Information Technology in education: What can it accomplish and for whom is it effective?

1. Information Technology in education: What can it accomplish and for whom is it effective?

2. Information Technology and education: An Overview • Computers and various forms of IT are integral components of modern education • at all levels of the educational spectrum • IT, which could have been thought to have a liberating effect on education, has tilted the playing field (more than it was) against girls and women and in favor of boys and men. • The following lectures will examine the problem and suggest some possible causes.

3. A story: A vignette during a research study • The study: Cooper & Mackie (1986) on video games and aggression • The observation: girls were just not interested in playing videos • The second observation: classroom activities were established to motivate children’s learning by mimicking the same games that girls avoided in our study!

4. In pre-university activities • Computer camps, boys outnumber girls 11:1 • Video arcades, boys outnumber girls 10:1 • High school elective courses, boys outnumber girls 3:1 • Presence at high school and middle school computer centers, boys outnumber girls 5:1 • Boys show more positive attitudes toward IT than girls at all age levels, particularly after 5th grade.

5. In Universities in the U.S. • Women comprise 31% of computer science majors • Women comprise 16% of Ph.D.s in computer science • Of the students taking advanced placement in computer science, 83% are male; 17% female (source: AAUW, 2000; U.S.Dep’t of Education, 2001)

6. Computer anxiety: A bigger problem for girls than boys • At all levels of education, girls express more anxiety than boys about using IT. • A world-wide problem • United States • Australia • Spain • Great Britain • Canada • South Africa

7. Princeton University freshmen were asked to imagine that they were in a psychology lab class and were asked to conduct their statistics on computers. “How comfortable would you feel?” (Scale: 0=not at all to 7=very) (Source: Cooper & Weaver, 2003)

8. Research summarized recently by Renen and Plomp (1997) for the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement: • “Concern about gender equity expressed by many educational practitioners is right. Females know less about IT, enjoy using the computer less than male students, and perceive more problems with models and activities carried out with computers in schools.”

9. Why?Factors that contribute to the digital divide • Introduction to computers as children: to whom do computers speak? • What do boys like? • Competitive games • Sports metaphors • War metaphors • Eye-hand coordination • Lights and sound effects

10. What do girls like in computer activities? • Computers as learning tools • Frequent feedback • Emphasis on words • Absence of • Competition • Eye-hand coordination • War, sports metaphors • Light and sound effects (e.g., explosions)

11. What are some of the educational IT activities available? • Slam Dunk Math • Demolition Division • Space War Math • Word Invasion • Robot War

12. A study to examine computer anxiety as a function of gender - oriented metaphors Fifth grade boys and girls learned a math lesson with a computer exercise Division problems with “Arithmetic Classroom”, or “Demolition Division”

13. DEMOLITION DIVISION “An opportunity to practice the division of problems in a war game format. Tanks move across the screen as guns from bulkheads are fired by the student as he (emphasis added) answers the problems. Hits and misses (correct and incorrect answers) are recorded at the bottom of the screen.”

14. An example of male-oriented software: Demolition Division

15. An example of software that matches more closely what girls like: ARITHMETIC CLASSROOM

16. Boys’ and girls’ levels of anxiety when using the IT instruction (Source: Cooper, Hall & Huff,1990)

17. AND • Learning outcomes are negatively and significantly correlated with anxiety • This effect occurs primarily if the computing is performed in the presence of other people.

18. It also happens in college(Robinson-Stavely & Cooper, 1990) • Princeton University men and women participated in a study to play with “Zork” , an adventure game. • They were instructed to make the most progress that they possibly could in 20 minutes • They worked in a room completely alone or in the presence of another person • Always of the same sex • Who was not playing Zork (a “mere presence” condition)

19. Performance scores on Zork

20. Intrinsic motivation (Lepper & Malone, 1987) • Information Technology can increase children’s motivation to learn. • Motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic. • Intrinsic motivation: Learning in the absence of obvious external rewards and/or punishments. • “Even if children are coerced to engage in an activity, what they learn and how they learn can be influenced by their level of intrinsic motivation.” • “An instance of learning is intrinsically motivated if the most narrowly defined activity in which the learning occurs would be done without any external reward or punishment.”

21. A study on intrinsic motivation(Lepper, Green & Nisbett, 1973) • Children allowed to play with attractive markers. • The children are randomly divided into 3 conditions: • Good Player condition. Children are asked if they would like to play with the markers. They are offered a “Good Player” award if they agree to do so. • Control. Children are asked if they would like to play with the markers • Good Player Surprise: Children are asked if they would like to play with the markers. After playing, they are given a Good Player award.

