This research was initiated to investigate the syndrome of computer dependency, and to ascertain whether there was any foundation to the apocryphal stories which suggested that 'obsessive' dependency by some people upon computers and computing was detrimental to their psychological and social development. National publicity brought forth volunteers who considered themselves to be dependent upon computers. As a group they did not form a cross-section of the general population but consisted in the main of very well educated, adult males. (An additional study showed that there were distinct differences between the sexes in attitudes held towards computers to account for this lack of balance). As the computer dependent individuals were unrepresentative of the general population, control groups were established with whom comparisons could be made, matched with them on the criteria of sex, age and highest educational level. One control group was formed from computer owners who were not computer dependent and the other from people Who did not own a computer. Thus three groups were studied; a computer dependent group and two controls. The results established that the two computer-owning groups differed significantly from each other in their preferred computing activities, both quantitatively and qualitatively. As anticipated, the computer dependent individuals spent significantly more time computing than the others, but they were also found to use computers in a more exploratory and self-educational manner, rarely having a definite end-product in mind. All three groups were found to have enjoyed different types of hobbies throughout their lives. The computer dependent group had shown interests in technological and scientific artefacts before school age and rarely partook of either the social or physical activities of interest to the control groups. The dependent group had found in the computer the ultimate hobby; one which was constantly stimulating and exciting and which matched their psychological needs. Investigation of the social and psychological issues suggested that the group of computer dependent people had experienced different types of parenting from the control groups, leading them to become object- rather than people-centred at an early age. This bias had been perpetuated throughout life, leaving them shy and unable to form satisfactory relationships; they neither trusted humans nor needed them in many cases. Their lives had become dominated by task- and object-related activities, with the computer offering them a controllable form of interaction Which they had been unable to find elsewhere. Deleterious effects occurred within some marriages Where one spouse had become computer dependent, but only en very rare occasions did individuals express distress about their dependency. Tb the contrary, the positive benefits gained by their use of computers far outweighed any disadvantages. The research disproved the hypothesis that computer dependency was in general detrimental to the individuals' social and psychological development, and suggested that computer dependency was in fact therapeutic by providing an outlet for their high levels of curiosity and originality. Computing had brought them intellectual stimulation rarely found when interacting with the majority of humans and had provided a level of fulfilment to which many would aspire.

Being typical of manufacturing industry currently, "islands of automation" have severely limited further productivity increases. As being gradually realised, CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) can provide opportunities for higher productivity, and CIM systems integration is the major task for achieving CIM. With reference to the background, this research project was mainly concerned with formalising flexible CIM systems integration architectures and evolving generic and flexible integration tools and methods.

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Thesis advisor: Michael K. Russell / Over the past few decades, and especially in the past ten years, computer use in schools has increased dramatically; however there has been little research examining the effects of technology use on student achievement, specifically defined by standardized test scores. There is also concern as to how technology use differs by gender and if that distinction may lead to differences in student achievement by gender. This study attempts to untangle the relationship between technology use, gender, and test scores. Specifically the study examines differences in computer use between boys and girls, which computer uses are predictors of English language arts and mathematics standardized test scores, and how gender interacts with these predictors. The sample for this study comes from the Berkshire Wireless Learning Initiative evaluation, which examined the use of technology at three one-to-one laptop schools and two comparison schools in western Massachusetts. This evaluation used online surveys to collect information about technology use and MCAS scores to measure student achievement. A series of regression analyses were employed to determine the relationship between these uses and MCAS scores. Findings from this study suggest that there are no significant differences in technology use between girls and boys. Additionally, there are only small relationships between technology use and achievement, but these relationships are stronger for boys than for girls. Finally, this study discovered that socioeconomic status did not significantly predict English language arts test scores for students at the laptop schools, but did significantly predict scores for students at the comparison schools. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.

This paper examines the wage premium to computer use in Sweden in the early 1990’s. I use simple regression model and interaction terms in my paper to examine the effect of computer use at work. Although the data is only one-year cross-section data, my results clearly show a wage premium to computer use in Sweden. There are also interesting findings in my paper by using Swedish data. From the results, I find wage premium to be related to intensity of computer use at work.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher perceptions of computer-based technology and technology support provided by a rural school division; the extent of teachers’ self reported computer skills, comfort levels, perception of obstacles; and the amount of support, time, and training available to them to accomplish the integration during the course of instruction. This research was conducted during the 2010-2011 school term as a case study of a small rural K-12 school division in southern Virginia, consisting of teachers from each core curriculum from each of the three schools, selected deliberately. The study was divided into three phases: an analysis of the school survey; focus group discussion with teachers; and qualitative data generated from focus group interviews. A major finding was that the teachers contend that classroom practices can be changed if teachers are given time to plan how to integrate technology in instruction, thus better preparing students for the 21st century. To accomplish this changed school leaders need to promote opportunities and remove obstacles that impede effective technology integration, and that additional time, access, and training should be established. Because teacher perceptions impact the success of technology integration and support, it is imperative to provide sufficient time for training on how to utilize available equipment in the classroom. This study also reinforced the importance of understanding teacher perceptions which are as important a resource as the hardware and software in computer-based technology in order to promote the successful integration of computer technology in classrooms.

This thesis represents the results of studies designed to investigate computer anxiety among adult learners. The existence, nature and degree of computer anxiety were investigated with a sample of teacher trainees undertaking an introductory computer training course, and the impact of this course on the anxiety and cognitions of the students were studied. Another study focussed on the evaluation of the measure of computer anxiety used in this study with a view to the design of a new computer anxiety treatment. Results showed that computer anxiety is not necessarily dissipated by completing a computer course, and is correlated with gender, computer ownership and previous computer experience. A number of faculties with different student populations were studied, and computer anxiety was high within each. Interviews with computing course coordinators indicated a range of approaches to instructional design, beliefs about the extent and causes of computer anxiety, and ways of alleviating it. Two approaches derived from these interviews formed the basis of the design of this study, with instructional methods as the treatments and levels of computer anxiety and negative cognitions as the aptitudes. The sample comprised two, with the first group receiving traditional instruction while the second group received direct instruction plus metacognitive strategy training in self-questioning within a cooperative learning context. Achievement was significantly enhanced in the second group, and it was felt that metacognitive training was effective as a means of enhancing achievement and positive cognitions. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This project explores the interactions of young children with computers in their homes. It focuses on: resources available and what affordances these enable; socio-cultural contexts, discourses and family practices; nature of the use and affordances children perceive; and how school experiences differ from those at home and the impact of teachers' discourses about computing. Findings were: common activities comprised game playing, editing and decorating texts and using information texts; gender and socio-economic differences interacted with varying rules, resources, discourses, affordances, and family use and expertise; parental discourses and resources combined to generate key affordances of the computer as toy and tool; parental discourses revealed different conceptions of childhood and computers; children’s patterns of learning and use are relatively consistent across age, gender and family background – they learn by exploring and the dominant affordance is the computer as playable; teachers’ discourses and conceptions lead to the marginalisation of computer use within the curriculum; at school, children have less access, control and time to use computers in ways that allow them to draw on the expertise and approaches they have developed at home. Theories are developed to show how children come to perceive the computer as playable, and how parents’ and teachers’ discourses position computing as marginal to the curriculum. The other issues relate to conceptions of learning, types of learning that computers afford, and the possibility that children’s approaches to learning are changing as a result of their interactions with computers / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)