The computer helps in the acquisition of educational knowledge: an experience with Spanish's students

Abstract

Traditionally, people have tried to compare the effectiveness of traditional teaching with Computer Aided Learning (CAL), however, it is very difficult to work out which of them is best. In our research we want to show that the use of the computers in learning processes can represent an important element in improving them. The results obtained show that many of the contents worked on with the help of the new technologies are better assimilated by the students as they get better results than using a traditional method. However, we should highlight that although we use the new technologies, the figure of the teacher will always be necessary and that in the design of computer applications the interaction of the technician with an expert in educational methods is very important.

Full text

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Interactive Educational Multimedia, Number 14 (April 2007), pp. 102-115
http://www.ub.edu/multimedia/iem
The computer helps in the acquisition of educational knowledge.
An experience with Spanish’s students
Montse Tesouro
University of Girona, Department of Pedagogy,
c/ Emili Grahit, 77 17071 Girona, Spain.
montse.tesouro@udg.es
Juan Puiggalí
University of Girona. Institute of Informatics and Applications (IIiA).
Campus Montilivi, 17071 Girona. Spain.
puiggali@eia.udg.es
Summary
Traditionally, people have tried to compare the effectiveness of traditional teaching with
Computer Aided Learning (CAL), however, it is very difficult to work out which of them is best.
In our research we want to show that the use of the computers in learning processes can
represent an important element in improving them.
The results obtained show that many of the contents worked on with the help of the new
technologies are better assimilated by the students as they get better results than using a
traditional method. However, we should highlight that although we use the new technologies,
the figure of the teacher will always be necessary and that in the design of computer
applications the interaction of the technician with an expert in educational methods is very
important.
Keywords
Learning, Computer, Teacher, Education, CAL
Introduction
The problem with introducing computers into schools is not simply an economic one, or a case of
providing schools with enough machines. The greatest problem refers to the use and instructive value
of the programmes; therefore, it is necessary to create new programmes with a good quality and that
are suitable both for the school curriculum as well as the characteristics of the children, as the
educator will not have enough time and knowledge to be able to create these educational materials.
With the reduction in the price of hardware, in education the spread of computers cannot be stopped
and in this terrain their use can be quite worthwhile. It seems that one trend in schools will be to
introduce more technology and put the emphasis on technological development: machines will be more

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powerful, faster, with greater resolution and graphic abilities, with all kinds of peripherals that help
data input and output: printers, digital boards, tactile screens, devices that reproduce voices or
recognise orders, peripherals that interact with the environment, interactive videodisks,
communications, etc. This will mean that the programmes can be more powerful and provided with
means that will facilitate greater interaction with students favouring learning (Tesouro and Puiggalí,
2004a).
In this sense, some useful concepts have appeared, such as:
• Distance learning: Physical separation between the student and the teacher at certain
moments of the learning process. To do this, you need one or more means of communication
that enable interaction between them both. From this perspective, we could highlight the
influence of Multimedia in education. With this kind of education, large groups of disperse
public are reached, with different time and personal conditions who do not have the chance to
access face-to-face learning.
• Open learning: Open Learning refers to a type of training that allows the student total
autonomy in his or her learning-teaching processes. This kind of education achieves the
recognition of the individual characteristics of each student, but requires that the knowledge is
created in a media that the student him or herself can handle.
• Wireless mobile devices in the learning area. Many researchers see the potential of these
devices in learning thanks to their portability, low cost, etc. (Roschelle, 2003).
• Virtual knowledge communities. The statement "virtual learning communities" tries to
cover a wide field of offers and communicative phenomena derived from experiences in
learning settings that have New Information technologies as a support. They have been
defined as a set of social relations, united by a common interest or shared circumstances that
take place in cyberspace and that enable the exchange of knowledge between students.
Socio-cultural theories have been imported from the fields of cognition to suggest that this and
learning occur both at a group and community level as well as at an individual level (Stahl, 2005).
These communities appeared in the academic area, in social activities and between people who wanted
to share interests, beliefs and values with other people. However, they have currently spread to all the
institutional areas of society, which include the area of education.

