Most teachers involved in actively promoting information technology in the curriculum do so with a gut feeling that IT really does influence learning despite all the sceptics among the staff and their “over my dead body” response to IT. The preliminary findings of a pilot study conducted by the Ultralab research unit at Anglia Polytechnic University and commissioned by Apple Computer could afford them more credibility.
The first part of the National Survey of Emergent Capability consisted of questionnaires to 500 children between ages 11 and 14 in East Anglia about new ways of learning, home computing, the information superhighway and computer games.
Children were also asked to watch multiple TV programmes at the same time. Although they found this difficult, the content of up to four simultaneous programmes was accurately described. The level of concentration and exhilaration matched their experiences of playing computer games.
So do we really need to turn off the TV and radio when they are doing their homework? Children are very confident with technology and information, unlike their parents and teachers. Children are not challenged; they have a wider “bandwidth” than adults which isn’t being exploited.
At school they were most excited by creative applications of computers - 26 per cent preferred art software packages and 17 per cent CD-Rom. Many were disappointed that their schools did not use computers enough and, significantly, a number felt strongly that their primary work had been ignored. There is no need to spend the first lesson in secondary showing them how to format a floppy and use a mouse.
Computer companies targeting the home will be interested to know that 82 per cent said they had a computer at home, from which 48 per cent could print. Most of the computers - 75 per cent - were found in their bedroom and only 4 per cent of the children used the computer in a room shared by other family members.
Computers were used more often at home than school by 64 per cent, and most of them preferred to do their homework on a computer. (It would be interesting to ask how many teachers won’t allow children to produce assignments on a computer because of doubts about ownership.) The decline of the book as a source of information is confirmed by the study. Only 36 per cent said they read a book weekly, 27 per cent monthly and 31 per cent hardly at all. Twice as many boys as girls said hardly ever.
This contrasts with 58 per cent who watch a complete film once a week and 92 per cent who watch television daily. Maybe we should go back to the art of story-telling using computers with video, sound animation and text?
Judging by the recent glut of computer companies advertising their products on television, these findings are likely to be accurate. They have seen the enormous selling potential for home computers and perhaps teachers should be thinking the same way about exploiting this unrecognised capability in children for learning, using new technologies.
This is fascinating research and Apple and Ultralab are to be congratulated on this initiative which could be helpful for developing policies for home-school links. Ultralab staff are at the BETT ‘95 show at Olympia, London, this week (stand 720), and will gladly exchange the findings of their research for a set of completed questionnaires.
