• How Do Teachers Use Computers and the Internet at School?
• How Do Teachers Direct Their Students to Use Computers and the Internet?
• How Well Prepared Do Teachers Feel They Are to Use Computers and the Internet in Their Teaching?
• References

Teachers were asked the degree to which they used computers or the Internet to prepare for and manage their classes. Thirty-nine percent of public school teachers with access to computers or the Internet in their classroom or elsewhere indicated they used computers or the Internet a lot to create instructional materials, and 34 percent reported using computers a lot for administrative recordkeeping (table 1). Less than 10 percent of teachers reported using computers or the Internet to access model lesson plans or to access research and best practices.

Newer teachers were more likely to use computers or the Internet to accomplish various teaching objectives. Teachers with 9 or fewer years of teaching experience were more likely than teachers with 20 or more years of experience to report using computers or the Internet a lot to communicate with colleagues (30 percent with 3 or fewer years and 30 percent with 4 to 9 years, vs. 19 percent with 20 or more years) and gather information for lessons (21 and 22 percent vs. 11 percent for the same three groups). Also, teachers with 4 to 9 years of teaching experience were more likely to report they used computers or the Internet a lot to create instructional materials (47 percent) than were teachers with 20 or more years of experience (35 percent).

Table 1.—Percent of teachers indicating they use computers or the Internet a lot at school to accomplish various objectives, by school and teacher characteristics: 1999

Teachers' use of computers or the Internet at school varied for some types of uses by school poverty level (the percentage of students in the school eligible for free or reduced-price lunches). Teachers in schools with a school poverty level of less than 11 percent were more likely to use computers or the Internet a lot for creating instructional materials (52 percent) than teachers in schools with a school poverty level of 71 percent or more (32 percent). This pattern also held for teachers who used computers for administrative recordkeeping (43 vs. 24 percent for the same groups).

Sixty-six percent of public school teachers reported using computers or the Internet for instruction during class time (table 2). Forty-one percent of teachers reported assigning students work that involved computer applications such as word processing and spreadsheets to a moderate or large extent; 31 percent of teachers reported assigning practice drills and 30 percent reported assigning research using the Internet to a moderate or large extent (table 2).

The ways teachers direct students to use computers or the Internet varied by instructional level, school poverty level, and hours of professional development. Elementary school teachers were more likely than secondary school teachers to assign students practice drills using computers (39 vs. 12 percent) and to have their students use computers or the Internet to solve problems (31 vs. 20 percent). Secondary school teachers, however, were more likely to assign research using the Internet (41 vs. 25 percent). Teachers in the lowest poverty schools were more likely to report assigning students work involving computer applications, research using CD-ROMs, and research using the Internet to a moderate or large extent than teachers in the highest poverty schools (table 2).

Teachers with more professional development in the use of computers and the Internet over the last 3 years were more likely to assign students various types of work involving computers or the Internet. For example, teachers with more than 32 hours of professional development were more likely to assign problem solving (41 percent) than were teachers with 0 hours (14 percent) or those with 1 to 8 hours (24 percent), graphical presentations (31 compared with 10 and 16 percent for the same groups), and demonstrations or simulations (29 compared with 8 and 13 percent for the same groups).

Table 2.—Percent of teachers reporting using computers or the Internet for instruction and the percent assigning various uses to students to a moderate or large extent, by school and teacher characteristics: 1999

When teachers were asked to focus specifically on the variety of potential uses of computers or the Internet in the classroom, 23 percent of public school teachers reported feeling well prepared and an additional 10 percent reported feeling very well prepared to use computers and the Internet in their teaching (table 3).^* Teachers who reported assigning students work that involved corresponding with experts, authors, or students from other schools were more likely to report feeling very well prepared to use computers and the Internet than teachers who assigned practice drills to a moderate or large extent (30 vs. 14 percent).

Table 3.—Percentage distribution of teachers with access to computers or the Internet at school according to the level of preparedness they feel to use computers and the Internet, by school and teacher characteristics: 1999

Teachers with fewer years of experience and those with more hours of professional development felt better prepared to use computers and the Internet for classroom instruction. Teachers with 3 or fewer years of teaching experience were more likely to feel well prepared to use computers and the Internet than teachers with 20 or more years of experience (31 vs. 19 percent). Teachers with more than 32 hours of professional development in the use of computers and the Internet within the last 3 years were more likely to report feeling very well prepared than teachers who had received 0 to 32 hours of formal professional development (29 vs. 6 to 10 percent). Teachers without recent professional development were more likely to report feeling not at all prepared to use computers and the Internet in classrooms than teachers who had received 1 or more hours of professional development.

A more extensive discussion of the results of this survey will be available in a report forthcoming in summer 2000. The report will focus on the relationships between school characteristics such as school level, school poverty level, school location, and school size and uses of computers and the Internet.

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