1. Let the Computer Introduce Itself to Education Majors.
- Author
-
Robinson, Louise
- Abstract
The effectiveness of a computer-assisted system to deliver an introductory course on educational computing to preservice elementary and early childhood teachers was investigated in this study. The 33 subjects enrolled in a one-hour Computer Literacy for Teachers course during the spring semester 1986 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, worked in pairs and received 15 hours of instruction via an Apple IIc microcomputer. The Minnesota Computer Literacy Awareness Assessment (MCLAA) was used as both a pretest and a posttest to measure both affective items, such as enjoyment, anxiety, efficacy, education, social values, and technical values, and cognitive knowledge of hardware, software, programing, computer applications, and their impact. A 10-item questionnaire about the class was also administered to the subjects after the posttest. Analysis of the MCLAA results showed a significant difference between the mean scores on the pre- and posttests on every component except social values, and there was a substantial change in the affective total, cognitive total, and overall total between the two tests. Responses to the questionnaire were idiosyncratic and did not identify any common areas of concern. All of the students considered themselves computer literate at the end of the course. Statistical analyses are presented in three tables and a list of 10 references is provided. (Author/MES)
- Published
- 1987