Classrooms Are Loaded With Equipment, But Teachers Lag in Computer Literacy

At Abita Springs Elementary School in Louisiana, two fourth-graders are staying after school to teach their teachers how to use new computer software.

The technology expert at the school, Kathleen Duplantier, had to teach herself how to use the computer.

This improvisational computer training for teachers is one of the “warning signs” highlighted in “Computers in American Schools,” a study by the International Assn. for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, a cooperative of research centers in more than 40 countries that study educational practices.

The study compared the use of computers in schools in the United States, Germany, Japan, Austria and the Netherlands and was paid for by the National Science Foundation.

The study found that computers are plentiful in America’s classrooms, but the technology often is outdated and teachers lack adequate training.

“Teachers are not afforded the time they need to become conversant in computer technology or to plan lessons which integrate technology into classroom activities,” the study said.

Fewer than half the schools have introductory computer courses for teachers either in their schools or at local colleges, the report said. In the other countries, two-thirds to 95% of the schools said training is available.

“Teachers need to be taught on their own machines in their own schools,” Duplantier said.

She said she learned how to use a computer “from my husband, and by opening books and making a lot of mistakes.”

Her school gets its computers through an Apple Computer Inc. grant. The oldest are 4 years old, not old in terms of the school system, but ancient amid rapidly changing computer technology.

The study found that Japan, Austria and the Netherlands had a higher percentage of up-to-date school computers than the United States.

“U.S. schools started introducing computers years before most other countries, but now many of those computers are old, and the schools are having trouble keeping up with current technology,” said Ronald E. Anderson, the report’s author.

In 1992, 99% of U.S. schools had computers--a total of 3.5 million machines, the study said. The typical high school had one computer for every 10 students; middle schools and elementary schools had an average of one computer for every 15 students.

Jan Perry, a fourth-grade teacher at Kimball School in Seattle, said the school acquired Apple Macintosh computers a year ago.

Students are using them to write letters to youngsters in China, to construct pictographs and pie charts in math and to work on map skills in social studies.

Perry does not think computers make her job easier. “They let us teach differently, use time in a different way,” she said. “They certainly help children produce products that look better and that they feel better about.”

Among the study’s other findings:

* Half of U.S. households with school-age children have home computers.

Anderson said U.S. students say they use their home computer two hours a week on average, less than the Western European students. Regardless of country, the most common use of non-school computers was to play games.

* In what Anderson called a “gender gap,” the report said American boys are more likely than girls to have computers at home, and to use them. Fifty-seven percent of 11th-grade boys had a home computer, compared with 46% of 11th-grade girls.

But the report said that girls use computers at school as much as boys do and that their performance is about the same.

The study examined the performance of 69,000 students in grades five, eight and 11 on a test of practical computer knowledge. In the United States, 11,284 students in 573 schools participated.