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.

View full abstract

In order to improve learners' comprehension of educational textual materials, authors and text designers must consider how to cue their texts. In this respect, the use of 'technology of text' could be a great help to them. Technology of text includes various kinds of techniques to present text information effectively. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of cuing key words on learners' understanding of text. In the experiment, two factors were manipulated. One is the type of cued words : to cue central concepts (appropriate key words) or to cue non-central concepts (dummy key words). The other factor is the location of cued words : to present key words before the text or to cue them within the text. Learners were evaluated on their acquisition and organization of text information using a completion-recall test and a concept map test. The main results showed that (a) cuing facilitated learning of cued material; (b) on overall recall of content, cuing of central concepts was superior to cuing of non-central concepts or absence of cues; (c) on overall recall, cuing key words within the text was superior to presenting them before the text; and (d) when organizing text ideas, cuing of central concepts, regardless of the location of cued words, was better than cuing of non-central concepts or absence of cues. These results suggest that cuing central concepts facilitates both acquisition and organization of text ideas, while cuing non-central concepts or absence of cuing leaves learners at a disadvantage. They also suggest that cuing key words within text improves overall learning of text, and that presenting key words before text is also effective, particularly in understanding of main ideas of text. These findings are discussed in terms of the allocation of cognitive resources.

View full abstract