Evaluation Study on Educational Computing

在日本，尽管计算机的总使用量仍然很低，但在过去几年里，计算机在学校的使用量迅速增加。预计在今后几年里，计算机在学校的使用将迅速增长。以前的一项研究比较了一个流行的CAI版本与其他一些干预措施。根据成本效益的标准，人们发现，CAI排名低于同侪辅导，但大大高于成人辅导，较长的上学时间，小班教学。因此，计算机辅助教学是成本效益和实用。研究发现，计算机辅助教学成本的主要部分与计算机本身无关，而与教师的机会成本和经常性支出有关。教育计算成本包括硬件成本、机会成本和经常性支出，在日本小学中所占比例分别为55%、28%和17%。因此，政府有必要建立软件开发和销售机构，并补贴经常性支出。学校在教学、学习和管理方面越来越多地使用计算机，这也给教师培训带来了新的挑战。组织气氛和校长的特质对教育计算的成功有很大的影响。学校领导的管理是教育信息化工作取得成功的关键。此外，由于计算机的使用与教师对教学过程的态度变化有很大的相关性，因此，要成功地在学校引入计算机，就必须改变课堂教学系统，而不是将计算机引入传统系统。

In Japan the use of computers in schools has increased rapidly during the past several years even though the total use is still very low. The use of computers in schools is expected to grow rapidly in the next several years. A previous study has compared a popular version of CAI with a number of other interventions. On the basis of a cost-effectiveness criterion, it was found that CAI was ranked below peer tutoring, but considerably above adult tutoring, longer school days, and smaller class sizes. Thus CAI is cost-effective and practical. The study found that major part of the cost of CAI was not related to the computers themselves but was related to opportunity cost of teachers and current expenditure. The cost of educational computing comprises hardware, opportunity cost, current expenditure, and the ratios are 55%, 28%, and 17% respectively in Japanese elementary schools. Thus it is necessary for the governments to establish institutions which create and distribute software, and subsidy the current expenditure. The increasing use of computers in schools for teaching, learning and management creates new challenges for teacher training too. The organizational climate and the traits of principal have rather strong influence on the success of educational computing. Management of school leaders is the key point to make introduction educational computing successful. Also, as the use of computers has strong correlation with changes of teachers' attitude toward teaching-learning process, it is necessary to change the classroom teaching system rather than introducing computers into conventional system for successful introduction of computers in school.