An analysis of the differences between remote rural and regular elementary schools in their computer courses and the influencing factors

• Main Authors: Shao Sheng Liu, 劉紹勝
• Other Authors: 林美娟
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/5zpknx

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 資訊教育學系在職進修碩士班 === 97 === ABSTRACT An analysis of the differences between remote rural and regular elementary schools in their computer courses and the influencing factors Shao Sheng Liu This study extends the survey research conducted by Tsai (2008) to further investigate the differences between remote rural and regular elementary schools in the implementation of their computer courses as well as the influencing factors that may have caused such differences. A follow-up questionnaire survey and an on-line forum were used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. The survey generated 754 valid responses, including 491 from regular elementary schools and 263 from remote rural schools, representing 25.54% and 35.97% of the total number of schools in each category. The on-line forum was conducted to solicit opinions and feedback on the survey results from computer teachers in elementary schools. More than 80 teachers participated in the forum and approximately 500 articles were posted. Results of this study reveal that the implementation of computer courses in the remote rural schools encounter significantly more difficulties in seven areas—variation among individual teachers of the same grade in the course content taught, lack of continuity between grades in the course content taught, computer teachers’ lack of professional competence, computer teachers’ inability to carry out the instructional plans, insufficient number of computers to support one-computer-per-student hands-on practice during lab sessions, insufficient funds to acquire software for instructional purposes, and frequent network connection problems during lab sessions. In terms of the content taught in computer courses, the five most-taught software applications in both school categories are basically the same, only differing in priority ranking. They include word processors, Internet browsers and email applications, basic functions of operating systems, presentation software, and Chinese keyboarding. Moreover, remote rural schools do not differ significantly from regular schools in whether free software was adopted as a substitute for commercial software in computer courses. This study also find that both regular and remote rural schools teach computer usage rules, computer usage security, adequate access to web resources, responsible use of the Internet, and computers and everyday life in their computer courses. As for the adoption of computer textbooks, significantly fewer remote rural schools use computer textbooks than regular schools. In terms of teacher qualifications, less than 40% of the computer teachers in both school categories have computer-related college degrees, with remote rural schools showing a significantly lower percentage. This may have accounted for the phenomenon that the professional competence of computer teachers in remote rural schools play a significantly more crucial part in determining the course content taught to the students. Finally, more than 70% of the respondents in both school categories, with no significant difference between them, favor the idea of having computer textbooks reviewed by the government education agency before they are released to the market.