LEARNING AND TEACHING IN CYBERSPACE : AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION FOR GEOGRAPHY

Abstract

Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) is increasingly becoming popular as a tool for enhancing learning in Singapore schools. It is often used in teaching science and mathematics, but little research has been done on CAI for geography in Singapore schools. Apart from the Student's and Teacher's Workbench Project at the National Computer Board, this thesis, as far as the author is aware, represents a pioneering research on CAI for teaching geography in Singapore schools. There are several objectives in this thesis. Firstly, it aims to investigate the feasibility, problems and prospects of using CAI to teach geography. Secondly, it attempts to appraise the current educational software relating to geography. Thirdly, it looks into the possibility of using Internet for teaching the subject matter. Lastly, the project will propose a set of recommendations to assist the integration of CAI into geography teaching. Due to time and resource constraints, the study will be confined to CAI at only the secondary and pre-university level. A survey was conducted with 81 respondents who are geography teachers as well as nine teachers in the CAI project. It is designed to examine the feasibility of adopting CAI to teach geography in the secondary schools and pre-universities. To achieve this objective, the survey is divided into two parts. Part I will provide information pertaining to computer usage in the schools and the teachers' rate of computer literacy. Part II will examine the feasibility of adopting CAI, the potential problems affecting this adoption, and the use of Internet for teaching geography.