John G. Wells

Learners in a Telecommunications Course: Adoption, Diffusion, and Stages of Concern

AbstractThis study examined the effects of Internet instruction on the attitudes of learners toward a new innovation before, during, and after the instruction. Responses from the stages of concern instrument are used as the dependent measure. Regressions were run to see whether any linear relationships exist between learners’ stages of concern and their prior computer knowledge in the following categories: (a) general, (b) content-area software, (c) word processors, (d) databases, (e) spreadsheets, (f) programming languages, (g) authoring languages, (h) hypermedia, and (I) the Internet. Results indicated general trends toward increased overall positive attitudes toward this new innovation, the Internet.

The Effects of Online Multimedia Project Development, Learning Style, and Prior Computer Experiences on Teachers’ Attitudes Toward the Internet and Hypermedia

AbstractThis study was based on the effects of a multimedia institute on teachers’ attitudes toward the Internet and hypermedia. Factored in the analysis, in addition to the institute, were the teachers’ learning styles and prior computer-related experiences. It was found that the teacherdevelopers’ attitudes toward hypermedia changed more than their attitudes toward the Internet. Of the seven Internet domains, the teachers’ Refocusing attitudes increased. Of the seven hypermedia domains, Awareness, Informational, and Management attitudes decreased, and Refocusing attitudes increased. Prior hypermedia-related experience was the strongest predictor of Internet and hypermedia attitudes. Learning style did not have a significant effect on either Internet or hypermedia attitudes.