Example Poster

How Does Access to a Computer Network Change Writing Students' Interactions with Peers and Teachers

Statement of the Problem
As writing classes move into non-traditional environments, teachers must look at how the learning/teaching environment affects students. Our study recorded contacts that students had with peers and teachers. We were concerned both about changes that the setting might induce in electronically-supported interactions as well as changes in face-to-face and other student-student and student-teacher interactions.

Methods for Collecting Information about Interactions
Our year-long study focused on four teachers (two in fall semester, two in spring semester) and 174 students. Each teacher taught the same freshman composition course in both a traditional and a computer classroom. Teachers adjusted materials and activities based on the classroom setting, but all data-collection techniques were the same in both settings.

We used multiple data-collection methods to capture as much information as possible about student-student and student-teacher contacts.

Results
Student Contact Sheets
Based on students' self-reported contacts in all eight classrooms, students talked with classmates and with teachers significantly more often in the computer classroom than in the traditional classroom. Students reported on average 57.1 contacts with classmates and 18.1 contacts with teachers in the computer classroom. Students reported 39.1 contacts with classmates and 12.1 contacts with teachers in the traditional classroom.

Teacher Logs and E Mail Records
Teacher Setting No. of students Out-of-class contacts* Out-of-class E-mail contacts** Total out-of-class contacts

Anita

 Traditional 23 56 0 56
  Computer 20 46 40 86

Caitlin

 Traditional 25 59 0 59
  Computer 22 60 178 238

Candace

 Traditional 25 46 0 46
  Computer 25 42 30 72

Sarah

 Traditional 25 183 0 183
  Computer 23 188 43 231

Table 1. Student-teacher face-to-face contacts as reported in teacher logs.

*includes before and after class, in office, via telephone and notes

**includes only electronic mail sent to or from the teacher outside of class

As Table 1 shows, out-of-class contacts were about the same for each teacher in both computer and traditional settings. But because students in the traditional classes did not avail themselves of electronic mail, total out-of-class contacts were much higher for students in the computer sections. Thus, electronic mail, although not used extensively by students, supplemented other out-of-class contacts with teachers for the computer classroom students.

Classroom Observations

Each class was visited three or four times each term, typically once a month. Typically, the observer noted all interactions between students and the teacher, including the teacher calling on students or students participating in discussion. The observer also noted when the teacher made a one-on-one contact with a student.

Because of potential differences in observer judgments, we present ratios rather than averages of student/student, student/teacher contacts initiated by the student, and teacher/student contacts initiated by the teacher (see Table 2).

 

Teacher

 Student/Student Student/Teacher Teacher/Student

Anita

 3.4 2.3 1.5

Caitlin

 1.5 1.2 0.8

Candace

 1.6 3.1 1.2

Sarah

 1.4 1.4 1.6

Table 2. Ratio of contacts in computer and traditional classrooms, by

teacher, recorded during classroom observations

These data, like those collected on the student contact sheets and in the teacher logs, suggest that students are more likely to have increased contact with peers and teachers in a computer classroom setting than in a traditional setting.

Key Findings

1. Student Contact Sheets

The computer students consistently reported more contacts—both with peers and with teachers—than their counterparts in the traditional classes. The computer setting thus appears to contribute to students' willingness to share their writing openly and to elicit peers' and teachers' commentary on their writing as it develops.

2. Student-Teacher Contacts

Students contacted teachers in about equal numbers outside of class—until we add in the electronic mail contacts, and then all four teachers show substantial increases in the total number of contacts with students in the computer classes over students in the traditional classes. Students in the computer classes who used electronic mail did so to supplement the typical contacts they would have otherwise had with teachers.

3. Classroom Observations

The observed student-student contacts consistently favor the computer classroom setting as a site for greater interaction between students. Students in three of the four comparisons show between 40 and 60% more contacts in class; the other set of paired classes has 3.5 times as many student-student interactions in the computer classroom as in the traditional classroom.

 

Student-teacher interactions initiated by the students also markedly favor the computer classroom. All four teachers interacted with students more frequently in that setting, and two teachers were approached by students between two and three times more often in the computer classroom than in the traditional classroom.

Thus we see a third indicator that suggests the same result: students and teachers interact more frequently in computer classrooms than in traditional classrooms. Even more noteworthy, students talk to their peers about their writing more often in computer classrooms than in traditional classrooms.

4. Teacher Interviews

What emerges from the interviews is a consistent trend among these teachers: teaching in the computer classroom changed the dynamic of the class in such a way that students were more willing to share their work. As a result, teachers were better able to see what students were writing and to make helpful suggestions to improve the papers as products and the students as writers. The teachers themselves, while not uniformly enthusiastic about all aspects of teaching in a computer classroom, concurred that students benefit from the flexibility in pacing (so that teachers can speak with students individually about a paper that is then being drafted or revised) and the freedom to request help from peers that the environment encourages.