Wenceslao Miguel Verdugo Rojas
Abstract: The integration of the technology in the education is had come increasing in the last years in the schools and homes, diverse studies show as the application of the technology favors the learning, even though also we noticed that in many schools the means classrooms they maintain closed for different reasons, for effects of this study, it considers that these reasons can be catalogued within the three areas of human development, that is to say, the conceptual one, operative and the affective one. Both first factors are satisfied with the courses that the same Secretariat of Education offers and with the possibility of practicing to improve the area operative with thousand of computers installed in the schools. It is in last factor in where it is considered presents/displays the problems, in the area attitudinal, this is that “it does but the one that wants that the one that can”, and to to seem many educational ones they do not want to use the technology like tool educational or personal. We know that other country use to take care about attitudes, but here in Sonora, México, this kind of research is an innovation. The study still is developing, but initial results indicate low levels of preference and difference in particularitities of use of six main aspects of the computation and technologies of information.
Problem of study
Integration from the technology in the education one has come increasing years in the last in the schools and homes; diverse studies show how the application of technology favors the learning (Akbaba, 2003; Gruner, 2003), even though also note that in many schools the means classrooms stay closed for different reasons and factors. For effects of this study factors will be classified in external and internal. First they include/understand allocation of seats, appointments, dowry of computers, service technician, of connection to Internet, among others; the seconds include/understand the adjustment of the means classroom, maintenance and promotion of the same one, elaboration of schedules and controls of attendance, et cetera. Whereas the reasons they can catalogue within the three areas of human development, that is to say, conceptual area, operative and the actitudinal. The present study looks for to participate in the overcoming of the reasons and the internal factors, specifically with respect to the promotion of the means classroom.
Conceptual reasons for which the means classrooms are not used are basically that the teachers do not know how to use the computers, or for activities educative personal or; but this area is left cover by means of courses very well that they are supplied in line and gratuitous like those of qualification in Scholastic Network, or actual with cost like those of educative computer science that offers the Center of Educative Technology.
The reasons of the operative area are the relative ones to that the educational ones no they have or they can develop the motor ability necessary to manipulate computers, but this situation will be left cover in the proportion in which educational they participate in courses and they use the computers, of such form that have more practice and ability in the use of the same ones.
It is in the attitudinal area, in where it is considered that they appear serious problems (Richardson and Onwuegbuzie, 2003), retaking the traditional wisdom, is had “does plus which it wants that the one that it can “, apparently the educational ones do not use the means classrooms because no they want, that is to say, it is an attitude problem, which is necessary to diagnose in order to make decisions and to undertake actions to cause in educational a good one attitude towards the use of the technology.
But for it the importance stands out of evaluating the use that one occurs them to the computers in the education, thus like the impact that the installation of the means classrooms has produced in educative community.
In addition, it is known by the Specific Demands of call 2004 of the Mixed Founds of the State Government and the National Council of Science and Technology, that does not exist preceding in the study organization that it reflects if the educational ones are transforming really their practice;, if they know, they have interpreted correctly and they are applying educative models trims in the learning, or if, on the contrary, they are using practical traditional already been out of phase by pedagogies modern, besides which either a culture of evaluation in the educative system of the state of Sonora, México, exists.
As it were mentioned previously, the area of conceptual development is had increased generously, since in the last seven years one has been supplied ample qualification and update to the teaching; it is maintained and it impelled program of remote education, average an educative bar of four hours and of Monday through Friday in educative television, with cover in more than 90% of sonorense territory (north of México); 5 098 televising programs of average have been transmitted hour with educative contents; they have been supplied more than 900 programs of radio of half an hour also with state cover; they have been equipped to 190 institutions of basic education with 2 410 equipment of calculation, and are equipping 545 more with 5 467 computers. However, the effects of this effort is not seen absolutely reflected in the educative indicators, nor it has a unit of measurement of the use of these means and the impact on educative process, since it has been indicated in already mentioned call, in where it is suggested to make a study of the existing structures in organization oriented to fulfill this objective; to analyze its operation, its use and its impact in the transformation of the educational practice; to extract experiences successful of other states or countries that serve like referring with the purpose of to construct a local proposal to take care of this heading and that offers information sufficient, ordered and reliable on the situation that prevails at the moment in teaching, as well as that allows to value which is the level and intensity of its use and its impact in the educative results.
