Abstract: This study was designed to identify the relationships that exist among computer experience, computer self-efficacy, and computer-dependent performance in an introductory computer literacy course. Measures of computer experience and computer self-efficacy were assessed prior to student participation in the course, and their relationship to subsequent course performance was analyzed. Results suggest that it is the relevance, rather than quantity, of computer experience students bring to class that is most predictive of performance. Accordingly, only computer self-efficacy was found to be significantly related to computer-dependent course performance. Implications for educators charged with assessing the computer literacy of students entering college are discussed.

Abstract: This paper introduces SimCity 2000, a popular computer simulation model, as a tool for teaching urban geography concepts. Situated within a more traditional class format, this software can enhance computer literacy, geographical knowledge, and critical skills. The dynamism and visual refinement of the software add to the entertainment value of attempting to effectively guide a city's development. These strengths of the program also facilitate learning about the complex, dynamic, and interrelated nature of urban problems. Students are highly motivated to use the software because of its game-like aspects, yet after using the program they report attitudinal learning in the form of a greater appreciation of the role of urban planners, designers, and policy-makers. Instructors should consider how to accommodate different levels of previous experience with the software, particularly in relation to a gender-based dichotomy that is indicated by this study. In addition, instructors should consider how to ...

Abstract: With many students' access to computers at home out-weighing their use of Information Technology (IT) in school, the importance of home computing has grown immensely over the last decade. This paper therefore seeks to examine the nature and extent of students' domestic use of computers and the subsequent relationship with their use of IT in schools and colleges. Using a sample of 16–19-year-old students, quantitative and qualitative data were gathered to explore students' experiences of home computing. The results suggest that students using computers at home have significantly more positive attitudes toward using computers yet do not necessarily make more use of school or college-based IT; compensating for the inadequacies of educational IT with their use of computers at home. Nevertheless access to, and benefits gained from, home computers were found to differ significantly according to students' gender.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the following factors predict computer use by teachers in classroom instruction: attitudes of teachers toward computers in the classroom, access by teachers and students to computers, training of teachers in computer use, support of teachers in their use of computers, age of the teacher, grade level in which the teacher teaches, curriculum area in which the teacher teaches, gender of the teacher, and number of years the teacher is from retirement. Computer use was measured in five ways: over-all computer use and use in drill and practice, whole class instruction, student-directed learning, and computer skills instruction. The design of the study was both quantitative and qualitative. The population of the study was the classroom teachers of Carroll County (Virginia) Public Schools. A survey instrument was designed to measure computer use and the factors related to use. The responses from the survey were analyzed with multiple regression techniques to determine which factors were predictors of computer use by teachers in classroom instruction. The qualitative portion of the study consisted of five focus groups (5-7 teachers from grades PreK-2, 3-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-12). The nominal group technique was used to create a prioritized list of strategies to improve teacher use of computers by focusing on the factors determined to be predictors. Factors that predict computer use varied by grade level. Training was the most common predictor followed by attitude, support, access, and age of teacher. The prioritized lists of strategies from the focus groups included grade and curriculum specific computer training, technology "coaches" in every building, and computer labs in every building. A major implication of the study was that training must be specifically targeted to grade level and curriculum area to be effective.

Abstract: Many commentators have argued that “key skills” are becoming more important in modern workplaces. This paper draws on a survey that uses a methodology based on job analysis to measure skills at work, and estimates their implicit prices using a hedonic wage equation. The main new findings are that: Computer skills are highly valued in the current British labour market. Even at “moderate” levels of complexity, for example using word-processing packages, workers using computers earn an average premium (after controlling for other job skills) in excess of 20 per cent, compared to those who do not use computers at all. Professional communication and problem-solving skills are also highly valued. A onestandard-deviation increase in either type of skill raises pay by around 5 per cent, after allowing for all the controls. To a lesser extent, verbal skills also carry a pay premium for women. But planning, and client and horizontal communication skills, have little independent association with pay. Numerical skills also have no conditional link with pay, other than through being associated with more complex computer usage. Jobs involving task variety earn more pay, but there is no strong evidence that greater autonomy is positively rewarded. Participating in Quality Circles and, more tentatively, in organised work teams attracts a pay premium. Jobs which require a long learning time, which deploy transferable skills, and/or for which there are higher qualifications requirements command a higher pay. A reasonably complete job analysis provides a useful means of accounting for a wage distribution via a hedonic wage equation.

