Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the causal relationships between children's use of computers, creativity, and motivation for learning. The authors conducted a panel study of 259 male elementary school students, measuring frequency of computer use, creativity, and motivation for learning at two different times (October 1989 and February 1990), and analyzing the panel data using a cross-lagged model. The results did not reveal that children's experience in wordprocessing or programming with computers enhanced their creativity or motivation for learning. On the other hand, results showed that higher creativity is likely to facilitate children's computer use in the forms of wordprocessing and programming. This led to the inference that Sakamoto et al. (1992) obtained positive correlations between male elementary school students' frequency of wordprocessing or programming and their creativity, not because such uses of computers enhanced creativity, but because creativity facilitated the uses. Lastly, the authors noted four weaknesses of the current study which may have obscured results regarding the positive impact of children's computer use.
