The Effect of the Use of Computers on Writing in a Second Grade Classroom

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the effect of the use of the computer on the quality of second grade students' writing. Twenty-five second grade students from a rural, public elementary school district in western New York participated in this study. The study consisted of a collection of two separate writing samples taken from the students. One was done on the computer while the other one was done by pencil and paper. It was a counterbalance design in that twelve of the students did the first writing sample on the computer, while the other thirteen students did the first writing sample by pencil and paper using the same topic. The second writing sample reversed the order in which the students completed the writing sample on the computer and by pencil and paper using the second topic. The writing samples were scored holistically, with a 0 - 4, by the examiner and a second reader using a scoring rubric. A t test was used to analyze the data. Results from the t test indicated that there was no statistically significant mean score difference between the computer group scores and the paper/pencil group scores on the holistically scored writing samples of second grade students.