Computer Attitudes and Knowledge in Rural Settings'

Students ' and teachers ' attitudes and knowledge about computers are important to the successful implementation of computers into educational programs. This study of 198 students and 43 educators examines computer attitudes and knowledge in rural settings. Rural educators and students were found to have positive attitudes toward computers. Educators demonstrated signifi-cantly higher knowledge levels than students. However, over half of the students indicated having a computer at home as com-pared to only about one-third of the educators. Few educators today are debating whether or not com-puters should be introduced into the classroom. The discussion now is when they should be introduced and how they should be used. Reports are commonplace about how students have responded enthusiastically to the introduction of com-puters into the classroom [2; 3; 9]. Nonetheless, Lawton and Gershner [5] reported finding few empirical studies on students ' attitudes toward computers. And, computer anxiety, or computerphobia, among some students ha