Objective
The objective main it is to know the attitude that shows the educational ones towards the use of computer like instrument of and for education, as well as for its use administrative professional and personnel. Besides to evaluate the impact of installation of 730 means classrooms in the establishments of basic education in state of Sonant.
Methodology
Before the hypothesis that “Most of educational they lack a positive attitude towards the use of the computers like educational or personal tool “, asked for to the Center of Educative Technology the support for accomplishment of this study, reason why two thousand copies reproduced of measuring instrument, which was distributed in 30 enrolled centers to program Scholastic Network of this state, and evaluates:
1. The attitude towards the use of the computers.
2. The disposition with respect to the academic work.
3. The profile of the educational one.
Which are defined variables that operationally they can be measured and be quantified to traverse a measuring instrument that it will present/display a slant of social acceptability.
The two first exposed variables previously concepts they are composed of different aspects that are in the following table, like sub variable of the attitude that looks for to quantify; [ to consider ],
The third variable is for obtaining more information correlating with the two previous ones, having like objectives basic the following ones:
- To know the manifest attitude the educational ones towards the use of the computer in different activities, taking in account that to want to make the things is more important that to know or to be able; that is to say, of three areas of human development, the affective area is determining when making any activity, in such a way that one becomes necessary to know a part affective area of the educational ones in the relative thing to the use of the computers, that allows to elaborate strategies as well to create or to reinforce this area, knowing with this instrument solely the attitude of the educational one like individual.
- To evaluate the relation that exists between the profile of educational and its attitude towards the use of the computers.
- To evaluate the relation that exists between the profile of educational and its valuation of the use that at the moment it has.
- To determine areas of educational interest with respect to computer science, as well as opportunities of development with respect to technology educative.
The attitudes are not susceptible of direct observation but that are of to be inferred of the verbal expressions or the observed conduct. This indirect measurement is made by means of scales in which starting off of a series of affirmations, proposals or judgments, on which individuals show their opinion, the attitudes are deduced or inferred.
For it, instrument TAC 3 adapted to the context.2b, a questionnaire elaborated by the Center of Educative Technology of Texas (Knezek and Christensen, 1998) that it measures the attitude of the professors towards computation, with acceptable measures of trustworthiness by test retest in same instrument, Split-halves and Alpha de Cronbach as one is in results, in addition analysis of rotation factors was applied to him, being that this instrument is a tool valid and reliable to explore and to obtain scores of the attitude of the educational ones towards the computation, in addition it successfully obtains information of the profile of the educational one made up of sex, center of work, age, level of Magisterial Race, labor security, academic level and antiquity.
The variables in the following factors were also moderate of attitude of the educational one towards the computers, composed by experience with computers, educational and personal use of computers, received qualification, labor use (other activities aside from the educational one), evasion of its use, use of email, benefit for the study and acceptance.
Surveys were sent to 2000 professors of 30 establishments of education basic enrolled in the program of Scholastic Network, sending an amount proportional of instruments as it shows each school. They occurred instructions to the directors of the establishments so that they assigned at random questionnaires to the educational ones with the possibility that this last instruction it has not been made under the concept of statistical chance. When distributing and collecting the instruments in two stages, were captured, processed and interpreted, from diverse approaches, techniques, statistics and, of course, points of view. design of the investigation is nonexperimental of corelational cross section.
The study universe is conformed by educational in good condition that they share the only characteristic to toil in a center of work of basic education of the state that is enrolled to the program of Scholastic Network.
Advance of the results
Some obtained preliminary results of more than 150 instruments already captured they are: with respect to the sex of the subject, it has 52.6% correspond to women and 47.4% to men; as far as center of work, 26.8% are of primary level and 73.2% of secondary, these, 9.3% it corresponds to Joint, 20.6% to Guaymas, 56.7% to Hermosillo and 13.4% to San Luis Colorado river, that is to say, that the totality concerns to urban communities at the north of México.
