e to both student motivation and achievement, and to instructional management. These objectives are as follows:
1. Student motivation and achievement:
a. The first objective is to cause students to become receptive to the use of information science technology in the educational process.
b. The second objective is to enhance the motivation of students to learn.
c. The third objective is to improve student achievement in the acquisition of language skills.
a. The first objective is to increase the efficiency of records management by teachers.
b. The second objective is to improve the effectiveness of the analysis and evaluation of student performance.
The information science software and hardware that will be funded by the grant proposed will be used in the instruction of
children in the three to eight years old age range. A 486 DX 33 PC series microcomputer, appropriate peripheral equipment, and multimedia hardware will support the attainment of objectives related to both student motivation and achievement, and to instructional management.
For children in the three to five year old age range, it is proposed that "Toddler Teacher," a package of 11 shareware programs, constitute the software for the experiment. For children in the six to eight year old age range, it is proposed that two software programs be employed. The first program will be a computer assisted language learning (CALL) program that is a part of The Education Systems Corporation's language arts programs for K8 students (Van Horn, 1991, pp. 527 533). The second program will be "Zoo Keeper" produced by Davidson & Associates Inc. The "Microsoft Works" program will provide the software for the support of the instructional management objectives.
The approval and completion of the proposed experiment will demonstrate the effectiveness of the use of information science technology in the early childhood education prog...