electronic media and ADHD learners

“do computers help kids learn?”

It is the wrong question. The computer isn’t helping your kid do his work. It’s a specific program set up a specific way that addresses specific needs — and used in a specific way for learnign stuff that is taught in a specific way. Look for information on those programs — though it’s also hard to find because lots of “researchers” are also stuck on the wrong questions.
Also, of course, investigate whether being “a great help” for doing homework is the same thing as being a great help in learning. (An extreme example is a person cutting and pasting passages from the INternet onto a piece of paper to do a “report” on something — the assignment is getting done, but unless the student is reading and digesting that information, learning isn’t).

Hi Peggie,

i hope this reply is not to tardy or seem off track for your graduate research. Take the bibliography as a starting point for the multitude of other HCI & learning /training/education work the is being done.
Internet keywords you may try are:
Human Computer Interaction +ADHD +learning disabilities +special education +novel approaches to learning and teaching… ( try the +’s one at a time. Also you may want to add on “pdf” for Adobe acrobat files, “doc” for MS documents, and or also “gzip” as another document file code, to the end of your keyword search if you seek full text documents, or detailed abstracts.)

Sorry I can’t direct you to the heart line of your query, for as Sue notes there are so many subgroups of specific issues that revolve around the larger group titles i.e., Education, ADHD, Computers, as well as the educational differences of various age groups (e.g. subtexts- vision , motor learning/kinesthetics, cognition, short term, working, and long term memory, divided attention, proprioception…) However, I can tag on a few of the HCI Education and LD references I’m reading for you to check out and spin-off from; that’s if they have branches to fit your developing research.

I think ( may be wrong) that Sue brings up the Minsky (http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/) quandary of “Why People Think Computers Can’t.” Of course they are only tools and as far as my experience goes -only administrators seem to believe that their mere presence in a class room means that learning will happen.
Then again I don’t want to appear single sided and would have to answer your “do computers help kids learn?” question with an assured Yes. Just as a pencil helps us learn by scribing our thoughts into metacognitive maps and tracing our ongoing activities and development. I also believe that this type of learning can become prosthetic and subverted by the false sense of individual superiority fore having knowledge of systems or, technical program operations that others may not (being a a good follower does not advance the evolutionary paradigm.) Blocked learning does not match the long term retention and novel developments that generate from learning that is done from within a contextual interference model. This method is something that I’ve yet to see embraced and run with in HCI. But- as we can all contest, things change.

Enjoy your reserch! The world needs good work!

Bill ~

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Dwyer Bernadette, The uses of computer technology in remediation of children with specific learning difficulties ( dyslexia)
http://www.computing.dcu.ie/~mfarren/spec.pdf

Other such Working Papers can be found in this archive 2000:
http://www.computing.dcu.ie/research/CA_Working_Papers/MCE/wp00.html

Healy, Jane M., PhD (1998). Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds—for
Better and Worse. New York: Simon & Schuster. (DDR)

Kolatch Erica, Designing for Users With Cognitive Disabilities (April 19, 2000) Department of
Computer ScienceUniversity of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA
[email protected] http://www.otal.umd.edu/UUGuide/erica/

Marvin Minsky, “Why People Think Computers Can’t,” The AI Magazine, vol. 3, no. 4, Fall, 1982. Reprinted in Technology Review, Nov./Dec., 1983 and in The Computer Culture, Denis P. Donnelly, (Ed.), Associated University Presses, Cranbury NJ, 1985.

Nicolson, R.I. & Fawcett, A.J. (1994) Spelling Remediation For Dyslexic Children Using the
Selfspell Programs. Lecture Notes In Computer Science 602: 503-515.

Nicolson, R.I.& Scott, P.J. (1986). Computers and Education - the Software Production Problem. British Journal Of Educational Technology, 17, 1: 26-35.

Nicolson, R.I., Syder, D. and Freeman, M. (1994). Construction Of a Visual (Video-Supported
Active Learning) Resource. Computers & Education, 22, 1-2: 91-97.

Ross, J. Schultz,R. , (1999). Can computer-aided instruction accommodate all learners equaly? British Journal of Educational Technology, Vol.30 (1) 5-24.

Quinn Mary and Walshe Ray, A Study of the Relationship between Computer Usage and Self-Esteem: does the type of software package used have any significance?
ftp://ftp.computing.dcu.ie/pub/w-papers/2000/MCE/MCE0700.pdf

This isn’t directly about HCI -but after review you’ll see analogous relations when doing a critical analysis of computer fits to human abilities.

Contextual Interference Effect:
Shea, J.B, & Morgan, R.L. (1979). Contextual interference effects on the acquisition, retention
and transfer of a motor skill. Journal of Experimental Psychology, Human Learning and Memory, 5, 179-187.

Learning and Motor Learning overview:
Richard R. Danielson, Professor, School of Human Kinetics
Learning overview:
http://danielson.laurentian.ca/drdnotes/2206_schmidt_ch11.htm\
Supplementing the Learning Experience
http://danielson.laurentian.ca/drdnotes/2206_schmidt_ch08.htm
Home Page:
http://danielson.laurentian.ca/drdnotes/default.htm

Hey wait a minute, Sue…

Haven’t you diverted Peggies original posts topic?
I was goofed into thinking that the title you posted was the original inquiry!!

Grace my apologies Peggie.

What is the real que Sue?
What is the right question?

NT

Peggie,
I came across an interesting LDonline post dated 02-22-02. The inquiry was simmilar to your inquiry (“Does anyone have a resource for linear studies showing the effectiveness of assistive technology?”)
I’ll trust that reposting the helpful reply here will not be taken out of order.

>Author: Sue
>Date: 02-22-02 16:40
>Visit http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/technology/zabalaSETT1.html for an excellent article >on how to figure out what kind of technolgoy will be effective in what kind of situation. …

>For research, check http://ericir.syr.edu — the database has abstracts on articles from all the >educational journals. …

If this is true (?)

it would have been helpfull if you would have presented it [your point] in a clear, and extending manner insted of abbreviated and somewhat dismissive tone.