More of a third of the asked teachers are greater of 46 years, 37% are between the 36 and 45 years of age, and 26% from 18 to 35 years. The 49.6% of the sample do not participate in the program of Race Magisterial. With respect to the antiquity, 53.6% are more than 15 years old on watch. The 81.4% have computer in their house, corresponding to the variable of characterization.
Were the components 1) Work, 2) To avoid, 3) email, 4) Student and 5) Acceptance, that is not such of original instrument, but that in this case presented/displayed greater factorial load starting off of the analysis of Varimax rotation, being that these factors explain until this moment 64.66% of the variance, as it is seen next.
| Total of Explained Variance | ||
| Sum of Squares | ||
| Component | % of Variance | % Accumulated |
| 1. Work | 32.579 | 32.579 |
| 2. To avoid | 15.110 | 47.689 |
| 3. Email | 6.850 | 54.540 |
| 4. Student | 5.422 | 59.962 |
| 5. Acceptance | 4.702 | 64.663 |
| Method of Extraction: Analysis of main components (based on the variance). |
In order to determine the trustworthiness of the resulting factors, it was applied the coefficient Alpha de Cronbach, establishing the internal consistency from .6567 even.9435.
| Analysis of fiabilidad (Alpha) | ||
| Ítems | Alpha | |
| 1. Work | 8 | 0.8315 |
| 2. To avoid | 8 | 0.8453 |
| 3. Email | 9 | 0.9435 |
| 4. Student | 5 | 0.6567 |
| 5. Acceptance | 6 | 0.7121 |
The correlations found until the moment are in following table, emphasizing most significant and indicating in cursivas refusals.
| Correlations | |||||
| Work | To avoid | Student | Acept. | ||
| Educative level in which the educational one works | -0.02 | 0.24 | 0.06 | -0.07 | -0.02 |
| Age of the educational one | -0.25 | 0.34 | -0.14 | -0.29 | -0.35 |
| Sort | 0.02 | -0.21 | 0.16 | -0.10 | 0.06 |
| In what race level is | -0.25 | 0.04 | 0.00 | -0.16 | -0.19 |
| How many hours of base it has | -0.10 | 0.18 | 0.14 | -0.05 | -0.10 |
| How many temporary hours it has | 0.22 | -0.22 | 0.22 | 0.20 | 0.05 |
| 1. Years on watch educational | -0.05 | 0.14 | 0.05 | -0.22 | -0.13 |
| 2.1. Experience with computers | 0.17 | -0.23 | 0.08 | -0.02 | 0.10 |
| 2.2. Frequency of use of computers | -0.38 | 0.35 | -0.08 | -0.31 | -0.41 |
| 3. Frequency of use in the classroom in hours | 0.31 | -0.36 | 0.10 | 0.25 | 0.25 |
| 4. At the beginning of this cycle the computer uses so many hours to the week in the classroom | 0.23 | -0.39 | -0.11 | 0.10 | 0.23 |
| 5. Received qualification | 0.30 | -0.42 | 0.12 | 0.02 | 0.18 |
| 6. Where it received training | -0.05 | 0.13 | -0.06 | -0.23 | -0.18 |
| 6.2. It has computer in house | -0.18 | 0.06 | -0.00 | -0.12 | 0.04 |
Discussion of the results
Taking care of previous table, so that a correlation is considered significant, this it must be greater than 0.4 to establish a positive correlation, by example, the characteristic of “educational age” versus. the component “to avoid”, that it indicates to us that while increases a value, the other is also increased; of equal way, if the coefficient is minor who -0.4 a negative correlation settles down, as it is observed in the crossover of the characteristic “educational age” versus. component “acceptance”, in where when increasing the age of the professor, the acceptance of the use of the computers diminishes, thus, as we can observe, the coefficients are few that obtain that score.
Of such form that the preliminary results practically indicate that no difference between the educational attitude and the educative level exists in which it works, since the coefficients of the first line are not greater of 0.25, this is that it is possible to be considered that in terms of this study, the professors of primary they basically have the same attitude that those of secondary.
On the other hand, yes is a weak negative correlation between age of educational and the taste by the use of the computers; reinforcing previous it appears a positive relation between the age of educational and the attempt to do without the computers.
