Overall, the broadest use of different types of software occurs among computer and business education teachers, and the next broadest use is among secondary vocational education teachers, elementary teachers, and a group we call "secondary teachers of mixed or other academic subjects." Those teachers are much more likely to have students use a variety of software—or any one type of software—than are more traditional "single subject" secondary teachers. That pattern is even clearer in Table 8, which shows the percentage of each group of teachers whose students used each type of software on at least 10 occasions during the school year (actually, over the 8 months, on average, between the start of the school year and the completion of the survey).
FIGURE 8: FREQUENT AND OCCASIONAL SOFTWARE USE OF
THE FOLLOWING TYPES OF SOFTWARE
TABLE 8: PERCENT OF TEACHERS REPORTING FREQUENT STUDENT USE (USE IN AT LEAST 10 LESSONS), BY TYPE OF SOFTWARE AND SUBJECT & LEVEL TAUGHT
Table 8 shows that there are relatively few examples where a given type of software is being used frequently by at least of one-third teachers of any one subject. Only 11 times (out of
130 possible cells in the first panel of Table 8) do we see frequent use by at least one-third of all teachers with their classes. Word processing accounted for nearly half of those (6),
led, not surprisingly, by computer teachers and business education teachers, three-fourths of which had students use word processing on at least ten occasions. Computer and
business education teachers accounted for 3 more examples, involving Web use and spreadsheets. The final two examples were elementary self-contained class teachers' use
of skill practice games and mixed academic secondary teachers' use of CD-ROMs. The rest of the combinations of computer use by subject (119 of them) involved only a small
percentage of teachers. For example, among English teachers only 4% had students use presentation software on at least 10 occasions. Among science teachers, only 5% had
students use simulation or modeling software that often. Among vocational teachers, only 7% had students make frequent use of spreadsheets or database software. And only 4%
of math teachers had students use word processing 10 times. Outside of business and computer teachers, outside of word processing, CD-ROM use, and World Wide Web use,
and outside of skill practice games in elementary school, there were almost no examples of a type of software being used frequently by more than 20% of any one category of teacher.
In summary, it appears that most types of software have their widest diffusion in applied and elective areas of the secondary school curriculum where teachers are freer to adopt
technology-based approaches to instruction. Except for word processing, CD-ROM software, and the World Wide Web, relatively few college preparatory academic teachers
(who are perhaps constrained by their notion of college admission standards) even experiment with simulation software, graphics software, presentation software, spreadsheets, or databases.
Teachers in those subjects not only have fewer classroom computers, but they may be more constrained by expectations for subject-matter coverage against implementing
teaching approaches in which computer activities are tools for student projects. As a result, one would not expect to find major outcomes of student computer use in schools by
examining high school students' achievement on academic tests of mathematics skill or science or social studies knowledge. It would be more appropriate to attend to the
competencies likely to be affected by the ways computers are used—primarily, given the broad use of word processing, in terms of writing competence, and in a range of applied
secondary courses where teachers prepare students to be productive users of occupationally relevant technology tools and resources.