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According to Gómez and Gewerc (2004) virtual learning communities mean a field of offers and
communicative phenomenon derived from experiences in settings that have communication and
information technologies as a support.
It should be pointed out that flexible teaching models are required, that are able to renew and transmit
this knowledge and these techniques, as well as offering a response to the increase in the educational
demand (Zapata and García Martínez, 1999).
Related work
Some experts, such as Professor Seymour Papert of the Media Laboratory of Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) in the United States, comment that today’s School is showing a certain
conservativeness in maintaining intact its teaching methodologies, neglecting the new demands of the
ICTs, or simply adapting them to it from a traditionalist approach. In this way, he considers that, on
the whole, the world of education understands the role of these technologies incorrectly (Aznar, 2005).
Due to this, in the United States, in recent years, the suitability of the education system has been
questioned, reaching the conclusion that steps should be taken to improve it. Therefore, various plans
of action have been set up to promote a greater use of computers in elementary and secondary
schools.
Along these lines, most researchers and professionals in the field of educational informatics are
convinced that the information technologies have the potential not only to improve the efficiently of
our current teaching methods, but also, and perhaps to a greater degree, to face the basic changes in
methods that could have significant implications on future generations (Fernández Prieto, 2005). Thus,
Oliver (1999) proposes improving learning through the introduction of the technology in the most
effective way possible within the learning area.
In addition, different studies show the appearance of attitudes that are more positive towards
computers after using them because confidence and the ability to understand among students who
have used computers increases. The attitude towards schoolwork also improves by getting better
results (Tesouro, 1995) and, therefore, there is greater motivation to work with this resource that
helps improve learning. If we consider the positive aspects that the use of the computer has on
learning, on cognition, attitudes and social effects, as well as other positive characteristics such as
interactivity, personalisation, ease of use, means for researching in the classroom, motivating means,
individual learning, etc. they show that the computer should be used more to improve various aspects
of learning (Tesouro and Puiggalí, 2004b).
In some work it has been seen that students do not feel so threatened before the judgement of a
machine that has limited knowledge, and they docilely accept the repetition of mistakes without

105
showing so many signs of fatigue; therefore, through the computer, as there is greater motivation,
better school performance can easily be achieved. With this, students learn through "trial and error" as
the interaction there is between the student and the computer offers fast feedback which enables them
to get to know their mistakes as they occur, so they can be corrected immediately (Medina, 2004).
It has also been seen in studies such as the one carried out by Sung-Bin Chang et al. (2002) and Chi-
Wei Huang et al. (2001) that in the same way that all human activities are directed by events, learning
can also be achieved in the process of preparing an event. In the case of the use of a computer
programme, the fact that there are different levels depending on the knowledge shown can help to
achieve knowledge as it creates competence in the student.
The current trend, with the generalised use of the computer, the introduction of microcomputers in
classrooms and homes, has also had important educational consequences. The computer has become
an efficient learning tool. In addition, the creation of new educational programmes, the use of certain
computer programmes to help schoolchildren with special needs learn, etc. have opened new
possibilities in the pedagogic use of these means (Álvaro, 2005). This means envisaging a considerable
increase in this kind of software. Therefore, teachers will need to learn to discriminate between
different programmes according to specific teaching needs to improve the teaching/learning process.
This has created the need to have elements that enable us to evaluate the information and the
information technologies that are used in learning and an example of this can be found in Scanlon
(2000).
Traditionally, people have tried to compare the effectiveness of traditional teaching with Computer
Aided Learning (CAL), however, it is very difficult to work out which of them is best. One of the
reasons mentioned by Brahler and Johnson (2000) is that a lot of the material for CAL is designed by
computer technicians who are not experts in educational matters. Studies carried out into this subject,
such as that of Nielsen (2002) come to the conclusion that the application of cognitive and behavioural
theory to learning applied to the design of programmes aimed at teaching improves their performance.
Therefore, it would be important for the teacher to have good application programmes related to the
subject he or she teaches. However, in the current state of development of educational software, many
of the programmes or packets of programmes available are usually dissociated from the overall
reference framework of the subject (courses, textbooks, etc.) so there is still a lot to be done.
Thus, we find that many different points of view have been raised in the creation of learning platforms.
Taking as an example the case of Technology-Based Learner Interface for School in the review carried
out by Recesso (2001) into the points of view of the various experts, it can be seen that most of the
discussions are focused on the economic side and on the learning strategies they should represent,

