Factors Influencing Student Understanding of Computer-Supported Classroom Activities.

Abstract

This paper reports on a qualitative study involving fourth grade students, and two teachers in an urban, technology-rich school. The study focused on students' experiences with computers and perceptions of computers, and the effects of those factors on the way students interpret computer-supported classroom activities. Findings of the study suggest that a child's experience with and perception of computers play an important role in the child's level of confidence using computers and, without mediation from the teacher, affect the child's understanding of computer-supported classroom activities.

Introduction

We live in a world of rapid change driven in large part by the continuous evolution of computer technology. The pervasiveness of the computer in society has resulted in a generation of young people who have grown up knowing only a world with computer technology. This has produced a world in which generational responses to technologies differ noticeably. The extent of differences in teachers' and students' experiences with and perception of computers has the potential to shape both the teacher's design of computer-supported activities and the student's understanding of those activities (Stephen, 1997). This paper reports results of a study focusing on ways students' perceptions of computers influence students' confidence and understanding of computer-supported classroom activities.

Review of the literature on factors influencing computer use in education led to the formulation of several assumptions related to this study.

1. Students have unique prior experiences with computers. An individual's experience draws on prior personal experiences and contributes to future personal experiences (Dewey, 1938; Hall, 1996). Children have grown up knowing only a world with computer technology, but there are major differences in experiences with computer technology among children, mirroring the gap between technological haves and have-nots.

2. Students form unique perceptions of computers. Turkle (1984) found that "[The computer] enters into children's process of becoming and into the development of their personalities and ways of looking at the world ... Children in a computer culture are touched by the technology in ways that set them apart from the generations that have come before" (p. 165).

3. A student's prior experience with computers and perception of computers influences the student's understanding of computer-supported activities in the learning environment. The ways an individual categorizes computers based on previous experiences, expectations, personal interests, and other social and psychological factors determine the individual's perception of computers, and this influences the individual's interpretation of new experiences (Bruner, 1973; Perret-Clermont, Perret, & Bell, 1991).

The assumptions led to several questions. What perceptions of computers do students hold? How do differences in perceptions of computers affect students' understanding of the nature and purpose of computer-supported classroom activities? These are two questions on which the qualitative study described in this paper focused.

Participants and Setting

Gem Elementary School is a magnet school located in a large Midwestern city. It is housed in a newly constructed facility. At the time of this study, Gem Elementary was beginning the second year of operation. The school had 574 students, with a 24:1 student to teacher ratio. While eighteen percent of the student body was selected from the surrounding area (an economically poor area), the remaining eighty-two percent of the students were drawn from throughout the city and county. Students were selected through a lottery system and represented a wide range of academic abilities. Fifty-five percent of the student body at Gem Elementary School was African-American, and the remaining forty-five percent was white. Seventy-three percent of the students qualified according to US government guidelines as economically deprived. Students represented a wide range of academic abilities.

Gem Elementary School's mission statement focuses on the use of thematic instruction to "prepare students for success in our evolving, informational and technological society." The core curriculum of the school emphasizes science, mathematics, and technology. Teachers use cooperative learning and exploratory, hands-on activities in their teaching. The two computer labs in the school house state-of-the-art equipment, including multimedia computers, digital cameras, high-speed laser printers, and robotics equipment. Every classroom contains a computer for the teacher and five additional computers for student use.

One class of fourth grade students, their classroom teacher, and computer lab teacher participated in this study. Fourth grade students were selected as the focus for this study because of the existence of numerous studies which concentrated on a variety of factors related to the use of computers and the role of out-of-school knowledge involving students in this age group (Collis & Lai, 1996; Edwards & Mercer, 1987; Harel, 1991; Kafai, 1995; Knezek, Miyashita, & Sakamota, 1994, 1996). The class consisted of 14 girls and 11 boys. At the time of the study, 20 students were 9 years old and the others 10.

Procedures for Data Gathering

Data were gathered from multiple sources: interviews with the students and teachers; questionnaires administered to students; observation of computer lab sessions; observation of both computer-related and non-computer-related classroom activities; students' computer journals; informal conversations with teachers, students, administrators, and parents; and examination of computer software used by the students. Data collection extended over a seven-month period for a total of over 50 hours of observations and an additional 20 hours of interviews.

