SOFTWARE THAT TEACHERS JUDGE AS MOST VALUABLE FOR STUDENTS
Separately
from asking teachers about how often they had students use different types of software, we also asked teachers to name several of the "best" or "most valuable" software programs that students in their selected class had used
(including Internet access software).[8]
Programs named as "best" or "most valuable" by 5% or more of all computer-assigning teachers of a given subject are shown in Table 9. ClarisWorks (now AppleWorks), the integrated office application, is clearly the program
most widely viewed by teachers as most valuable for students. Twenty percent of both elementary and middle school teachers who gave students computer work found it to be one of the two or three best programs for students, as
did 12% of high school teachers who assigned computer work. In every subject category except business education, at least 10% of computer-assigning teachers judged it that way. At the secondary level, in those subjects where
teachers are least likely to frequently assign computer work (i.e., academic subject teachers and teachers of fine arts) it is named by at least 15% of computer-assigning teachers. Interestingly, in secondary subjects where
teachers are most likely to assign computer work to students on a frequent basis (i.e., computer and business classes), teachers are less likely to name ClarisWorks as one of their most valuable programs. ClarisWorks, thus,
appears to serve as an easy-entry general-purpose software tool that meets the needs of occasional computer-assigning teachers. When they become more expert and more specialized in their needs, they move on to other programs
for fulfilling these basic office functions. TABLE 9: SPECIFIC SOFTWARE REPORTED AS "BEST" OR "MOST VALUABLE"
FOR STUDENTS BY COMPUTER-ASSIGNING TEACHERS,
BY SUBJECT & LEVEL OF TEACHER
Probability and purposive samples; teachers who assigned computer work to selected class and who named at least one
program. *One-half of teachers responded to a question about the "best computer programs students in this class have used."
The other one-half responded to a question about their most valuable software in each of the past five years. Data from the
two most recent years were taken from this latter group, and only if the software did not seem to be named primarily because of its value for the teacher's own professional use.
** Software in bold are applications other than office software, Internet access software, or CD-ROM encyclopedias. They are primarily subject-specific applications or authoring tools.
Among middle and high school teachers, three other programs besides ClarisWorks were named by at
least 10% of computer-assigning teachers as among their "best" for student work. One was another integrated office application (Microsoft Works), one was a word processor (Microsoft Word), and the
third was the dominant Web browser during 1998, Netscape. However, two very different kinds of programs found adherents among a substantial percentage of
elementary computer-assigning teachers. The multimedia authoring program, Hyperstudio, was named as "best" by 11% of computer-assigning elementary teachers (and by 10% of secondary social studies
teachers as well). The tradebook-oriented computer-based testing program, Accelerated Reader, was named by 9% of computer-assigning elementary teachers and by 6% of secondary English teachers
as well. Neither of these programs fit into the office application-web-browser-generic tool category of the other popular programs. Hyperstudio is used for enabling students to produce media-integrated
products, while Accelerated Reader has become a highly popular system for increasing student effort in reading. (In Table 9, all "specialized" software—that is, other than the most common office
applications or Web browser software—is shown in bold type.) In a few secondary school subjects, one or two specialized software titles have become popular with a
substantial fraction of computer-assigning teachers. In mathematics, the inductively-oriented program, Geometer's Sketchpad, was mentioned by more than one-fifth (21%) of all math teachers who reported
a "most valuable" software title for use with their students. Similarly, the adult-level automated drafting program, AutoCAD, was reported to be their most valuable software by nearly one-fourth (24%) of all
vocational education teachers who used computers with their classes. In vocational education classes, AutoCAD plays a similar role that adult-level office software (e.g.,
Microsoft Office, Word Perfect, etc.) does in business education classes—as an occupational tool for which skill mastery is an explicit goal. However, the high percentage of mathematics teachers who
reported Geometer's Sketchpad to be among their best software was unexpected. Most academic subject areas have many specialized software titles, causing utilization to be split among many
different programs. Moreover, most computer-assigning mathematics teachers use very traditional skill-practice software, and Geometer's Sketchpad is oriented very differently, towards inductive
reasoning and exploration of hypotheses. (In comparison, the spreadsheet program Excel was selected by only 8% of computer-assigning math teachers.) Finally, the Sketchpad program has its
principal applicability in only one area of mathematics rather than being used across the full mathematics curriculum. Besides Sketchpad and AutoCAD, the only non-office, non-web-browser programs to be selected by
more than 10% of computer-assigning teachers in any given subject were PhotoShop, the adult-level image-editing program, chosen by 18% of computer-assigning fine arts teachers, and Microsoft
Publisher, a graphics-oriented word processing program, named by 14% of the small number of computer-assigning foreign language teachers.
The only other software (besides other word processing and office oriented titles) to appear in Table 9's list of software selected by at least 5% of computer-assigning teachers of particular subjects were two
CD-ROM-based encyclopedias (Encarta and Groliers), the game-like social studies simulation Oregon Trail, and "math blaster" type math drills. Recall, though, that Table 9 does not show all of the
software that teachers use with students, but only those titles named by teachers as "best" or "most valuable" for use with students.