An examination of student interaction in an elementary classroom while using computers.

This study was a case study of 32 children in a split grade one and two class. The study examined the link between popularity and interaction at the computers while controlling for grade level, gender and possession of home computer. A sociometric questionnaire was administered to establish popularity data and videotapes were taken to monitor the actual interaction frequencies. The results indicated that popularity had little bearing on interaction frequencies. Furthermore, contrary to the literature, boys were not found to be dominant in computer usage. The evidence presented indicates that in this particular case the social organization of classroom activities of the teacher played a major role in the observed pattern. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 31-03, page: 0981. Chair: Adolf Ehrentraut. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1992