The purpose of the study was to determine to what extent information processing was being taught to students enrolled in business education curricula of Indiana public secondary schools. A secondary purpose of the study was to examine constraints that were perceived to have hampered the inclusion of information processing in Indiana secondary business education instruction.A review of related literature and research was conducted in three major areas, (1) data processing, (2) word processing, and (3) information processing. A questionnaire was developed for use in surveying 120 secondary business education department chairpersons in Indiana. One respondent was utilized in each of 50 large comprehensive high schools, 50 small comphrensive high schools, and 20 area vocational schools. A total of 87 questionnaires or 73 percent of the questionnaires were returned. Tables were prepared to indicate frequency distribution and percentages of response choices for each item on the questionnaire.Among the findings of the study were the following:1. Data processing equipment was being utilized for businesseducation instruction in 35 percent of the schools and word processing equipment was being utilized in 50 percent of the schools. Micro-computers were more frequently used for data processing instruction than mainframe connected terminals.2. A higher percentage of business education students attending vocational schools received data processing hands-on experience than in comprehensive high schools.3. Data processing concept instruction was not provided to students in 38 percent of the schools; 33 percent did not offer word processing concepts instruction.4. Slightly more than one-fourth of all business teachers had necessary skills to teach on modern electronic equipment. However, 62 percent of schools had at least one business a teacher skilled to teach data processing and 75 percent had teachers skilled to teach word processing. Only four percent of all business teachers were currently taking courses in data processing and six percent were taking courses in word processing. Lack of funds and equipment was the most frequently given reason for not including word processing in business education curricula.Further research including a replication of the study and similar studies in other geographic areas should be conducted to ascertain the adequacy and growth of information processing instruction.

Allt fler skolor satsar på digitalisering och köper in egna datorer till eleverna. I samband med detta ställs det krav på eleverna att de skall kunna hantera tekniken och vara digitalt komp-etenta. Digital kompetens ses som en viktig del för elever att besitta och för att fungera i vårt samhällsliv. Detta är dock ingenting som skolan vi studerat främjar då de inte bidrar till en ökad digital kompetens hos eleverna. Det finns forskare som däremot anser att det är i skolan som eleverna bör få sin digitala kompetens. Forskning som genomförts inom digital komp-etens hos elever har visat att det dels finns en variation bland eleverna samtidigt som annan forskning har visat att elevers kompetensnivå anses vara allmänt låg när de ska utföra komp-lexa uppgifter. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka gymnasieelevers digitala kompetens inom ordbehandling. Studien har utförts på en gymnasieskola där vi har gjort en enkätundersökning. Enkäten delades ut till samtliga klasser och elever i årskurs tre. Dessutom har vi genomfört en fokusgruppsintervju. Resultatet av enkäten visade att eleverna har grundläggande kunskaper och färdigheter inom ordbehandlingsprogram. Resultatet av fokusgruppsintervjun visade att eleverna använder datorn främst till att skriva uppsatser och att eleverna inte har fått någon större utbildning för användning av deras datorer. Den enda datorutbildningen som skolan erbjudit har skett i början av årskurs ett vid skolstart när eleverna fick sina egna datorer. / More and more schools are investing in digitization and buy their own computers to students. In this correlation, it required the students to manage the technology and be digitally com-petent. Digital competence is seen as an important part for students to have and to function in our society. However, this is nothing schools we studied promotes as they do not contribute to an increase digital literacy of students. Some researchers, however, believe that it is the school that students should receive their digital skills. Research conducted within the digital compe-tence of students have shown that the coexistence of a variety among the students while other research has shown that students' skill level is considered to be generally low when to perform complex tasks. The purpose of this study is to investigate high school students' digital comp-etence in word processing. The study was performed at a high school where we have had a survey which was distributed to all classes and students in grade three and a focus group interview. The survey results showed that students have basic knowledge and skills in word processing. The results of the focus group interview showed that students use the computer mainly to write essays and that students have not had any major training for the use of their computers. The only computer training school offered occurred at the beginning of first grade when they start school when students got their own computers.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1997. / Title from title page screen, viewed June 29, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Russell Rutter (chair), James Kalmbach, Gerald Savage. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-162) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2006. / Includes bibliography.