106
although it can also be seen that there is no agreement on the planning of the development of the
tool.
In recent years, the software industry has based a great deal of its efforts on different stages of
education. For younger children, they use the "learn through playing" formula, and make the very
most of the multimedia qualities of current computer equipment, as well as offering attractive
programmes that are impeccably made (Urbina, 2000). In different studies, we can observe that this
trend is being followed in most countries. Therefore, we find a study carried out in the United States
that shows that 67% of the software published there is aimed at young children (Haugland, 1998).
For older children, the software has to take into account that learning settings are comprehensive,
they are integrated systems that promote adjustment through activities focused on the student,
including guided presentations, handling and exploring between interrelated learning matters
(Hannafin and Gall, 1990).
Currently, with the advent of the information highways, with Internet as the historic event of the 20th
century, changes that were previously unimaginable are taking place in society (Cardona, 2002) and
they also affect the production of educational software as well as education methods, even allowing
elements of help in education for diversity to be introduced, as shown in the study carried out by
Bishop (2003). Consequently, what we should do is prepare teachers to make the most of the
educational potential of the new technologies, because if schools do not explore the possibilities of the
computer as an educational instrument, it seems less likely that the child will do so on his or her own.
Studies have been carried out on the opinion that people have of the use of ICTs in schools, such as
that of Sime and Priestley (2005) in which it was observed that in the responses that were given, the
changes in the nature of classroom relationships were shown and it was highlighted that it was an
element that modernised teaching, although they also detected a variety of factors that made the
process more clumsy. We can also find studies such as that of Mioduser et al. (2000) in which they use
the computer in the development of skills in the reading area in children with reading difficulties, the
results of which clearly showed that the technological intervention noticeably improved their reading
ability.
One of our reasons for carrying out this piece of research was due to realising that despite the fact that
there are currently numerous programmes available concerning educational material, there are some
shortcomings and therefore, we need to have computerised programmes that cover these
shortcomings and are aimed at improving school learning. These programmes must be suitable for the
level of the children that use them as it was seen that the greater the "differentiated educational
action" the greater the increases in development of the abilities occurred and it should be taken into

107
account that if we optimise the performance of our students, they will also improve in other areas of
learning.
On the other hand, the conviction that we had that the use of new technologies could provide greater
help in optimising learning than the simple help of the teacher led us to present this piece of research
to check whether this hypothesis was correct, as in a previous study (Tesouro and Puiggalí, 2004a) a
piece of research was carried out in which it was seen that by means of the new technologies learning
improved, but it did not take into account that this learning could be improved with the help of the
teachers without the use of computers. Therefore, below we present the piece of work which improves
on the previous one by creating a new experimental group that worked on the same contents as the
computer programme with the help of the teacher, but without the use of New Technologies.
Objective and hypothesis
The main objective in our work is to compare the effectiveness of traditional teaching with Computer
Aided Learning (CAL) in the school.
The hypothesis are:
• The children who do the WinDat programme will improve more than the children in the control
group who attend normal classes, both in the test on which this programme is based: DAT-AR,
as in the Raven General Test.
• The children who work on the same contents as the WinDat with the help of the teacher will
improve more than the children in the control group who only attend normal classes.
• The children who do the WinDat programme will improve more in the test on which this
programme is based: DAT-AR and in the Raven General Test than the children who work on
the same content with the help of the teacher as they will have received immediate feedback.
• The control group, that only attended normal classes, will not improve as they would not have
worked on the processes involved in the different tests.
Instruments
The instruments that we used in the work are:
• DAT-AR test.
• RAVEN GENERAL test.
• WINDAT

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DAT-AR test:
The Differential Aptitude Test (DAT) is an integrated battery of eight aptitude tests that provide
assistance in educational and vocational guidance. The major areas being measured by the DAT are
often closely allied with vocational career areas:
1. Verbal Ability
2. Numerical Ability
3. Abstract Reasoning
4. Clerical
5. Mechanical Reasoning
6. Space Relations
7. Spelling
8. Grammar
We used the subtest AR (abstract ratiocination). This subtest has 50 items.
RAVEN GENERAL test:
Raven General are widely used non-verbal intelligence tests. In each test item, one is asked to find the
missing part required to complete a pattern. Each set of items gets progressively harder, requiring
greater cognitive capacity to encode and analyze.
The Raven General measure the two main components of general intelligence: the ability to think
clearly and make sense of complexity, which is known as educative ability and the ability to store and
reproduce information.
WINDAT (A program that improves learning):
To carry out this piece of research we created the programme WinDat, taking into account that in
various works it has been seen that students do not feel so threatened before the judgement of a
machine - which has limited knowledge - as they do before the judgement of the teacher and they
docilely accept the repetition of mistakes without showing so many signs of fatigue.
The computer programme called WinDat is based on the subtest AR (Abstract Reasoning) of the DAT
test (Differential Aptitude Test) and it is an adaptation to Windows of the INFODAT programme that
was created by the same authors (Tesouro, 1995). Both programmes consist of 50 items (the same as
DAT-AR) and thanks to a previous study carried out they were ordered according to difficulty. In each

