Teacher Awareness of State And Regional Computer-Related Resources

The problem addressed by this investigation was the level of awareness for a group of southern New Jersey secondary school teachers on the availability of five computer resources for southern New Jersey educators. The ETTC-south, the NJAET, the McSiip organization, the ETN, and Glassboro State College\u27s 18 semester-hour program in computer education, are five means that southern New Jersey educators have to explore computer related technology. The population for this study consisted of 180 English, mathematics, social studies, and science teachers in four public high schools in southern New Jersey. A survey instrument that was designed by the writer provided the means for collecting data from the sample population about teacher awareness of the five computer resources. In addition, other data gathered through the survey included such topics as teacher interest in using computers, teacher training, current teacher classroom computer use, and teacher future interest in the five computer resources. Appropriate data from the returned surveys were categorized and tabulated in terms of both frequency counts and percentages. In addition, specific data were reorganized and analyzed by the chi- square analysis statistical technique to determine if there were any differences between users and nonusers of computers in the classroom at the .05 level of significance. The survey findings from the collected data include: Over 50% of all respondents were completely unaware of the five computer resources available to southern New Jersey educators. Less than 50% of all respondents expressed either considerable or great interest in further knowledge/involvement about the five resources. Less than 50% of all respondents expressed great interest in each of ten selected computer applications. About one-third of all respondents reported that they are currently using computers in their classrooms. Most of the 43 computer users reported that they most frequently use computers in their classrooms for teacher utilities such as wordprocessing and record keeping. the most frequently reported computer training source for all respondents was self- taught. There are no reported differences at the .05 level of significance between the two groups of classroom computer users and nonusers for any of the following selected characteristics: (a) school/ community type, (b) sex, (c) age, (d) educational degree, and (e) years of experience. There are reported differences at the .05 level of significance between the classroom computer users and nonusers for interest in the following selected computer instructional applications: (a) visual technical aid, (b) Simulations, (c) testing, and (d) word-processing for lesson design. There are reported differences at the .05 level of significance between the classroom computer users and nonusers for awareness of four out of the five selected southern New Jersey computer resources: (a) ETTC-South, (b) Mcsiip, (c) NJAET, and (d) the Glassboro program in computer education. There are reported differences at the .05 level of significance between the classroom computer users and nonusers for awareness of four out of the five selected southern New Jersey computer resources: (a) McSiip, (b) NJAET, and (c) ETN. The following major recommendations, based on the discussion and implications of the findings from this investigation, include: The leadership of the five computer resources should advertise their services directly to southern New Jersey public schools at the building level. The two resources, ETTC-South and McSiip, should develop and distribute self-teach aids for computer applications. The four school districts that were involved in this investigation need to develop comprehensive plans for using computer technology throughout the K-12 curriculum. This investigation that was limited to teachers in four high schools in the coastal southern New Jersey area should be repeated and expanded to include secondary teachers from all seven counties in southern New Jersey. Before the investigation is repeated, certain modifications need to be made to the survey instrument for purposes of clarity as well as for collecting other important information