Learning with Laptops

How do students feel about using laptop computers to learn? How do they perceive computers and how is learning changed through their use?

A study conducted by ACER in conjunction with Balwyn High School and the University of Melbourne sought to answer these and other questions by asking Year 7 students to record important classroom, homework and out-of-school activities in diaries. The researchers then analysed diary entries that described how students used laptop computers.

The study commenced in 1997 with a class of Year 7 students. Students had their own laptops and the computers were used across all subjects. The main aim was to look at student perspectives on learning with laptop computers.

In 1998 when these students moved to Year 8, they continued to use laptops across all their classes. Another three Year 7 classes entered the study in 1998, including one whose students were taking part in an accelerated learning program.

Computers are often described as a "tool for learning". It was important to find out whether students’ perspectives matched this vision. The challenge was to interpret what students were saying about their use of computers. Diary responses from the students were used to identify five basic perspectives on the computer as a learning tool.

These perspectives included perceiving the computer as a tool for getting work done, as a machine with its own special procedures to be learnt, as a means of accessing knowledge and information, as a tool for presentation of work, and for playing games.

Interestingly, there were more similarities than differences between the responses of boys and girls. Both sexes perceived the computer as a means of getting work done, and as a machine with its own special procedures to be learnt. There was a small difference in that, out of school, boys commonly mentioned playing games on their computers, while girls often referred to presentation uses.

A key finding was that for both boys and girls, few of the diary responses focused attention on the computer as a means of accessing knowledge and information – a perspective educators have most closely associated with the expansion of students’ learning horizons.

Another important finding was the high proportion of student comments about learning how to operate computers – learning the tool was part of their learning. In Year 8 these students, now accustomed to using computers, focused more on the content of what they were doing with their laptops.

The study also found that students were generally very positive about using laptops. Although the level of positive response in Year 8 was lower than in Year 7, it was still positive. Schoolwork and homework activities, as shown in other research, were not as enjoyable as leisure activities. Anxieties and frustrations about hardware and software were also evident as students learned to master the technology and its limitations.

"We need to follow up these findings with research that will tell us if higher levels of mastery of the tool will free students to get more work done. Will it focus more attention on the potential of computers to access and manipulate knowledge?" asks Dr Mary Ainley, a researcher from the University of Melbourne who collaborated on the research.

The use of laptops in the classroom affected not only student perceptions of their learning, but also the way classes were run. In the laptop classes, students were more likely to make presentations, they were more likely to be working on individual research projects, and teachers came to expect laptops to be used by students in classroom tasks.

EMP/SKILLS - Skills and Employability Department