CLASSROOM COMPUTERIZATION - AMBIVALENT ATTITUDES AND AMBIGUOUS OUTCOMES

According to adherents of instructional technologies (as well as learn ing style theorists), use of computerized activities in sociology clas srooms should result in enhanced cognitive, behavioral, and affective outcomes. In an experimental test of these propositions, I employed a variety of computer-based educational activities over several quarters . Students overwhelmingly favored individual activities of this sort, but they just as strongly rejected the possibility of adding more of t hese exercises. Furthermore, one-tailed t-tests comparing the experime ntal with the control classes yielded no significant differences eithe r in overall material mastery or in overall attitude toward instructio n. Several explanations for support of the null hypothesis are propose d.