Technological Interventions and Student Attitudes: A Case Study of Secondary Students Identified as At-Risk

Rose Hulman Institute of Technology The purpose of this study was to investigate second order finger tip effects, or the affective results of using technology in a classroom setting among a group of senior high school students before and after exposure to an intelligent tutoring system. Participants were students identified as at-risk, with a small subset of these identified as having learning disabilities. The study comprised two stages. Stage one consisted of an analysis ofpreand poststudent surveys pertaining to personal reactions to technology, feelings about interacting with new educational delivery mechanisms, and views about themselves and school. Stage two consisted of in-depth interviews of a representative subset of this group which dealt further with students' perceptions of themselves as learners, their own academic competence and attitudes toward their school experience. After exposure to the intelligent tutoring software, students reported significantly more positive perceptions oftechnology, about school, and about themselves as learners. In addition, students also revealed positive feelings about their perceptions of their school experience and motivation to learn in general, and of technology in particular.