PART III. TEACHER COMPUTER EXPERTISE AND PROFESSIONAL USE
TEACHER PROFESSIONAL USE OF SOFTWARE As we showed in Table 1 of this report, about 30% of teachers do not
have their students use computers. However, three-fourths of those non-computer-assigning teachers do
use computers for their own professional needs—to prepare materials for teaching, to keep track of student grades, or to communicate with other teachers or parents. (So do 98% of the teachers who assign computer work to their students.)
Overall, teachers' most frequent professional uses are related to their day-to-day needs—making handouts, keeping a record of student grades, and writing lesson plans or notes. A majority of teachers use computers to make
handouts for class on at least a weekly basis. Almost half of all teachers also use computers that frequently to record and calculate student grades and to make lesson plans or notes. Teachers use computer technology less
often in other ways, such as getting information from the Internet (28% do that at least weekly). Most teachers use computers at least occasionally to correspond with parents, and between 30% and 40% also from time to time exchange
computer files with other teachers. Similarly, almost one-third use camcorders, digital cameras or scanners. By Spring, 1998, nearly one teacher in five had posted student work, suggestions, or shared their opinions on
the World Wide Web. These percentages as a whole suggest that computers have become a routine tool for helping teachers accomplish their professional work. Computers are no longer just something for students to spend time
on. They have become a major tool of the trade. Teachers of some subjects are more likely to use computers professionally than are others. (See Table 17.) Math teachers, for example, are less likely to use
computers in most ways than are other teachers. They are less likely to use computers for making handouts, getting information from the Internet, or translating material to electronic format. However, they are more
likely than other teachers are to use computers to keep track of student grades. In contrast, teachers of computer, business, and vocational education courses use computers more for professional purposes than other teachers
do. They exceed other teachers particularly in writing lesson plans, exchanging computer files with other teachers, and using camcorders, digital cameras or scanners, and also in recording grades by computer.
TABLE 17. PROFESSIONAL USES OF COMPUTERS, BY SUBJECT-LEVEL
In general, teachers who use computers more frequently with students also use computers more for professional purposes. This is not, however, true for mathematics teachers. Math teachers whose students use computers frequently (41+ times) themselves use professional applications at about 75% of the rate that math teachers whose students use computers less often do. This is the opposite of the pattern for most other subjects, as shown in Table 17.
Frequent computer-assigning teachers are most different from non-computer assigning teachers in their greater use of searching the Web for resources for use in teaching, in using scanners, digital cameras, and camcorders as teaching resources, and in posting information on the Web. (See supplementary Table A-7.) One professional application, interestingly enough, is used somewhat more by non-computer-assigning teachers than by those who give students frequent computer assignments—keeping track of student grades. This appears to be a simple-to-understand application that requires little computer expertise. Yet, once teachers find other ways to help them in their professional work, they may put aside this particular application.