Abstract: As computing has become an increasingly male-dominated activity, feminine (sex typed) individuals would be predicted by psychological gender theory to underperform upon computer-related tasks. This is particulary significant as computer-based tuition now forms a compulsory component of the National Curriculum within primary education (ages 5–11) within the UK. The present study examines the computer-related attitudes and attainments of 48 primary (6–11 years) school-aged children. The results show boys hold more favourable attitudes towards computers than girls, a difference that becomes non-significant when controlling for psychological gender. Additionally, masculine sex typed schoolchildren hold more positive attitudes and achieve higher levels of computer-related attainment than feminine sex typed schoolchildren.

Abstract: For over 10 generations in America, a traditional concept of literacy as the ability to read and write print on a page has dominated schooling and adequately served the literacy demands of the society and of the workplace (Venezky, Wagner, & Ciliberti, 1991). In this not-so-distant past, during industrial and print-based economic eras, students learned functional uses of literacy and a body of knowledge that directly applied to workplace positions and stable workplace affiliations that they were likely to experience throughout their lives (Papert, 1993). However, in the emerging digital economic era, spurred by the recent proliferation of

Abstract: Nursing graduates must be sophisticated in the use of information technologies and understand how these technologies interface with various health care systems. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the impact of a newly developed Internet course, focusing on current information technologies, on 20 RN-to-MSN students. Author-developed instruments were used to measure weekly computer use, perceived computer skill, and knowledge related to the information superhighway. The Stronge & Brodt Nurses Attitudes Toward Computerization Questionnaire was used to assess attitudes toward computerization. Qualitative data was elicited using weekly evaluation forms. When compared to 23 students at a similar stage of their nursing program, quantitative findings indicated that, at the end of the semester, students in the pilot course had more computer knowledge, reported greater computer skill, and used computers more. Qualitative findings suggested that pilot students: * Were connected with nursing networks and expressed their intent to maintain these networks. * Were able to use current health information found on the Internet in their nursing practices. * Used skills learned in the pilot class to complete projects in other classes. * Communicated with classmates via the Internet, thus forming a potentially valuable professional support system. * Used the library and librarians early in their programs. * Understood the relevancy of telemedicine and the Internet to the future survival of nursing in a changing health care arena. While the authors caution that an adequate infrastructure must be available to support such an endeavor, they emphasize that knowledge of the relevancy and use of the information superhighway is crucial to the future survival of nursing in a rapidly changing health care arena.

