Of course, this raises the question, if some users of multimedia authoring software do not see
its primary value in terms of improving students' ability to present information to an audience, what are their objectives for that software's use? Table 13 highlights all those "high priority objectives" which were selected
by at least one-third of the teachers who use each type of software frequently (that is, in 10 or more lessons during the year). (The entries indicate the percentage of those frequent-using teachers, including both the
probability and purposive samples, who reported that particular objective.) TABLE 13. PRIMARY OBJECTIVES SELECTED BY TEACHERS WHO FREQUENTLY USED SPECIFIC TYPES OF SOFTWARE WITH STUDENTS (PERCENT SELECTING
OBJECTIVE)
Regardless of which types of software teachers use frequently—and that includes the multimedia-authoring users referred to in the previous paragraph—they are apt to see written expression and information acquisition ("finding out about ideas and information") as one of the primary objectives of their instructional use of computers. Overall, despite the fact that teachers' objectives were measured generally, without reference to particular types of software, Table 13 shows distinct patterns among the frequent users of different types of software. For example, nearly one-half of multimedia-authoring software users valued the goal of students presenting information to an audience, but frequent users of many other types of software were less than half as likely to prioritize that objective. Apart from obvious connections, such as between electronic communications objectives and student use of e-mail software, associations were evident between collaboration objectives and both graphics software and multimedia authoring, between a skills-mastery orientation and spreadsheet/database activities, and between information analysis goals and use of three types of software—spreadsheets/databases, electronic mail, and simulation and microworld exploration programs. [14] Thus, not surprisingly, teachers' choice of software reflects their instructional goals and perspectives. This relationship will be explored in much more detail in a future report.