Learning With Computers

Contrary to the belief that computers isolate users, Karen Littleton and Paul Light demonstrate that learning with computers is often a collaborative and social activity. Learning with Computers brings together a significant body of research that shows how working with others at the computer can be beneficial to learners of all ages, from the early school years to the highest levels of education. It also investigates factors such as gender that explain why some interactions are not as productive as others.

This book is a collection of refereed invited papers on the history of computing in education from the 1970s to the mid-1990s presenting a social history of the introduction and early use of computers in schools. The 30 papers deal with the introduction of computer in schools in many countries around the world: Norway, South Africa, UK, Canada, Australia, USA, Finland, Chile, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Ireland, Israel and Poland. The authors are not professional historians but rather people who as teachers, students or researchers were involved in this history and they narrate their experiences from a personal perspective offering fascinating stories.

The new second edition LEARNING WITH COMPUTERS I (Level Green, Grade 7) is a revision of the first edition project-based text to cover Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010. There is also a companion text, LEARNING WITH COMPUTERS II (Level Orange, Grade 8). This series for middle school students delivers a strong foundation in keyboarding and computer applications. In this project based text, students are introduced to the Explorers Club where four young members of the club -- Luis, Ray, Julie, and Lin -- guide students on Microsoft Office explorations. Along the way, each student keeps a personal journal about their explorations. The text offers multiple opportunities to reinforce and maintain basic keyboarding, word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, database, graphics, and Internet skills. Students are also introduced to new grade-level appropriate computer skills based on the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). Additionally, the text emphasizes research, reading, and writing activities relevant to social studies, science, math, and language arts curriculum. The text for use with Windows applications, is divided into 4 units; Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Presentations (Graphics, Multimedia, and Integration) and Databases. Each unit contains multiple projects for a total of 18 projects per text, plus an introductory project. Each project focuses on a group of grade-level appropriate objectives for particular computer applications. Several hands-on activities within each project are designed around these objectives. This one-semester text can be used as a stand alone or in conjunction with South-Western's MicroType keyboarding software. MicroType is an engaging, easy-to-use program that teaches new-key learning and skill building. Features include 3-D animations, videos, and fun interactive games. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

This text focuses on general concepts, theory, and research on teaching, learning, and technology rather than on hands-on assignments at the computer. This book is most suitable for courses where students already have basic computing skills and the focus is on issues of integration of technology in the classroom, or for courses where computing skills are taught simultaneously with the concepts, issues, and theories of integration. This text is geared toward answering the question: "What would a teacher do differently if she/he used computers in her/his classroom?" The book links actual practice to underlying theories of both teaching and learning. It helps students develop their own framework for thinking about educational computing.

The NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Mathematics Education and Technology was held in Villard-de-Lans, France, between May 6 and 11, 1993. Organised on the initiative of the BaCoMET (Basic Components of Mathematics Education for Teachers) group (Christiansen, Howson and Otte 1986; Bishop, Mellin-Olsen and van Dormolen 1991), the workshop formed part of a larger NATO programme on Advanced Educational Technology. Some workshop members had already participated in earlier events in this series and were able to contribute insights from them: similarly some members were to take part in later events. The problematic for the workshop drew attention to important speculative developments in the applications of advanced information technology in mathematics education over the last decade, notably intelligent tutoring, geometric construction, symbolic algebra and statistical analysis. Over the same period, more elementary forms of information technology had started to have a significant influence on teaching approaches and curriculum content: notably arithmetic and graphic calculators; standard computer tools, such as spreadsheets and databases; and computer-assisted learning packages and computer microworlds specially designed for educational purposes.

Impelled by a demand for increasing American strength in the new global economy, many educators, public officials, business leaders, and parents argue that school computers and Internet access will improve academic learning and prepare students for an information-based workplace. But just how valid is this argument? In Oversold and Underused, one of the most respected voices in American education argues that when teachers are not given a say in how the technology might reshape schools, computers are merely souped-up typewriters and classrooms continue to run much as they did a generation ago. In his studies of early childhood, high school, and university classrooms in Silicon Valley, Larry Cuban found that students and teachers use the new technologies far less in the classroom than they do at home, and that teachers who use computers for instruction do so infrequently and unimaginatively. Cuban points out that historical and organizational economic contexts influence how teachers use technical innovations. Computers can be useful when teachers sufficiently understand the technology themselves, believe it will enhance learning, and have the power to shape their own curricula. But these conditions can't be met without a broader and deeper commitment to public education beyond preparing workers. More attention, Cuban says, needs to be paid to the civic and social goals of schooling, goals that make the question of how many computers are in classrooms trivial.

The influx of computer technology into classrooms during the past decade raises the questions -- how can we teach children to use computers productively and what effect will learning to program computers have on them? During this same period, researchers have investigated novice learning of computer programming. Teaching and Learning Computer Programming unites papers and perspectives by respected researchers of teaching and learning computer science while it summarizes and integrates major theoretical and empirical contributions. It gives a current and concise account of how instructional techniques affect student learning and how learning of programming affects students' cognitive skills. This collection is an ideal supplementary text for students and a valuable reference for professionals and researchers of education, technology and psychology, computer science, communication, developmental psychology, and industrial organization.

The Revised Edition of Step by Step Computer Learning Series presents an upgraded module for learning with expertise to understand the other subjects further. In this edition, exercises have been enriched with variety of questions which will help the students to enhanced their skills.