STUDENT COMPUTER USE FOR SCHOOL WORK ON THEIR OWN TIME Although teachers may have their most direct effects on students' learning during class time, teachers also affect how much effort students take to do school work at
other times—before and after school and at other times away from the school building. We asked teachers whose students use computers during class what proportion of the students (in their selected class) "do work for this
class at other times," that is, while at school and outside of school. Across all teachers in the probability sample who assign computer work to their selected class, 25% say that all or most of their students have done
computer work on at least several occasions outside of class time while at school and about the same number (28%) say that all or most students have done class work at home or other places away from school. These two types of
out-of-class activities are correlated; a majority of teachers who reported one type of activity also reported the other. Teachers who reported that students did out-of-class-time computer work differ from other
teachers in terms of which subjects they taught, the overall level of student achievement in their class, the socio-economic level of the school's population, and according to which objectives they had for student computer
use. Thus, student characteristics, teaching responsibilities, and approach to computer use all affect the likelihood that students will supplement their in-class computer work with time before or after school or at home, at
least as measured by teacher surveys. In terms of subject-matter, two-fifths (39%) of all science teachers who assign computer work during class reported that most or all students did computer work at school outside of
class time. (See Figure 14) On the other hand, only 10% of computer-assigning math teachers did. Other secondary teachers with higher-than-average rates of reporting before- and after-school computer use included teachers of
computer classes and social studies teachers. Table 14 shows not only the percent of teachers reporting most or all students doing out-of-class school-located computer work, but the percent reporting that no students did this at
all. Besides math teachers, three other groups of teachers reported limited out-of-class-time computer work by students—vocational education teachers, business education teachers, and elementary teachers of self-contained
classes.
FIGURE 14: PERCENT OF COMPUTER-ASSIGNING TEACHERS
REPORTING THAT ALL OR MOST STUDENTS USED COMPUTERS
AT SCHOOL FOR CLASS ASSIGNMENTS, OUTSIDE OF CLASS TIME
TABLE 14: PERCENT OF COMPUTER-ASSIGNING TEACHERS REPORTING
DIFFERENT LEVELS OF OUT-OF-CLASS AT-SCHOOL COMPUTER WORK
(FOR THE CLASS), BY SUBJECT AND LEVEL TAUGHT
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With respect to students using computers to do work for the class at home, more computer-assigning English teachers reported students doing this than any other group of teachers (48%). (See Figure 15) That is probably due to the wide accessibility of word processing software on home computers. Science and foreign language teachers were also above-average in this regard, also suggesting that word processing is the dominant school-related use of computers at students' homes. The computer-assigning teachers least likely to report most students engaged in away-from-school computer use for class-related work were fine arts teachers (none of them did), math teachers (5%), and vocational education teachers (10%). For two of those groups, fine arts and vocational education, that is probably due to the specialized and costly nature of the software used in those courses. For math teachers, this appears to be the continuation of the relatively low involvement of math teachers in computer work that has been evident throughout this report. It should be noted that while a majority fine arts and vocational education teachers reported some student computer use outside of school, 71% of computer-assigning secondary math teachers reported no outside-of-school use by students for math class at all. (See Table 15.)
FIGURE 15: PERCENT OF COMPUTER-ASSIGNING TEACHERS REPORTING THAT
ALL OR MOST STUDENTS USED COMPUTERS
FOR CLASS ASSIGNMENTS, OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL
TABLE 15: PERCENT OF COMPUTER-ASSIGNING TEACHERS REPORTING VARIOUS LEVELS OF OUT-OF-SCHOOL COMPUTER WORK FOR CLASS, BY SUBJECT AND LEVEL TAUGHT
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