The impact of portable computers on pupils’ attitudes to study

Citation

Morrison H, Gardner J, Reilly C & McNally H (1993) The impact of portable computers on pupils’ attitudes to study. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 9 (3), pp. 130-140. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.1993.tb00099.x

Abstract
Over two hundred pupils in nine schools were provided with a personal portable computer for a whole school year. One aspect of the research was to assess the impact which high access to information technology (IT) had on the pupils' attitudes to their schools and to the core disciplines: mathematics, English and science. The attitudes of the experimental and control groups (those with and those without portables) to the disciplines and to their schools were measured using 25-item semantic differential and 28-item Likert instruments respectively. Factor analysis revealed that positive impacts of high access to IT upon the attitudes of pupils was relatively marginal and confined to instances where the pupils' process-based IT work transferred to the content domains in their disciplines. An interpretation of these affective findings, informed by recent National Curriculum research, is offered.

Keywords
Attitudes; English; Mathematics; Portable computers; School; Science

Journal
Journal of Computer Assisted Learning: Volume 9, Issue 3

People

Professor John Gardner

Professor, Education