109
of the items there is a series of 4 elements in which the subject must complete the fifth, choosing a
drawing from five offered. The great difference there is between working on the content of the DAT-AR
with the WinDat programme or with the teacher is that the programme immediately informs the
students about whether the answer he or she has given is correct or not. Therefore, if it is incorrect, at
that precise moment it gives a full explanation with the correct answer and says why it is the correct
answer, as it tries to improve performance and the learning of the students, while the teacher cannot
resolve all the students' doubts at the same time.
It should be pointed out that the DAT-AR is applied from 14 years of age and involves the processes of
analysis and logical abilities, functions that are associated with "general intelligence" and the ability to
reason with non-verbal forms, but in this piece of research it was applied to students aged 11-12
because it was considered positive to offer a certain level of difficulty to achieve a greater
improvement as if the exercises of the programme had been too simple and had had too easy an
answer for the students, the improvement of the students would not have been so considerable.
Figure 1. WINDAT Programme
Methodology
Sample:
The participants were 276 students from schools in the province of Barcelona, Spain aged between 11
and 12.

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The children selected were divided into three balanced groups (two experimental groups and a control
group). It should be mentioned that they were not children with high marks in the pre-test because, as
we pointed out, the DAT-AR is applied to 14-year-olds and we applied it to 11-12-year-olds. We made
this choice because if we had chosen older children, we would have had much higher marks in the pre-
test, in other words, they would have been much closer to the optimum level and therefore the
difference between the pre-test and the post-test would be much smaller than we obtained in this
experience.
Design of the experience:
We carried out a pre-test using the odd numbered items of the Raven General Test to make three
balanced groups, in other words, with almost identical average marks. The assigning of the condition
of the control group, experimental group 1 and experimental group 2 was random, with the three
following:
• The control group attend normal classes
• Experimental group 1 follows the WinDat programme.
• Experimental group 2 does exercises from the WinDat with the help of their regular teacher,
both orally and with the use of paper.
ATTEND
NORMAL
CLASSES
WORK CONTENTS
OF THE DAT-AR
WITH THE
WINDAT
PROGRAMME
WORK CONTENTS
OF THE DAT-AR
WITH THE HELP OF
THE TEACHER
CONTROL GROUP
Yes
No
No
EXPERIMENTAL GROUP -1
Yes
Yes
No
PRE-TEST
EXPERIMENTAL GROUP-2
Yes
No
Yes
POST-TEST
Table 1. Design of the experience: Distribution of the 3 groups (a control group and two experimental
groups) depending on the work on the contents of the DAT-AR
Once the pre-test measures had been applied, they worked on the contents of the DAT-AR
(experimental group 1 with the WinDat programme and experimental group 2 with the help of the
teacher). The work of the two experimental groups was parallel to attending class, while the control
group only did normal classes without specifically working on the contents of the DAT-AR.

111
Then, we applied the post-test measures that consisted of the application of the DAT-AR and of the
even numbered items of the Raven General Test (and not of the odd numbered items that had been
used in the pre-test to prevent the retest effect).
The DAT-AR enabled direct evaluation of the improvements during the experimental period in the two
experimental groups, while the Raven General Test provided indications about the transfer of the
acquired processes.
The period between the application of the pre-test and the post-test was approximately four months.
Results
The following table number 2 is presented, that shows the results obtained, in which we have applied
the student t-test for related samples, and the level of statistical significance can be seen in each of
the three groups and the percentage of improvement of the second application of each test with regard
to the first.
The children aged 11-12 who did the WinDat programme improved significantly (p<0. 01) both in the
DAT-AR Test (53.8% improvement), the test on which the programme is based, as the Raven General
Test (28.75% improvement). However, we could see that the children who worked the contents of the
DAT-AR with the help of the teacher also improved significantly (p<0.01) in the two tests although the
percentage of the improvement was lower than in the group that used the WinDat programme (30.2%
in the DAT-AR and 20.14% in the Raven General Test).
In addition, we applied the student t-test to groups independently (experimental group 1 that did the
WinDat and experimental group 2 that worked on the DAT-AR contents with the help of the teacher)
and it was seen that experimental group 1 improved significantly with regard to experimental group 2
(p<0.05) in the DAT-AR test while the improvement in the Raven General Test was not statistically
significant. We should also point out that experimental group 2, which worked on the DAT-AR contents
with the help of the teacher, also improved significantly with regard to the control group.
Table 2. Improvement in the second application of each test with regard to the first application: level of
statistical significance and % of improvement
WORK ON THE CONTENTS OF THE DAT-AR
WITH THE WINDAT
PROGRAMME
WITH THE HELP OF
THE TEACHER
CONTROL
GROUP
DAT-AR
0.008
53.8%
0.003
30.2%
0.091
8.15%
TESTS
RAVEN GENERAL TEST (even
numbered items)
0.003
28.75%
0.009
20.14%
0.215
4.13%