Observations

Three boys and five girls in this study had working computers at home. Of these, one boy and two girls reported computers with advanced features similar to the features on the computers at school. Students reported using computers at home primarily to type and to play educational and "friendly" games. Parents made the decisions on software purchases and on uses of the family's computer. Students with home computers held similar ideas about computers as students without home computers. With the exception of one male student, students with computers at home required help in the computer lab as often as students without computers at home. In the classroom computer-supported activities, I detected no noticeable difference between students with and students without home computers.

No major gender-related differences surfaced among the experiences reported by the fourth grade students in this study. Family ownership of computers did not favor boys over girls. Each student in this study reported availability of computers outside of school, and no pattern of differences emerged in the types of non-school settings where students indicated they used computers. While studies have shown that boys tend to dominate computers in school settings (Beynon, 1993; Preston, 1995) that was not the case in the present study. Girls dominated the classroom computers. Both boys and girls voiced concerns in interviews that the computers should be used "equally."

No gender-related differences emerged in students' definitions of computer. Sixty-four percent of the boys and sixty-four percent of the girls used the word "machine" in describing what they understood by the term "computer." Students' responses to a Likert self-rating questionnaire designed to examine students' attitudes towards computer importance, ease of use, and enjoyment, showed non-significant differences based on gender. In a meta-analysis of gender-related studies on attitudes towards computers, Whitley (1997) found the lowest effect sizes for differences attributed to gender occurred in grammar schools. He suggested that the small effect sizes found among students in grammar schools might be explained by changes that have occurred in societal attitudes and stereotyped beliefs that computers are more appropriate for males, and the role of socialization processes in the schools in overcoming these beliefs.

Data collected in this study pointed to a direct relationship between students' perceptions of computers and their confidence using computers. The majority of students in this study viewed computers as a "machine that lets you play games and type." When asked how well they could use computers, students interpreted the question in terms of this perception of computers. When pressed to explain what she meant when she said "Computers help you learn new things," Cindy explained "Well, they help you learn to play new games." Students regularly used the word "play" when discussing how they used computers. The two teachers often used the same term when discussing computer activities with students. No student in this study appeared to be hampered by a past bad experience with computers. All students had prior experiences with computers, and this eliminated possible anxiety from never having used a computer. At some time, every student in the class needed assistance from a teacher with file manipulation and network navigation. Relatively few of the students viewed this as a reflection on their ability to use the computer since it did not involve games or word processing. Consequently, it did not seem to impact their confidence using computers.

The type of computer-related classroom activities the teacher designed emerged as an additional factor that influenced students' confidence in their ability to use computers. Each student in the class experienced success when computer-supported activities included typing or exploring software. However, when classroom activities required the use of the Internet to locate information for use in classroom projects, not all students exhibited the same high level of confidence. With little exception, students appeared hesitant to explore on the Internet in the same way they explored educational software. When students attempted to use strategies that worked in games, such as clicking on lines or boxes, they were often unsuccessful, and their frustration was very apparent. For most students, activities involving the Internet did not decrease confidence in their ability to use a computer. When asked to explain what the Internet was, most students did not associate the Internet with computers, and thus the Internet activities did not alter their perception of computers.

Students' perceptions of computers affected their understanding of computer-supported activities. Teachers in this study viewed the computer as a tool, and they believed it was important for the children to learn to use the computer as a tool. They designed classroom activities that they believed emphasized the use of the computer as a tool. However, the way the students approached and understood these computer-supported classroom activities often reflected the children's understanding of computers rather than the teacher's intended use.

Mrs. Kelly, the classroom teacher, frequently allowed the students to choose from the educational software installed on the classroom computers. The children's descriptions of the software focused on their view of computers as machines to play games. One student, Sylvia described her favorite software package, Gizmos and Gadgets, as follows:

   It is pretty much a game. You have to build a race car or race a balloon
   and you have to beat this mad scientist and he has chipmunks and you can
   play a game with chipmunks or without chipmunks but if you play with
   chipmunks they would eat you up or you could throw a banana at them and it
   would kill them.

Documentation for Gizmos and Gadgets listed the educational benefits of the program as building basic understanding of physical science principles, encouraging hands-on experimentation, and creating awareness of science applications.

