American and Soviet Children's Attitudes toward Computers

Abstract

For a decade significant resources in the United States have been expended to put computers in the schools. Many school districts are now taking stock of the effects of this computerization as they prepare strategic plans for the school reform of the next decade. Similarly, recent events in Eastern Europe are bringing about massive school reform, and the role that the computer could play in reform efforts is being carefully considered. As plans for increased use of computer technology are made, it is important for policy makers, educators and researchers to understand how children relate to the new technologies. In this study the attitudes of eight to twelve year old American and Soviet children toward computers were examined by comparing their responses to attitude statements and their drawings of computer users. Although some significant differences by country and gender were found, the attitudes of the children from both countries were found to be very similar and mostly positive. One of the greatest differences found was in the level of parental use of computers. A majority of Soviet parents were not computer users, whereas a majority of American parents were computer users. The most significant gender differences occurred in the drawings of computer users with most boys drawing males and most girls drawing females as computer users.