22. All children are then allowed to play with any of the toys. • Time spent playing with the marker is measured. • RESULTS: • Good Player < Control = Surprise • Conclusion: External reward can reduce intrinsic motivation and interest in an otherwise attractive activity.

23. Some variables affecting motivation in IT assisted instruction (from Malone & Lepper). • Challenge • Intermediate level • Goals • Fixed vs. emergent; • Uncertainty of outcome • Multiple goal levels; variable difficulty • Feedback • Clear, consistent • Curiosity • Fantasy -- Endogenous vs. exogenous

24. The use of fantasy in motivational embellishments • Endogenous fantasy. The skill being learned and the fantasy depend on each other. • The skill is exercised in the fantasy context. • There is an integral and continuing relationship between the fantasy context and the instructional content being learned. • The skill enhances the fantasy and the fantasy provides feedback about the skill.

25. Exogenous fantasy. An instructional environment in which the fantasy depends on the skill being learned(e.g., something explodes for a right answer), but not vice versa.

26. Other factors contributing to the digital divide: 1. Attributions • Differential attributions for success and failure in IT • Boys attribute success to ability, failure to luck or effort • Girls attribute success to luck or effort, failure to ability • Parents and teachers have been shown to conspire inadvertently in this attributional distinction.

27. Other factors 2: Expectancy and self-fulfilling prophecies • Why is IT software written with males, rather than females in mind? • Men write the software (?) • Writers -- men and women -- nonconsciously expect that males are the users of computers • They then write programs that they believe boys and men will like. • And they do.

28. Some relevant studies • Snyder and Swann (1978). Their study showed that people communicate in way that is consistent with their expectations. • They also produce what they expected. • Perhaps male-oriented IT software is written because people expect, without giving it much conscious thought, that the user will be a male • i.e., that they are communicating with a male.

29. A study on expectancy (Huff and Cooper, 1987) • Asked female teachers to write software to teach the use of commas to 7th grade boys. • They wrote programs that boys would probably enjoy.

30. Question: What is the theme? Answer: A sports game. Question: How will the child interact? Answer: with a joystick Question: How will the program work? Answer: Bursts of light for correct answers. Exploding bombs for incorrect answers. The game will use sports infor- mation. If commas are used incorrectly, the child must correct them. If the child responds correctly, a burst of light will appear. If the child is incorrect, the sentence explodes. An additional feature is that the player places a comma into the sentence with a cannon. He shoots them in place.

31. Question: What would you write as a description on an advertisement for your program? Answer: Here is an opportunity for your child to enjoy the world of sports and learn English grammar at the same time. Your child will enjoy shooting cannons and competing for the highest score. After playing with this program, your child will use commas in a natural and correct manner.

32. A second condition:Write a program to teach commas to seventh grade girls. What is the theme of the program? Answer: A trip to the record shop. Girls like to buy records and will be motivated by this theme. What will the child see on the screen? Answer: Children going to the record shop. Typed con- versation between the two children. For example, child #1 says to child #2, “(Name), do you think we can find the CD we want in this shop?” These sentences have to be punctuated by the pupil. If the answer is incorrect, a tutorial will be clear, use the pupil’s name and will be presented in words.” Description for an advertisement? “Two girls go on a shopping trip to a record shop to find music for a dance being given at their school….”

33. A third condition: Commas for 7th grade students Theme? Answer: The program would be a game. It should be a fast arcade type came On the screen? Answer: Arcade type sounds should accompany a hit (correct response) and “burbling” sounds should be coordinated with the score counter. Correct hits should result in wild color displays. Actions should involve marquee moving sentences which, if correctly punctuated, are shot off the screen using the space bar.

34. Student condition (cont’d) Advertising Description? Answer: “Here’s a fast paced program for your arcade game lovers. Just what the teenager spends his quarters on! It’s also a program teachers will welcome. It provides your students with the practice they need to recognize the correct use of commas. Sentences zip across the screen -- some correctly punctuated with commas, some not. Correct sentences are “zapped” off the screen by your students as they try to be on the roster of top scorers.”

35. Other factors 3: Stereotype threat Women’s knowledge of the stereotype that they are not as competent with IT as men causes women to • Worry about acting in a way that confirms the stereotype and/or • Work very hard to disconfirm the stereotype • Either way, the pressure causes decrements in performance and increases in anxiety.