Henry Jay Becker, University of California, Irvine 

TITLE: What Is the Barrier--Not Enough Computers or Not Enough
Computerowledgeable Teachers?  Surveys have consistently shown
that teachers believe that they would use technology more if
(a) they had more equipment accessible to them and (b) they had
more time to figure out how to integrate its use into teaching.
To what extent are these and other potential problems really
factors in limiting the amount of time that teachers spend
having their students use computers? 

This presentation uses data from four separate national surveys
of technology use in education (from the IEA, the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting, the NEA, and Market Data Retrieval) to
explore the roadblocks to greater use of computers in
instruction in regular subject-matter classes.

We show that video technologies are much more accessible to
American students in their classrooms than are computers. More
than one-third of all students are in a position to be
experiencing video technologies--broadcast TV and video
cassettes--at any one time. In contrast, only 6 or 7 percent of
students can simultaneously use computers in the classroom
where their other instruction is provided. Even including
lab-based computers and older computer models such as
diskette-based Apple IIs, schools still have only enough
computers for 18% of students to use them at any one time--and
that assumes two students sharing each computer. 

On the other hand, that is a lot of computer-using students! If
every student used computers for 18% of a school week, they
would be using computers for 5 hours per week. But the IEA
national survey of 5th, 8th, and 11th grade students suggest
that the y are actually using computers for only about 20 to 30
minutes per week, outside of the time they spend learning how
to use computers in "computer education" courses. 

Furthermore, the survey suggests that most of the time students
spent using computers other than for computer education is
spent playing games or doing routine drill-and-practice
activity. Very few teachers have their students regularly use
types of pro grams that incorporate analytic thinking,
problem-solving, and producing computer-based products for an
audience. We argue that for the potential benefits of computer
technology to be realized in regular school classrooms,
districts must allocate much larger shares of their TECHNOLOGY
budgets for staff and curriculum development and substantially
lower percentages to solve their other felt problem--not enough
computers. 
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