Developing an Internet Attitude Scale for high school students

Abstract

Although educators over the past decade have developed various scales measuring students' computer attitudes, few of them have constructed scales specifically for attitudes towards the Internet. The purpose of this study was to develop an Internet attitude scale for high school students. Through both revising a previous scale proposed by Selwyn (1997) [Selwyn, N. (1997), Students' attitudes toward computers: validation of a computer attitude scale for 16-19 education. Computers & Education, 28(1), 35-41] and writing new items, this study developed an Internet Attitude Scale of 18 items, with the following four subscales: perceived usefulness, affection? perceived control, and behavior. This study also explored gender differences on the scale, and the relationship between Internet experience and students' responses on the scale. Research data gathered from 753 Taiwan high school students revealed that students of different gender and various Internet experiences did not show statistical differences on the perceptions toward the potential usefulness of the Internet subscale. However, male students tended to express more positive feeling, lower anxiety, and higher confidence toward using the Internet than female students. Students having more Internet experience tended to show similar positive attitudes than those of less experience. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.