C. Dianne Martin

American and Soviet Children's Attitudes toward Computers

For a decade significant resources in the United States have been expended to put computers in the schools. Many school districts are now taking stock of the effects of this computerization as they prepare strategic plans for the school reform of the next decade. Similarly, recent events in Eastern Europe are bringing about massive school reform, and the role that the computer could play in reform efforts is being carefully considered. As plans for increased use of computer technology are made, it is important for policy makers, educators and researchers to understand how children relate to the new technologies. In this study the attitudes of eight to twelve year old American and Soviet children toward computers were examined by comparing their responses to attitude statements and their drawings of computer users. Although some significant differences by country and gender were found, the attitudes of the children from both countries were found to be very similar and mostly positive. One of the greatest differences found was in the level of parental use of computers. A majority of Soviet parents were not computer users, whereas a majority of American parents were computer users. The most significant gender differences occurred in the drawings of computer users with most boys drawing males and most girls drawing females as computer users.

Using a theoretical multimedia taxonomy framework

Multimedia (MM) is a polysemous term, a term with many definitions, and in this case, many roots. In this paper, multimedia is defined as the seamless integration of two or more media. Each ancestor brings another requirement, muddying the field and making it difficult to work through. A multimedia taxonomy based on a previous media taxonomy is proposed to help organize the discipline. The taxonomy helps to classify the space called multimedia and to draw attention to difficult issues. The paper outlines the forms contributing to multimedia—text, sound, graphics, and motion—and aligns them with probable formats—elaboration, representation, and abstraction— and sets them within a context—audience, discipline, interactivity, quality, usefulness, and aesthetics. The contexts are more clearly defined in two areas: interactivity and the information basis for a discipline. Examples are presented describing the use of the taxonomy in the design and evaluation of student projects in a computer science-based multimedia course.

Professional codes of conduct and computer ethics education

Advancements in computer technology over the past twenty years have created ethical dilemmas and raised questions, some similar to other professions and some unique to the computer field. Therefore we think there is a need to reevaluate the application of ethical principles and establish new guidelines on ethical practices for the computer science profession. Because of the questions that have been raised, and in some instances sensational news accounts of computer irregularities, including fraud, there is a growing perception that self-regulation may be the only means by which the computer professional associations will prevent governments from stepping in and regulating the computer profession. This paper discusses the problem from two perspectives. First, the inadequacy of ethical codes of conduct developed by computer professionals is assessed in light of recent reports of computer abuse. Second, the relationship between the professional codes of conduct and computer ethics education is examined. Strategies for incorporating professional ethical codes into the core of computer education curriculum are proposed.

Measuring the level of teacher concerns over microcomputers in instruction

The attitudes and concerns of teachers regarding the use of innovation, such as microcomputers in instruction, will determine whether or not the innovation becomes permanently institutionalized into the curriculum. In this study the concerns of 495 teachers from three large suburban school districts regarding the use of microcomputers in instruction are measured using the Stages-of-Concerns Questionnaire (SoCQ), based upon seven stages-of-concern about educational innovations [4]. The teachers in this study were all involved in their first year of microcomputer use in instruction as part of the official curriculum of their school districts. The resulting composite profiles show a high level of personal concern characterized as a nonuser profile, regardless of computer training, years of teaching experience, or level of use of the microcomputers. Reasons for this phenomenon and suggestions for ways to alleviate it are described.

Using information technology to integrate social and ethical issues into the computer science and information systems curriculum: report of the ITiCSE '97 working group on social and ethical issues in computing curricula

This report presents the results of a collaborative working group activity focusing on the use of information technology (IT) to integrate social and ethical issues within computer science or information systems courses. The report provides an organizational approach for classifying exercises, based on the issue each one addresses and the course or courses in which it may fit. The exercises in this report are classified by the information technology to be used and the course or courses addressed by the exercise. Ten sample exercises are provided, each given in a recommended standardized format.

