Abstract
The purpose of the Apple Classroom of Tomorrow (ACOT) is to establish a saturated computer environment both to supplement conventional instruction with computer-based instruction and to teach applicants skills to facilitate performance of school tasks. Seemingly, the most powerful intervention is the pairing of each student with a personal tutor. The tutor leaves assignments and writes messages and feedback over an electronic Bulletin Board System (BBS) accessed by modem. This study, which focused on the BBS tutoring component, involved 120 fifth- and sixth-grade ACOT students and their parents, teachers, and tutors, who typically had little or no computer experience. Volunteer tutors were solicited from the Master of Arts in Teaching Program at Memphis State University, and the host system was a 512 Macintosh with a 20 megabyte hard drive disk and an Apple Personal Modem. The research orientation included formative evaluation of instructional materials and methods to determine how they were working and to identify any needed refinements; and summative evaluation to examine end-of-year outcomes on a variety of performance and affective variables. The findings revealed that the performance of ACOT students was superior to that of controls on standardized achievement tests in reading and math, as well as in certain aspects of writing; girls used the BBS more than boys; most students developed considerable proficiency at keyboarding over the school year; and tutors generally regarded their activities as beneficial to them personally and to the tutees. Future studies will, however, monitor standardized test performance more closely. (12 references) (CGD)
Citation
Ross, S.M. The Apple Classroom of Tomorrow Program with At-Risk Students. Retrieved August 8, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/141559/.
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