The state of writing abilities throughout the United States presents an urgent issue. Low student achievement in English Language Arts (ELA) exams and standardized English assessments persist (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012), while businesses spend billions of dollars on remedial writing instruction (Dillon, 2008). Technology is increasingly cited as a potential solution to these issues. Evidence for this is limited, as is existing research into the basis of the issues that technology might address. On account of that context, this thesis turns to a basic distinction between digital and non-digital writing: the writing surface and implement, or pen and paper - screen and keyboard. Conceptualizing such artefacts through a view of writing as a way of thinking raises the following question, which is this study's guiding inquiry. Might we use digital implements and surfaces to support the ways of thinking involved in composing written works of semantic cohesion? Building on research into writing as thinking, the study presented in this document analyses how uses of writing surfaces and implements relate to ways of thinking while writing, and which contextual factors influence those relationships. Drawing on a neuro-anthropological approach, the study focuses on the writer's mind as the driver and source of the lived experience of writing. Expert writers, therefore, are considered to be those who exhibit the ways of thinking while writing to which other writers aspire. To examine a range of uses of writing surfaces and implements with reference to expert writers' ways of thinking, the study was conducted in two parts. Part 1involved a content analysis of published interviews with professional writers. This generated a framework through which to conduct in-depth qualitative research with college student writers - part 2. This thesis is as much about thinking while writing as it is about the different tools available for writing. As such, the study refutes the hyperbolic and deterministic claims about technology and writing, and finds that technology is not leading to new ways of thinking while writing. Instead, surfaces and implements available allow writers to change how they practise their ways of thinking while writing. By considering this distinction and developing understandings of the dynamics involved and their implications, writers may begin to realize the potential of technology for writing. Ultimately, this thesis contributes to existing theories on writing through an informed discussion of how to think about implements and surfaces in ways that support writerly thinking, and by offering fresh ways to think about the lived practice of writing.

This study investigated the implications of using computers in the writing process. The purpose was to determine whether there was a difference between two groups in their editing and revising techniques and their attitude towards writing. It was hypothesized that students who had had three years experience with computer writing would use more sophisticated forms of editing and would feel more positive toward writing than those students who had only a single year of writing with the computer. Two groups of seventh-grade students were identified: the One-year Group consisted of students who had one year of keyboard training and one year of experience with a word processor; the Three-year Group consisted of students who had a minimum of three years of keyboard training and a minimum of three years experience with a word processor. The students had all attended schools within the same district for the past three years. A group of grade-six students were trained as observers. They were given two training sessions, first observing a videotape and then observing another student. About 150 students were trained and the best 60 were used to observe the grade sevens for the study. Each writing group spent one forty-minute period composing an essay on the computer while being observed by the grade-six students. The observers tallied the editing and revising actions that were employed by the two writing groups. The editing activities of the two groups were compared. The grade-seven students were also given a writing opinion survey. Both groups had a positive attitude but there was no significant difference in their attitude toward writing. Three levels of editing are normally discerned (Kurth and Stromberg, 1987; Hillocks, 1987): surface, lexical, and phrase/sentence. The One-year Group made significantly more typing corrections but there was no difference in overall surface editing. The Three-year group did significantly more lexical and phrase/sentence editing. In this way, students with more word-processing experience exhibit an editing style that is characteristic of better writers. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

Organization and word processing software programs empower students with disabilities to become more independent in their writing. In this article, the authors describe techniques for incorporating organizational programs and word processing features into the writing process. Beneficial features include word prediction, voice output, spell checker, thesaurus, and grammar checker. The authors provide classroom activities designed to increase the students' use of organizational and word processing software programs to enhance writing.

No description available.

Many young children appear to take delight in manipulating common elements of their environment, e.g., sticks, stones, and mud. Our ancestors also used these and other elements in order to play, explore,, and eventually create written language. In a print-laden society, young children are budding literates. Within a few years their abilities and skills evolve to the level it has taken the human species thousands of years to reach. Associated with the evolution of written language is related technology. Humans have evolved from cave art and literacy to computer art and literacy. Again, what has taken thousands of years to evolve for the species takes only a few years for today's children. Within the past ten years computers have become common literacy implements in American schools. An understanding of childrens' use of this machine is important to educators in general and educational leaders in particular. The purpose of this study was to investigate kindergarten students' use of a word processor: What developmental sequences related to print literacy reveal themselves as kindergarten children use a word processor? In what ways are these sequences the same or different than those identified by researchers studying young children's use of pencil and paper? What time commitments do children make at each stage of these developmental sequences? How do the physical attributes of the computer environment, screen color for example, influence children's behavior associated with word processing? A review of literature incorporated readings associated with research in human evolution of print literacy, literacy of technology, language and cognition plus recent research on writing and computers. A research design incorporating qualitative methods was created. Six subjects, representing a variety of backgrounds in a kindergarten class of 26 full day students, were observed for 20 weeks. For one hour each day, this kindergarten class attended a writing lab which contained eight learning centers. One of the learning centers consisted of six word processors networked to two printers. In addition to collecting student documents, both in paper and electronic form. subjects' behaviors were observed and recorded. Observational recordings were analyzed, collapsed into manageable data and re-analyzed. Subjects' evolution of writing was similar to children using pencil and paper. In addition, subject's literacy of technology evolved. Each subject displayed individual episodes of development and incorporated less mature behaviors with more mature behaviors as they evolved along their print literacy and literacy of technology continuums. It was observed that subjects intertwined print and technological behaviors and skills as they wrote with a word processor. Time relationships associated with the development of writing and environmental aspects of the word processor center did not appear important. Information Age etiquette evolved as students controlled their writing, a computer system. and worked with others. The inherent publicness of monitors contributed to meta-linguistics, sharing knowledge about technology, and problem solving among students. Young children are capable of writing with and manipulating a word processor. They are also capable of trying to solve problems of written language and computers. Educators will find that young children quickly learn Information Age tool etiquette.

No description available.