Abstract: Ketamine is one of the oldest intravenous anaesthetic agents that is still in clinical use. Its unique mechanism of action and interaction with a variety of different receptors has sparked renewed interest in its use in a host of alternative clinical settings. This review briefly discusses the pharmacology of ketamine and ketamine’s potential use in major depressive illness, opioidinduced acute tolerance and as a potential neuroprotective agent. © SASA South Afr J Anaesth Analg 2013;19(1):24-26 Refresher Course: Ketamine: old dogs, new tricks 25 2013;19(1) South Afr J Anaesth Analg Refresher Course: Ketamine: old dogs, new tricks Ketamine in major depressive illness There are limits to the therapeutic efficacy of current antidepressant agents that enhance serotonin, noradrenaline or dopamine neural functioning in the treatment of depression. The observation of a rapid antidepressant effect by ketamine has focused attention on glutamate pathway dysfunction as a novel pathophysiology of depression. Berman et al were the first to report a rapid antidepressant response to ketamine in nine clinically depressed patients in a randomised, saline-controlled crossover design. Ketaminerelated mood improvement was robust and peaked within 72 hours following a single, low-dose infusion (0.5 mg/ kg over 40 minutes). Other randomised controlled studies have subsequently replicated Berman’s findings.2 The antidepressant effect of ketamine, and possible synergistic effects when given with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), has renewed interest in its use during ECT. However, ketamine may offer additional benefits during ECT. Intense seizure activity at this time may result in cognitive deficits and the mechanism that underlies this is thought to be because of NMDA-mediated excitotoxic neuronal damage. Ketamine is thought to exhibit a degree of neuroprotection via effects on the NMDA receptor. Preliminary evidence from clinical reports of ketamine anaesthesia for ECT seems to confirm this.3 It has also been suggested that ketamine administered during ECT may prevent excessive long-term potentiation induction and preserve memory function during ECT.4 There are numerous theoretical reasons, as well as preliminary results, to suggest that the use of ketamine in ECT anaesthesia may be advantageous in terms of cognitive and antidepressant outcomes. Its role as an anaesthetic agent in ECT certainly deserves more study. Ketamine in neuroprotection Early reports suggested that ketamine anaesthesia resulted in increases in cerebral oxygen consumption, cerebral blood flow and intracranial pressure. Ketamine was subsequently considered to be contraindicated in patients with raised intracranial pressure, as well as those with traumatic brain injury.5,6 However, advances in the knowledge of ketamine’s pharmacology warrant a re-evaluation of this verdict. The cerebral haemodynamic and metabolic effects of ketamine depend on study setting, the use of controlled ventilation, and other drugs and anaesthetic agents that are used. Ketamine has been used safely under appropriate conditions in patients with intracranial pathology.7 Ketamine’s interaction with regional cerebral haemodynamics and metabolism is complex. Mayberg et al showed that when ketamine was administered as a 1 mg/kg bolus to neurosurgical patients during isoflurane anaesthesia, it reduced intracranial pressure and middle cerebral artery flow velocity, but did not affect mean arterial blood pressure.8 Albanese et al demonstrated that administration of ketamine and propofol to head-injured patients with increased intracranial pressure reduced intracranial pressure, but had no effect on cerebral artery flow velocity or mean arterial blood pressure. There is also evidence to show that ketamine has the ability to preserve cerebral vascular autoregulation.9 Ketamine’s stimulation of the cardiovascular system may prevent hypotension and thus maintain the cerebral perfusion pressure, which together with its other advantages over opiate-based sedation, could make the drug a first choice in sedative regimens for patients with brain insults.7 Renewed interest in ketamine as a neuroprotectant has been supported by animal studies that have reported neuroprotective effects. When used before, during, or after, induction of various brain insults, ketamine protected against hypoxic, ischaemic, mechanical and chemical neuronal damage.10 When used at low doses in post-injury cultured neurons, neuroprotective effects were found and the observed decrease in necrosis related to a reduction in glutamate neurotoxicity caused by NMDAreceptor blockade by ketamine.11 Unfortunately, virtually no clinical trial data are available and it is impossible to extrapolate the available animal data to human brain injury. However, other evidence suggests that NMDA-receptor antagonists produce neurotoxicity under certain conditions. Complete inhibition of normal NMDA-receptor activity reduces brain cell survival and worsens the physiological outcome in rats as NMDA-mediated signal transduction is required to express neurotrophins and other survivalpromoting brain proteins.12 It is also known that large doses of NMDA-receptor antagonists cause apoptosis and cognitive impairment in the developing rat brain. Furthermore, ketamine produces acute vacuolar changes in adult rat brain cells. The co-administration of ketamine and the NMDA antagonist, nitrous oxide, further enhanced vacuole formation, whereas pretreatment with a γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) agonist prevented these adverse effects.13 In vitro studies showed cell death in neurons cultured from the rat forebrain after prolonged exposure to ketamine at high concentrations, but apoptosis did not occur at lower concentrations (such as those used clinically). This suggests that neurotoxicity produced by NMDA antagonists is doserelated. Whether the NMDA antagonist that induced the neurodegeneration observed in rats also occurs in humans is unknown. The doses and duration of the administration of ketamine-implicated neurotoxicity in experimental animals do not correlate with, and frequently greatly exceed, those used to produce sedation or anaesthesia in patients. Thus, the potential clinical relevance of the data obtained with regard to rats remains to be clarified.13 Refresher Course: Ketamine: old dogs, new tricks 26 2013;19(1) South Afr J Anaesth Analg Ketamine to prevent opioid-induced acute tolerance Opioid-induced hyperalgesia is defined as a state of nociceptive sensitisation that is caused by exposure to opioids. Receptor desensitisation, comprising loss of receptor function and internalisation, appears to be involved and noxious stimuli such as surgery may enhance opioidreceptor dysfunction via NMDA-receptor-mediated opioid release.14 Pretreatment with NMDA-receptor antagonists significantly inhibited mu-opioid receptor dysfunction in neurones and ketamine pretreatment in human and animal studies has been shown to prevent opioid-induced hyperalgesia and acute tolerance.15,16

