title: School children's use of computers and teachers' education in computer ergonomics.
abstract: A national survey to investigate the education of teachers in computer-related ergonomics was carried out by postal questionnaire. The use of computers by primary school children (age 4-12 years) was also investigated. Data were collected from a random sample of 25% (n = 830) of primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Questionnaires (n = 1863) were returned from 416 schools giving a response rate of 50.1%. Almost all schools (99.7%) had computers for children's use. The computers were most often (69.8%) used in the classroom. The majority (56.3%) of children worked in pairs. Most teachers (89.6%) had received computer training, but few (17.6%) had received ergonomics information during the training. Respondents were not satisfied with their current knowledge of ergonomics. Over 90% stated that they would like to receive further information by printed format or during a training course, rather than by computer (web or CD-ROM).
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Physiotherapy, School of Medicine, Trinity College, Dublin, Republic of Ireland. sara.dockrell@tcd.ie
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dockrell
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fallon
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Masterson
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shields
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006804:Ergonomics; D005178:Faculty / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D007494:Ireland; D008297:Male; D008838:Microcomputers; D011361:Professional Competence; D012574:Schools; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014584:User-Computer Interface