The Effects of Tablet Computer Assisted Instruction on Students’ Attitude toward Science and Technology Course

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of tablet computer assisted instruction at science and technology course on students' attitudes toward the use of technology, and using the technology output during the lessons, and students' attitudes toward science and technology courses at fifth grade. The study was implemented with 56 students, 27 students in experimental group and 29 students in control group, at the spring semester of 2011-2012 academic year. The experimental group was instructed with tablet computer assisted instruction and the control group was instructed with traditional methods during science and technology courses. Three instruments, Attitude toward Technology Scale, Attitude toward the Use of Technology in the Courses Scale, and Attitude toward Science and Technology Course Scale, were used in the current study and they were implemented as pre-test and post-test in all groups. The Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and Mann Whitney U-Test were used as inferential statistics. The results of the study showed that the tablet computer assisted instruction had positive impacts on students' attitudes toward technology and technology usage in the courses; however, it had both negative and positive impacts toward science and technology courses in different aspects. Also, gender differences were not seemed significantly important.