As far as the sort, are not differences, but it is possible to be considered the reflection of a very weak negative correlation between sort and the evasion of the use of the computers explained like a tendency of men a to avoid its use, since it was codified like zero to masculine one and one to feminine and, as it is possible to be observed, the negative correlation is because to minor score of sort, greater score in evasion.
With regards to Magisterial Race it appears a peculiar data, even when statistically it is not very significant, the fact to establish one weak negative correlation between the level of Race and the use of the computer in its daily work, that is to say, at greater level in Race, less work with the computer.
We can see how in the following answers they are not significant relations, until arriving at the item in where one settles down negative attitude with respect to the frequency of use of the computers, still when 100% of the educational ones belong to schools with means classroom and more of 84% have computer in their house.
One better acceptance also notices (positive correlation) between which they took to advanced training courses and the work with computers, as well as one much more significant negative correlation between which they took courses of computation and the evasion of the use of the computer, that is to say, to more courses of computation, minor evasion of use of the computer.
It is possible to make the explanation of which this study not yet is finished, but it is considered at least that the tendency will be the same one, in the means classrooms in urban areas, nevertheless lack to receive and to capture the instruments of rural regions.
Finally, when taking the scientific concept from which the “attitude it is a state of psychological, acquired and organized disposition through own experience that it urges the individual to react of a way characteristic as opposed to certain people, objects or situations “(Triandis, 1974), and will refrán traditional of “does but the one that wants that the one that can”, we inferred that it is extremely important that the educational ones have an attitude positive towards the use of the computers, separating to us mainly from techno phobia, but also of techno philia, and to give him to the place that to the technology in general it corresponds to him: A tool that will help to us in ours search either to be, or to be and or to live.
References
KNEZEK, Gerald y Christensen, Rhonda, (1998) TAC Ver. 3.2b Survey of Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Computers, Texas Center for Educational Technology University of North Texas.
MORALES, Cesáreo, (1999) Validación de la escala CAQ para la medición de las actitudes de los alumnos de secundaria hacia la computadora y la escuela. Memoria Electrónica V Congreso Nacional de Investigación Educativa. COMIE, México.
Bibliography
AKBABA ALTUN, Sadegul, (2003), Elementary School principal´s attitude towards technology and their computer experience, ED 477708, ERIC Database, EU.
CARMONA, José, (2004), Una revisión de las evidencias de fiabilidad y validez de los cuestionarios de actitudes y ansiedad hacia la estadística, Statistics Education Research Journal 3(1), 5-28, EU.
FONDO Mixto SEC – CONACYT, (2004), Demandas Específicas, CONACYT – Gobierno del Estado de Sonora, México.
GRUNER, Alison, et al, (2003), I can soar: How technology helps students take off, ED 473979, ERIC Database, EU.
HOLMES, Kathleen y Rawitsh, Don, (1993), Evaluating technology – based instructional programs, Texas Center for Educational Technology, EU.
KOUNTZ, Carol, (1998), The anxiety of influence and the influence of anxiety, ED 448461, ERIC Database, EU.
PÉREZ, César, (2001), Técnicas Estadísticas con SPSS, Prentice Hall, España.
POIROT, Jim, et al, (1991), Educator’s ILS (Integrated Learning System) Assesstment & Evaluation Kit, Texas Center for Educational Technology, EU.
RICHARDSON, Dianne y Onwuegbuzie, Anthony, (2003), Attitudes toward disposition related to teaching of pre – service teachers, in – service teachers, administrator, and college / university professors, ED 482689, ERIC Database, EU.
ROBINSON, Stephanie y Adkins, Gerri, (2002), The effects of mathematics methods courses on pre service teacher’s attitude toward mathematics and mathematics teaching, ED 474445, ERIC Database, EU.
SULLIVAN, Susan, (2002), Impact of technology in schools, Texas Center for Educational Technology, EU.
UNESCO, Declaración de Cochabamba y recomendaciones sobre políticas educativas al inicio del siglo XXI, (2001), Bolivia.
WOODS, Geraldine, (2002), Research papers for dummies, Wiley publishing, Inc., E.U.