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The successful integration of computers in educational environments depends, to a great extent, on students' attitudes towards them. Widely used computer attitude scales (CASs) focus on the beliefs of typical computer users and do not reveal the more refined attitudes of groups that use computers extensively and develop unique relations with them. This study presents the development and validation of a CAS especially designed for computer science freshmen (CASF). The scale consists of five factors, namely, self-confidence in previous knowledge, hardware usage anxiety, computer engagement, fears of long-lasting negative consequences of computer use and evaluation of positive consequences of computers in personal and social life. Using an analytic computer experience construct, the scale's components were related to multiple aspects of students' computer experience. CASF responses can inform a variety of instructional decisions and classroom management strategies for the first phase of the students' studies.

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The development of educational applications has always been a challenging and complex issue, mainly because of the complications imposed by the cognitive and psychological aspects of student-computer interactions. This article presents a methodology, named We!Design, that tries to encounter the complexity of educational applications development from within the participatory design framework. The methodology enables computer literate students and designers to cooperate in the design of applications that (1) enhance typical educational processes for which students have extensive experience in, such as note taking or assessment, and (2) are well-suited to the technological, social and cultural particularities of each educational environment. The methodology can be easily applied in real educational contexts and consists of two phases. During the first phase, students participate in short-duration design sessions where they formulate needs, tasks and interface prototypes for the educational application under examination. In the second phase, the designers systematically analyse and then integrate student suggestions. In order to evaluate the methodology, it was applied in the design of two educational applications: an electronic assessment environment and a course website. A total of 86 undergraduate informatics students participated in 22 4-hour design sessions. The methodology was evaluated by collecting students' responses through questionnaires and by introspection on the video recordings of the design sessions. The design sessions proved to be a very intriguing experience for the students while the methodology's products managed to respond to their personal needs and expectations in an efficient and effective way. IntroductionTraditionally, software design is regarded as a twofold process of identifying the users' needs and finding an optimal way of fulfilling them. Customary user-centred software design approaches are quite explicit about assigning responsibilities: users should supply the needs and designers the solutions. Alternatively, researchers and software designers that endorse participatory design (PD) approaches suggest that users are capable of playing a more active role in the design process. They claim that users have the necessary knowledge and skills to participate in decision-making processes regarding technology products that concern them and they can facilitate the creation of more usable and satisfying software products.