Research in Educational Computing: Problems of Internal and External Validity

Cleborne D. Maddux
Computers in the Schools, Vol 11, No. 3, 1995, p. 7-10

This article describes the evolution of modern research in educational computing through three stages. Stage one, beginning in the 1970s, emphasized computer literacy and the lack of hardware. Stage two, beginning in the early to mid 1980s, was based on the idea that learning to use some specific computer application would lead to improvement in specific cognitive or performance variables. This stage suffered from problems in
internal validity because it ignored confounding variables related to learners or to teachers. Stage three, beginning in the 1990s, questioned how the learner and learning variables interacted with teaching variables. These studies suffered from problems in external validity because of the ideal settings in which the studies were done.

We hope you found what you needed on this page. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me.



Howard J. Bender, Ph.D.
President
The Education Process Improvement Center, Inc.
P.O. Box 186
Riverdale, Maryland 20738
hjbender@epicent.com