Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemA study of teachers' experiences of six years of laptop computers in the classrooms of a senior secondary school( 2000)This is the report of a study based on a Melbourne Secondary School looking at the use of laptop computers made by the staff in their teaching. Questionnaires were the instrument used to find a measure of the level of penetration and overall acceptance of laptop computers and computer technology by the Teaching Staff. The questionnaire was administered in 1997 and again in 1999. This study looks, with regard to the use of laptop computers by staff, at aspects of the teaching curriculum, administrative tasks and teaching at the classroom level over the two-year period 1997 to 1999. The questionnaire used is a `census' of all staff teaching at Years 9-12 where the laptop program is mandatory in a variety of study areas. The finding of this report is that the program at Goodlands Grammar has, at least in the short term, created a teaching environment that is still working within the traditional curriculum, using computers to achieve traditional outcomes. The computer has not, as yet, become integrated into the classroom program; rather it remains a complicated overlay to the existing curriculum.
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ItemLaptop computers: changes in teachers' practice( 1998)This thesis tracks the chain of events which led to the introduction of a laptop computer program at an independent boys' school. Initially it examined the implementation of the program and its effects on teachers and students. To explain these patterns, the study then examined the way the school prepared itself to implement the use of laptops. In seeking to understand the reasons underlying the preparation for implementation strategies, the study then examined the key adoption decisions taken by the school. Thus, the thesis traces a set of interrelated phases of implementation, adoption and use. The study should be regarded as an evaluation because the findings presented here have been reported to the school. One aim was to 'lay out' what had happened up to a particular point in time, June 1997. Laying out the findings, or providing an illuminative analysis was a means chosen by which the school could come to grips with what had happened to this time. In addition, the study provides a more formative element through the synthesis of literature designed as a basis for improving the existing curriculum. The literature is linked to the findings of the empirical part of the study throughout the thesis. Having access to the findings of what has occurred so far, and the relevant literature, was seen as a way by which the evaluation can influence the future laptop program of the school.