Learning effects of CAI on college students

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine if college students learn better when using lecture/CAI than by using the conventional lecture method, when the material presented is very visually oriented. The subjects consisted of 28 students enrolled in a freshman level computer science course that is required for their major. Students were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Both groups received the same lecture. The control group was presented examples in class by the professor aided by transparencies. The treatment group was presented the same examples using a computer tutorial, without teacher intervention. As was indicated on the pre-test, the two groups demonstrated remarkably similar results in the amount of prior knowledge of the subject area. There was no significant difference between the two groups in the amount of learning that took place, as shown by the results of the post-test. There was, however, a considerable difference in time spent on the task. The examples took much longer for theprofessor to present to the control group than it took the treatment group to absorb the interactive examples on individual computers. The majority of the students who were in the treatment group (lecture and computer examples) indicated that they preferred the computer tutorial to having examples presented by the instructor.

Case studies in computer aided learning

This is a collection of papers examining the place of computers in the school. There are case studies on the introduction, diffusion and adoption of computers to this environment.

The case for integrating ethical and social impact into the computer science curriculum

I invite all of you to join me on the “high moral frontier” of computer science as we consider the case for integrating ethical and social impact issues into the computer science curriculum. I have to warn you, however, that there tends to be a lot of crossfire on this new frontier! In this paper I will develop the rationale for curricula change and then I will present a case study of a recent issue, content labeling and blocking on the Internet, as a compelling example to illustrate why this change i s necessary.

School District Implementation of Microcomputers for Instruction

AbstractTo understand how innovation is introduced into an educational setting it is necessary to examine the stages of the process at the school district level. In this study the mobilization and implementation stages of introducing microcomputers into a majority adopter school district are described. The research was conducted as an ethnographic, multiple-size case study using structured and informal interviews, naturalistic observations, content analysis of historical documents, computer usage statistics, and stages-of-concerns data The institutional context, characteristics of the innovation, and concerns of individuals are examined in the central office, schools, and classrooms of a school district. The characteristics of the implementation that contributed to and detracted from institutionalization of the innovation in the school district are discussed.

From awareness to responsible action (part 1): defining learning objectives and necessary skills

T he field of computer science has advanced rapidly in the last 25 years, and this advance necessitates the continual revision of both the curriculum and the pedagogy needed to teach an evolving discipline. One fundamental change in computer science in the last decade has been the realization that the ethical and social context in which computer technology is produced and used must be taken into account in both its design and implementation. This is not only because there are inevitably ethical and social implications to be considered, but also because understanding the context has usually enhanced the technical design. [5, 6, 10] The recognition of the social, ethical and professional context of computer science was included as one of the foundational principles in Computing Curricula 1991, [1, 13] and has been a part of the curriculum accreditation standards for almost a decade. [1, 3] Recently the final report of the ImpactCS Project funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation was made available on the web. [15] It was the culmination of four years of effort by many experts in computer ethics and social responsibility. The curricula progression and related models presented in the report are based upon approaches that have been widely implemented, debated, and disseminated through computer science education conferences, workshops, journal articles and web sites. Although this project focussed primarily on computer science education, the proposed frameworks, we could also use models and strategies in engineering, business, information systems or other technically oriented curricula. All aspects of the work of the ImpactCS Project rest upon theoretical constructs and empirical evidence, and each subsequent report built upon the foundation of the previous report(s). In this column, I will focus on the recommendations of the second ImpactCS report, but to provide context, a brief description of the purpose of each report follows: 1) The first report provides a formal, theoretical framework as the foundation for a tenth subject area in computer science. [7,15] The framework used to define the core content presented in the first report was derived from applied ethics and social analysis theories. 2) The second report instantiates the theoretical framework from the first report by articulating the essential core of knowledge in this new area with the same rigor and formalism used to define the other nine subject areas through knowledge units and learning objectives. [8, 15] The knowledge units, learning objectives, and teaching methods presented in the second report were based upon learning and teaching theories 3) The third and final report provides a rationale based upon moral education theory [9] and several models for the progressive integration of material and educational experiences dealing with ethics and social responsibility across the CS [4, 11, 14, 15]