When students studied the solar system, Mrs. Kelly made several resources, including library books, software packages, and the Internet available for gathering data. She explained that the new software packages could be used to find information on the planets. She did not provide instructions on how to use the software, beyond how to load it. The format of one of the programs promoted extensive exploration. Students delighted in the animation and game format; however, when asked if they had learned anything about the planets, most responded negatively. According to Sylvia, "I think [Mrs. Kelly] wanted us to use [Magic School Bus] to learn something about the planets." When asked what she had learned about the planets, she responded "Nothing much. It was mostly a game." Students became so immersed in the game aspects of the software that they lost sight of what they had been asked to do by the teacher. As Moore (1993) noted, misunderstanding the purpose of a software package does not prevent a student from feeling successful based on the student's interpretation of the software.

Students were often sent to the computers to type their pre-written essays; however, what happened when they began working on the computers was strongly influenced by their understanding of computers as machines for play. Students explored fonts, moved between computers to observe and discuss with other students how they had achieved particular visual effects, and repeatedly erased what they had typed as they experimented with different effects. They often completed very little typing in the computer session.

Data Analysis

Every student involved in the study shared essentially the same perception of computers, a machine used to play games. They did not share the teachers' perception of the computer as a tool except in terms of helping them learn to type or practice arithmetic facts. While individual differences existed among students' experiences with computers, no major differences in perception of computers surfaced among the students based on gender or availability of computers at home. All students in this study reported availability of computers outside of school although the amount of access varied for individual students. Students were unaware of changes in technology and described future changes in computers in terms of the technologies with which they were familiar.

In this fourth grade setting, students' perceptions of computers directly affected their confidence level with computers and their understanding of computer-supported classroom activities. Although students expressed great confidence in their ability to use computers, this self-reported ability often differed greatly from their actual observed ability to use computers. Three variables that affected individual student's confidence with computers emerged from analysis of the data: the student's perception of computers, the teacher's style of incorporating computers into teaching, and the type of computer-supported activities in the classroom. Smagorinsky (1995) noted that individuals determine how a tool is to be used based on the individual's cultural bias and judge if the tool is successful from that same context. Classroom activities that involved typing or exploring educational software and computer lab exercises that stressed the "fun parts" of software reinforced the students' current perception of computers as toys and increased confidence in their ability to use computers.

The findings of this study confirm the importance of the teacher's role in providing guidance to students involved in computer-supported activities (Collis, Knezek, et al., 1996; Dowries & Reddacliff, 1997). The teacher's teaching style and decisions in designing computer-supported activities are important factors in determining the role students' perceptions of computers plays in how a student understands a computer-supported activity. The guidance provided by the teacher during the activity is a critical element in determining how closely the teacher's and students' understandings of an activity agree. Computer-supported activities in which the child was left to accomplish the activity independent of guidance from the teacher were influenced directly by the child's perception of computers. The gap between the students' understanding of the computer-based activity and the teacher's understanding of the activity closed when the classroom teacher played a more active role in what the student was doing.

Discussion

This study points to the importance of recognizing the effects that students' perceptions of computers can have on computer-supported classroom activities. It raises further questions on how the teacher's style of incorporating computer technology into a classroom setting affects variables within that setting. Teachers need to understand the implications of ways they appropriate technology into the classroom.

The study raises several questions and suggests directions for future research. How would results differ in a setting where there was greater variation among students' experiences with computer technology? How would this affect their perception of computers and subsequent understanding of computer-related activities? The participants in this study were fourth grade students. How do students' perception of computers compare at the high school or college levels, and how do these perceptions affect computer-supported activities at those educational levels?

There is no end in sight to the technological advances we are experiencing in the world. The present study used qualitative research techniques to examine one setting. While the qualitative paradigm permitted generalizations within the setting for the study, readers of the study will have to determine whether the insights gained from this study can be applied to other settings. What is clear, however, is that the focus of this study will continue to be important as members of future generations encounter similar differences in their perceptions of new technologies from those of the previous generation.

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Mary L. Stephen, Saint Louis University, MO

Mary Stephen is associate professor of educational studies and assistant director for technology and learning, Paul C. Reinert SJ Center for Teaching Excellence. Her research centers on identifying and studying factors that influence the impact of technology on teaching and learning.