Abstract: What is now called the Internet started out as a small number of federally funded Department of Defense (Advanced Research Project Agency, or ARPA) supercomputers networked together to share inform...

Abstract: DOCUMENT RESUME

Abstract: This pilot study examined variables that could influence attitudes toward learning and working with computers of preservice teachers at the beginning and end of an introduction to educational technology computer course taught at the University of Central Florida's College of Education during Summer 1997. The variables examined in the study were computer attitudes (computer anxiety, computer confidence, computer liking, and computer usefulness) and student perceptions. Twenty-six students enrolled in the course completed the Computer Attitude Scale (CAS) pretest and posttest. The basic curriculum and course issues that were considered to be fundamental to the overall success of the course were curriculum issues, high impact and low threat, classroom issues and design, and continuous emphasis on key basic skills. Findings indicated that, after completion of the course, students had less anxiety and a more positive attitude toward

Abstract: Much of what has been written about computer use in nursing has been technocentric in nature. Nursing literature has focused on the intricacies of the technology, computer literacy, nurses' attitudes to computers and information systems, the implementation of these systems and, to a lesser degree, nursing information and its application in a computerized environment. Little, if any, attention has been given to the underlying cognitive processes required to use information technologies effectively. Can nursing stand accused of concentrating too heavily on the technology of information rather than on the cognitive processes involved in the acquisition, management, and use of information? This discussion will focus on the utilization of cognitive tools to facilitate the higher order thinking skills required for the effective use of information technologies. The concept of cognitive tools and cognitive residues will be defined. The role of these concepts within the broader context of nursing informatics will be illustrated using examples of how computer-based cognitive tools have been implemented in one undergraduate nursing program.

Abstract: The linguistic context of the computer-mediated environment is of particular importance to better understanding the impact of computer-assisted language learning. Yet few studies have documented actual practices in such an environment. An ethnographically based case-study approach was used in this study to document the attitudes, activities, behaviours, and beliefs of one teacher and his students in a third-semester university French class as they met weekly in a computer-equipped classroom. Despite his enthusiasm, the intersecting teacher beliefs, linguistic difficulties, and technical problems impeded the creation of an environment conducive to sustaining lessons in the target language. Moreover, the teacher's activities in the computer-equipped classroom often privileged computer literacy over linguistic proficiency.

