One of nine brief guides for special educators on using computer technology, this guide focuses on the use of computers to improve skills and attitudes in writing instruction. Pre-writing tools such as group brainstorming, story webs, free-writing, journal entries, and prewriting guides help generate ideas and can be carried out either on or off…

In response to the New York State Board of Regents Action Plan relating to computer keyboarding skills, this guide is designed to help elementary school staff understand aspects of keyboarding and develop this important basic skill in their students. The three-part presentation begins with a discussion of the benefits of using computers in English…

This study tested the effectiveness of a typing tutorial in teaching keyboarding skills to middle- and upper-grade elementary school students in both supervised and unsupervised environments. Subjects were 56 students enrolled in grades three through six, who were divided into two groups, supervised and unsupervised, and subdivided by grade (third…

Keyboarding was taught to a group of 26 fourth- and fifth-grade students in a self-contained classroom by an elementary classroom teacher using an Apple IIe microcomputer and two software programs: "Gregg Personal Keyboarding" and "Typing Tutor II." Intervention spanned 52 class days, including pre-, mid-, and posttest days,…

This study discusses the successes and failures that resulted when fifth grade students used email to compose response journals. Every student was required to send at least one email a week to the teacher describing and reacting to the novel they were reading independently. The teacher would respond each evening. The study was conducted in an…

This document is designed for high school teachers to use in teaching a course that introduces students to computing through hands-on experience with databases, spreadsheets, desktop publishing, and word processing. The document begins with a rationale, brief course description, list of course objectives, and list of 10 innovative teaching…

This study examined 117 undergraduates' perceptions of ability at computer programming and word processing. In particular, it rated the importance of prior experience factors, keyboarding skills, and personal attributes such as enjoyment of problem solving. Those were discovered, in general, to be more important than formal training or aptitude in…

This paper reports on a research and development program which developed a more effective interface between personal computer (PC) users with disabilities and computer systems. The program emulates a PC keyboard, enabling disabled PC users to access standard software via a binary (switch) control element. (Author/DB)

This study compared three motoric conditions (writing, tracing, and computer keyboarding) on the spelling performance of 48 third- and fourth-grade students with and without learning disabilities. No significant effect was found for either group. Interviews revealed that students preferred the computer condition but believed the writing and…

This curriculum and instructor's guide were developed for adult literacy students to advance their literacy skills and prepare for the General Education Diploma exam using the information on the Internet via an online service. The report of the project that developed the curriculum describes the following project activities: computer technology…

Because of the crucial nature of the technical literacy problem and the necessity for employees to be able to understand and apply information contained in technical manuals, a technical literacy test was developed in order to identify the level of a person's familiarity with or likely aptitude for work using a computer. The information yielded by…

This manual is designed to assist the indexers and inputters of the Oregon Index, which is an online index to Oregon's major newspapers and journals. The Index provides dial-up access to a database of citations and is available at hundreds of points around Oregon, including libraries, schools, newspapers, and government offices. The database has…

This 64-item bibliography focuses on the effect of keyboarding on middle school students' composition writing, using word processing. The bibliography (which surveys selections dating from 1956 through 1989) includes those studies describing the feasibility of teaching touch typing keyboarding skills to middle school students, the value of…

This paper explores the issue of how, when, and where to teach keyboarding at the elementary school level through a review of the keyboarding literature and descriptions of three studies conducted with fifth grade students in the laboratory school at the University of Wyoming. The literature review briefly summarizes findings on the following…

Discusses new possibilities that computers and laser printers offer instructional technologists. Includes a brief history of printed communications, a description of new technological advances referred to as "desktop publishing," and suggests the application of this technology to instructional tasks. (TW)