ABSTRACT
In this chapter the author determines the levels of computer ownership in school, tracks the changes over time, compares these levels with those of teachers, and examines the uses that were being made of the computers themselves. He examines the ways in which the use of a new tool changed the ways in which the users operated. He concluded that the most effective way to present information about levels of ownership was to convert the data into percentages. During 1995—7 the factor that had the biggest impact on access to computers was the purchase of old machines from work for use at home. It was these Windows-based personal computers (PCs) that steered the shift from games machine to work machines for many students. The method of classifying data which the author used, adapted from McQuail's Uses and Gratifications typology, was only used for the first data collection.
