in the responding schools.
ii. The total number of computers in the 28
schools was 340.
iii. Radio Shack and Apple were the
principal manufacturers (84.5%) of school-owned computers.
iv. A mean of 12.5 computers per school and
a mean of 831 students per school resulted in a computer to student ratio of
0.0150 to 1.
2. Software
access
a. Operating System
1. In 2001, NCES reported the following
percentages of operating schools that was used most frequently used:
40% - Windows 98
25% - Mac OS 7.6 or greater
19% - Windows 95
12% - Windows 2000/NT
4% - other
3. Internet access
a. The National
Center for Education Statistics conducted a survey in fall
2001 which revealed that 99 percent of public
schools in the United States had access to the
Internet.
b. In 2001, NCES reported that the ratio of
students to instructional computers with Internet access in public schools was
5.4 to 1.
c. In 2001, NCES reported the different
percentages of public schools with internet access using various types of
connections:
1.
T1/DS1 – 55%
2.
Fractional T1 – 14%
3.
Cable Modem – 8%
4.
56KB – 6%
5.
ISDN – 5%
6.
T3/DS3 – 5%
7.
other – 7%
b. Computer Usages
i.
Baird & Rowsey conducted a study
on secondary science teacher needs. The
study revealed that, of the nearly 800 respondents, 70% wished to know more
about using computers to deliver science instruction, 64% to manage
instruction, and 60% to use a test item data bank.
ii.
The most widely used application appears to be word-processing.
A small number of teachers are using computer to produce items such as
crossword puzzles, word searches, posters, signs , and diagrams to support
instructional activities (Morse, 1991)
iii.
Students are increasingly being introduced to computer database
searching at schools. Many high schools subscribe to databases on CD-ROM
(compact disk, read-only memory). In addition, modems are used to access
university and government databases at remote locations. Such databases range
from libraries’ online catalogs to scientific data being gathered from
spacecraft and satellites. (Morse, 1991)
1.
A USA Today poll conducted by 7th-12th
graders showed their concerned about acquiring technology skills. The study
reported that:
a.
82% think they won't make a good living unless they have strong computer
skills
b.
65% feel schools should be teaching more in terms of computer
education
III. How is technology used?
A. Factors That Affect Classroom Computer
Use
1.
Funds and Availability
2.
Training
3.
Computer Locations
4.
Teacher Skills
B. How
Teachers Use Computers
1.
Attitudes toward computers/ technology
2.
Computer uses skills and tasks
C. How
Students Use Computers
1.
Frequency of computer use in school
2.
Influence of having computers at home
IV. Technology’s effect(s)
A. Effects on cognition
1. Short-term
effects
a. New learning environments which Salomon
refer to as “the stages upon which an orchestration of principles becomes
realized through the clever roles of technology.”
b. Distributed cognition. According to Lave
and Wenger (1991), learning occurs between individuals instead of occurring
inside of a single person. According to Salomon, technology can add an
additional type of interaction therefore providing additional knowledge through
which learning can be constructed.
2. Long-term
effects
a. Cognitive processing. Some authors argue
that increased technology in the classroom may result in shallow levels of
cognitive processing and the loss of the teachers
expert authority (Salomon, 1998; Postman, 1992).
B. Effects
on individual academic performance
1. Motivation
a. Increased motivation. When faced with a
large group of students with varying level of prior knowledge and experiences
an engineering department was able to increase motivation to learn mathematics
through implementation of technology.
b. Misguided
motivation. Studies have found that when provided a computer for use at home,
high school students exhibit a tendency to utilize the technology for
entertainment and secondarily, at best, for academic related work.
2. Achievement
a. Studies involving “at-risk” students (Chen
& Looi, 1999) have indicated that technology use
has increased not only their motivation but the resulting level of academic
achievement.
b. Schwartz, Brophy,
Lin, & Bransford (1999) found, among other
things, that technology in the classroom aided students in their ability to
utilize and develop problem solving skills.
V. Conclusion
