Students valuation of the use of computers in education

Abstract

Two schools for general secondary education in Enschede, The Netherlands took part in a 4-yr Technology-enriched Schools project. One of the research questions in this project was the valuation by the students of the use of computers in education. It was hypothesized that this valuation would be influenced by factors which deal with the perception of the student, the use of computers in teachinglearning situations, the circumstances in which the computers are used, and background information on the students. It was also hypothesized that the frequent use of computers in education could make the students less enthusiastic about computers. The research questions were investigated by means of two instruments with identical content: a paper-and-pencil questionnaire and a computerized questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered to 816 students. About 20% of the students had had considerable experience with computers outside of school-hours. Results show that some students had used the computer at school very frequently. There was no evidence found in this study that students with much computer experience at school valued the use of computers in education differently than did students who had little experience. The intensity with which the computers were used by the teachers of the technology-enriched schools did not have a restraining influence on the enthusiasm and the motivation of the students.