Gender and Computer Use in an Academic Institution: Report from a Longitudinal Study

Abstract

This article explores the nature of the relationships between gender, categories of computer use, and attitudes toward computers in a computer enriched environment where all students were provided with network access and laptop computers over a four-year period. The results indicate that women were less positive about computers than men, and the use level of computers by women were less frequent than for men. This change in the relationship is a throwback to the earlier days of computing when research had indicated that men were more positively disposed toward computers than women. 67 Ó 2000, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.individual's attitude toward the use of computers in teaching with hosts of attitude scales being developed to measure attitude toward technology [2][3][4][5][6][7].While attitude has been measured in many different ways and conceptual links between attitudes and learning have been suggested, the fundamental definition of "computing" has remained somewhat fuzzy too. In most cases, the literature does not acknowledge the variations in the term "computing" [8]. Computing, an umbrella term for computer use, was an adequate label while these machines predominately were used for mathematical and word processing tasks, but today computers are used in various facets of life. Some recognition of the difficulty of using the term "computing" is seen in researchers who choose to use "computer use" instead of "computing" when referring to the way in which technology is being mobilized in pedagogy. This shift in language helps to think of the transformation of the computer from machines that strictly are used to compute to those that enable communication. Consequently, researchers were able to consider how the various uses of computers affect attitude toward computers [9, 10]. These researchers began indicating how various ways of using the computer affect a student's attitude toward the machine. While this was a welcome advance in the thinking of the role of computers in education, there was still inadequate discrimination in thinking of what is meant by "computer use" and the various possible uses were not completely defined or categorized.Mitra and Hullet honed in on the variation of computer use among college students and advanced the finding that different categories of use are related to different categories of attitudes [11]. One's attitude may vary when they are using a computer to communicate compared to using it for statistical analysis. With the emergence of laptop campuses-a college or university that requires all students to own and operate a laptop computer-the term "computer use" transforms further. These new environments, where students are submersed in the ubiquitous use of computers, are different from traditional campuses where computer use is dependent on the availability of computer labs. Laptop campuses, according to Mitra and Steffensmeier are computer-enriched environments [12]. Their research reveals that these "enriched environments" create a more positive shift in student's attitudes...

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