Abstract: The challenge of a computer literacy course is to present general principles of computer science, while at the same time engaging students who are nonmajors and demonstrating the relevance of the subject. In this paper we describe our experience with a course that uses the Internet as a motivating theme to introduce students to fundamental concepts of computer science. The students found the course interesting and were visibly stimulated by the material. In comparison with previous semesters, the students left the course with more practical skills as well as a greater appreciation of the interrelations between mathematics and computer science.

Abstract: There is discussion about the definition of literacy in the ‘Information Age‘ and the nature of the experience, skills, knowledge and understanding that teachers will need to develop in continuing professional development. This paper discusses the context of policy and curriculum discussions; critiques an approach to information literacy; outlines the use of a framework of ‘good practice‘ in using information technology in the classroom and illustrates the reflection of these ideas in a research project. It proposes that information literacy for teachers is more than competence and capability in information retrieval and presentation, but requires awareness of the ideological, cultural, epistemological and pedagogical practices in which these capabilities are developed. © 1998 IFIP, published by Chapman & Hall Ltd

Abstract: This article is a phenomenological study of students' lived experience in a computer conference learning environment. Issues for students in computer conferences revolved around spatial disorientation: existential location, appearances in space, imagined space, word space, secret space, and being alone within a group. Within these spatial issues the students grappled with getting into a computer space, familiarity of use, getting stuck, and the class as a "necessary evil. " The article poses critical questions for educators to consider the use of computer conferencing as a learning environment.

Abstract: During the three decades since Ivan Sutherland introduced the Sketchpad system [7], there has been an outpouring of computer graphics systems for use in architecture [3, 5]. In response to this development, most of the major architectural firms around the world have embraced the idea that computer literacy is mandatory for success. We would argue, however, that most of these recent developments have failed to tap the potential of the computer as a design tool. Instead, computers have been relegated largely to the status of drafting instruments, so that the "D" in CAD stands for drafting rather than design. It is important that future architectural design systems consider design as a continuous process rather than an eventual outcome.The advent of computer graphics technology has had an impact on the architectural profession. Computer graphics has revolutionized the drafting process, enabling the rapid entry and modification of designs (see Figure 1). In addition, modeling and rendering systems have proven to be invaluable aids in the visualization process, allowing designers to walk through their designs with photorealistic imagery (see Figure 2) [6, 2, 3]. Computer graphics systems have also demonstrated utility for capturing engineering information, greatly simplifying the analysis and construction of proposed designs. However, it is important to consider that all of these tasks occur near the conclusion of a larger design process. In fact, most of the artistic and intellectual challenges of an architectural design have already been resolved by the time the designer sits down in front of a computer. In seeking insight into the design process, it is generally of little use to revisit the various computer archives and backups. Instead, it is best to explore the reams of sketches and crude balsa models that fill the trash cans of any architectural studio.In architecture, as in most other fields, the initial success of computerization has been in areas where it frees humans from tedious and mundane tasks. This includes the redrawing of floor plans after minor modifications, the generation of largely redundant, yet subtly different engineering drawings and the generation of perspective renderings.We believe that there is a largely untapped potential for computer graphics as a tool in the earlier phases of the design process. In this essay, we argue that computer graphics might play a larger role via applications that aid and amplify the creative process.

Abstract: The increasing use of computer technology in schools has brought with it concerns about equity of access to this new resource. Research has documented gender, social class, and racial inequalities in access to computers, and has linked computer access and experience to success in computer-related courses. This study examined the effects of home computer access and computer course enrollment on mathematically weak high school students' success in applying computers as a learning resource in a pre-algebra course. The course featured regular use of teacher-designed spreadsheet activities that engaged students in mathematical investigation and problem solving. Enrollment in a computer course was a significant predictor of success during students' early experiences in applying computers for mathematical problem solving. Home computer access was related to initial success for females, and the advantage of enrollment in a computer course was greater for females who had access to home computers than for those who...

Abstract: (1998). Literacy Instruction for the 21st-Century Workplace. Peabody Journal of Education: Vol. 73, No. 3-4, pp. 290-316.