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0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
DAT-AR PRE-TEST
19,731
19,810
19,944
DAT-AR POST-TEST
30,346
25,793
21,569
RAVEN PRE-TEST
10,221
10,163
10,249
RAVEN POST-TEST
13,160
12,210
12,253
EX. GROUP 1 (us ed
the WINDA T
programme)
EX. GROUP 2
(w orked w ith the
help of the teacher)
CONTROL GROUP
Figure 2. Comparison of results by groups
We finally observed that the control group, which only had normal classes, did not improve
significantly either in the DAT-AR or in the Raven General Test (p>0.05) although in both tests there
was an improvement (8.15% in the DAT-AR and 4.13% in the Raven General Test) due to the retest
effect.
Conclusions or discussion
We can see that the first hypothesis that says that the children who use the WinDat programme will
improve more than the children in the control group who attend normal classes, not only in the test on
which the programme is based: DAT-AR, but also in the Raven General Test was fully met, as well as
the second hypothesis that says that the children who work on the same contents of the WinDat with
the help of the teacher will improve more than the children in the control group who attend normal
classes.
However, the third hypothesis that says that the children who do the WinDat programme will improve
more in the test on which the programme is based: DAT-AR, and on the Raven General Test than the
children who worked on the same contents with the help of the teacher were partially met, in other
words, in the case of the DAT-AR, the children who did the WinDat improved significantly with regard
to those who worked on the contents with the help of the teacher, while in the Raven General Test, on

113
applying the student t-test for independent samples the improvement is not statistically significant.
This is due to the fact that although the new technologies help a great deal in the field of teaching, if
you have a good teacher, the students also optimise their learning suitably.
Finally the fourth hypothesis which says that the control group, that only attended normal classes,
would not improve as it had not worked on the processes involved in the various tests could be said to
have been met although the control group showed some gain which was due to the repetition of the
measure that we used for the pre-test and post-test (indicative of the retest effect).
This work shows that school performance and learning can be improved using new technologies due to
the fact that computer programmes have special characteristics, in other words, they offer a guarantee
that we have a homogeneous medium for optimising learning as computers always work in the same
mode, which a teacher does not always do and, in addition, the computer allows individualised use
because the programmes are used independently for each student and the children can take the time
they need to look at the explanations given by the programmes, while a teacher's explanation is given
in a limited time and he or she cannot solve the doubts of the different students at the same time. This
assumption will be met as long as we have well-designed applications that are adapted to teaching.
In later research it will be interesting to use as pre-test and post-test measures, in addition to the
tests that were used, contents from the course the children are studying, because in the results of the
research we could see that intelligence tests are particularly sensitive to training and one of the things
that increases the marks of the post-test is the affinity with the test, although we were able to observe
that feedback, both from the programme and from the teacher, is very important.
As a final conclusion, we could say that many of the contents worked on with the help of the new
technologies are better assimilated by the students as they get better results than using a traditional
method. However, we should highlight that although we use the new technologies, the figure of the
teacher will always be necessary and that in the design of computer applications the interaction of the
technician with an expert in educational methods is very important.
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Acknowledgments
This work was partially supported by the Spanish Science and Technology Ministry under contract
TIN2005-08945-C06-03 and by European project: "Interreg III in France-Spain 2000-2006 financed by
FEDER (Fonds Europeen of Regional Developpement) and cofinanced by the Delegation of Girona, the
University of Girona.