Computer Usage Among Secondary School Teachers

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of demographic factors on attitude towards computers and in turn how these would affect computer usage among 400 secondary school teachers in Kinta District of Perak. The demographic factors investigated are gender, age, race, academic qualifications, subject major and ownership of computer. Attitude towards computers is determined through three subscales; computer anxiety, confidence and liking. The questionnaire developed by Loyd and Gressard is used to measure teachers’ attitude towards computers. The relationship between demographic factors, attitude and computer usage are analysed using the t-test, ANOVA and correlation analysis. The results show that there is a positive correlation (r = 0.632) between attitude towards computers and computer usage among the teachers. There is a significant difference in attitude towards computer at 0.05 level of significant (a = 0.05 ) between the male and the female teachers. The male teachers have a higher mean score on attitude towards computer than their female counterparts. There is no significant difference between male and female teachers in computer usage, but the overall level of computer usage among the teachers is still low. The study also shows that there are no significant difference between teachers’ race and subject major with attitude towards computer and computer usage. However, there are significant differences between the different age groups of teachers, academic qualifications of teachers and computer usage. Although, older teachers have a positive attitude towards computers, their level of computer usage is lower than the younger teachers. There is also a significant difference between owner and non-owner in computer usage. Owners of computers have more positive attitude towards computer and a higher level of computer usage than nonowners. Furthermore, those teachers who have attended computer courses show a more positive attitude and use computers more often than those without attending any computer courses