Analyzes data on exposure to and use of computers by students, focusing on gender-related differences. Provides information on frequency and duration of computer use, computer experiences, computer interests, attitudes toward computers, and emotional responses while using computers. Supports the assumption of gender-related differences, but not…

Examines the computer-related attitudes and attainments of 48 primary (6-11 years) school-aged children. Results show boys hold more favorable attitudes towards computers than girls. Boys hold more positive attitudes and achieve higher levels of computer-related attainment than girls. (Author/AEF)

Used children's drawings and interviews to examine the impact of age, gender, and school setting on elementary children's thinking about computers. Found that younger children drew computers much larger than themselves and set computers in home or school settings, whereas older children drew computers in proportion to themselves and placed…

A study of 115 female and 87 male college students in an introductory computer science course surveyed student attitudes in relation to gender, experience, and parental encouragement and determined that females were less interested in computers and less confident than males and that males were more experienced. After the one semester course,…

As colleges and universities consider various options for wide scale "computerization," one southern liberal arts university has instituted a technology program that insures that all students have equal access to laptop computers. At this university, each student is issued his or her own IBM ThinkPad, and activities involving this computer are…

Examines male and female high school students' attitudes toward computers in relation to gender and computer experience. Findings revealed: males showed a more positive attitude toward computers even when computer experience was controlled; females were less interested in computer science (CS) than males, however no gender differences were found…

Analysis of questionnaires/focus-group-interviews with students 16-19 years old to examine the nature and extent of students' domestic use of computers and the relationship with their use of information technology (IT) in schools/colleges. Suggest students with home computers have more positive attitudes toward computers but make little use of…

Reviews three articles that discuss the ways gender issues and personal characteristics impact computer use. One paper proposes an alternative to using Likert-style attitude measures to study the computer gender gap, and two articles discuss the personal characteristics of teachers that influence computer use. Related studies are mentioned and…

As the number of microcomputers in schools increases, it becomes more important for staff to provide opportunities for student use. When viewed as an innovation, student use of computers in schools can be susceptible to the same implementation problems as any innovation. Attitude is one factor that can influence success of implementation. In order…

This study explored children's preferences for 13 computer software programs and field-tested the relationship of developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) ratings of early childhood computer software programs to actual child selection. Participants were 19 4-year-olds. The Haugland and Shade (1990) evaluation instrument was used to assign DAP…

Investigated the efficacy of a computer program approach to help 260 at-risk fourth graders model, practice, and internalize narrative writing skills. Found that the at-risk students responded positively to the use of technology incorporated with instructional strategies for developing higher order thinking and literacy skills. The teachers also…

Examines effects of several mediating factors (experimenter and partner sex, sex typing, and past experience) on a computer-interaction task completed by 154 male and 223 female college students in dyads. Computer experience is related to computer experience for all students. Findings support the expected pattern of male advantage but highlight…

A survey of 119 undergraduate psychology students investigated the gender-related effects of masculinity, femininity, and perceiving technology to be masculinized upon computer anxiety in addition to the effect of significant others who use computers and the introducer of the technology. Examines the extent to which computer anxiety in teachers…

New electronic technologies provide powerful tools for managing and processing the rapidly increasing amounts of information available for learning; teachers, however, have often been slow in integrating computers into the curriculum. This study addresses the question of how prospective teachers construct affective and cognitive models about…

This paper reports on the results of a study investigating attitude toward computing for a large group (n=509) of students undertaking an introductory information systems course in an Australian university. Students were surveyed using a two-part questionnaire. The first section dealt with gender, previous computing experience, and level of…