FIGURE 17: TEACHERS' PROFESSIONAL USE OF COMPUTERS
TEACHER SELF-REPORTED EXPERTISE WITH COMPUTERS
A computer is a fairly complex piece of electronic equipment. In part, it is complex because its functions are so varied. Although for decades teachers have had to operate
equipment such as movie projectors, slide projectors, and VCRs to fulfill their teaching role, the skills required to successfully operate computers are far removed from most other
competencies required of teachers—for example, classroom management, student assessment, organizing materials and planning lessons. Still, if teachers are to
successfully use computers for their own professional needs and to oversee how students themselves use computers to fulfill classroom assignments, teachers will need to have certain levels of expertise in basic computer operations.
Our survey asked teachers to rate their skill level for eight different computer tasks, from displaying the directory of a computer disk to developing a multimedia document. The
percentage of teachers who reported that they knew how to do a particular computer task varied from 75% who said they could display a disk's directory to only 18% who said they
could develop a multimedia document. In addition, nearly three-quarters (71%) said they could copy files from one disk to another, three-fifths could use a Web browser (63%),
about one-half (48%) said they could imbed graphics into a word processor document, two-fifths (40%) could create a new database and establish fields and screen layouts, and
one-fourth (26%) could prepare a slide show using presentation software. Of course these skills were not actually tested, but they are the teachers' self-reported presentation of their sense of competency in these areas.
In a second survey question, we asked teachers to rate their expertise on each of three different computer platforms: Windows/DOS, Macintosh, and Apple II. Overall, a majority of
teachers (59%) felt that they were at least "very experienced" on at least one of the computer platforms, and 11% considered themselves "expert" on at least one platform.
Many teachers have had sufficient experience to consider themselves "very experienced" (or better) on more than one platform (22%), but few felt they were expert on more than one (3%).
Generally, secondary teachers, particularly high school teachers, reported having higher levels of computer skill and platform expertise than did elementary school teachers. (See
Figure 18 and Table 18.) Overall, for example, high school teachers, even including those who did not have their students use computers, reported having about 4 computer skills out
of the seven asked about compared to 2.6 skills for the average elementary teacher. Also, they were twice as likely to claim expertise on a computer platform (14% vs. 6%). Within
the secondary teaching ranks, not surprisingly computer teachers were most likely to claim platform expertise (32%). The least likely were math teachers (8%) and teachers of "other
applied" subjects (5%). In terms of self-reported computer skills, elementary teachers reported fewer of them, on average, than any group of secondary subject-matter teachers.
FIGURE 18: TEACHER COMPUTER EXPERTISE,
BY SCHOOL LEVEL
TABLE 18. TEACHER COMPTER EXPERTISE BY SUBJECT-LEVEL
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In terms of the platform on which teachers are most experienced, about the same percentage of teachers feel themselves either "very experienced" or "expert" in using the Macintosh (31%) as feel that way about using Windows or DOS systems (35%). (Nine percent say they are very experienced or expert on both.) Among teachers who assign computer work to students, there is a similar pattern: 34% are very experienced or expert on Macs compared to 36% having that level of experience with Windows. Only one- fifth of all teachers (and 24% of all computer-assigning teachers) report being very experienced on Apple II series computers.
Expertise on Windows/DOS systems varies by school level, with nearly twice the percentage of high school teachers rating themselves "very experienced" or better as did elementary teachers (42% vs. 24%). In contrast, the presence of Macintosh expertise is quite even across the three school levels—roughly 30% of teachers at all levels claim that level of experience. By subject, there are sharp differences favoring Windows expertise among computer teachers and business education teachers—teachers who generally have the most technology available and whose students use computers the most frequently. In business education, four times as many teachers report being very experienced or expert on Windows/DOS as on Macintosh systems. Among computer teachers, the ratio is about 2.5 to 1.