Primary School Students’ Perceptions of Computer Ress. Assist. Funda Erdogdu Ankara University, Faculty of Educational Sciences Department of Computer & Instructional Technologies Education, Ankara-Turkey Phone: +90 (312) 363 3350; E-Mail:
[email protected] Assoc. Prof. Dr. Deniz Deryakulu Ankara University, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Department of Computer & Instructional Technologies Education, Ankara-Turkey Phone: +90 (312) 363 3350; E-Mail:
[email protected]
Abstract-This study aims at determining whether 4th, 6th and 8th grade primary school students’ perceptions of computers differ based on gender and grade. Students are requested to conduct a drawing study with three different computer related subjects. The first subject of the study is “drawing an environment where computer is used”; second “drawing a person(s) using computer” and finally “drawing yourself while you do something with computer”. Drawings are analyzed by content analysis. Those students that “draw an environment where computer is used” mostly picture home, computer class and internet café, in order of occurrence. It is found that home and computer class are mostly pictured by female and lower grade students while internet café is mainly pictured by male and higher grade students. Almost all boys and one fourth of girls that “draw a person(s) using computer” picture a male and the rest of the girls portrait a female. Besides, students identify computer users as well-informed, intelligent, hard-working, computer addictive, anti-social, ignorant, tired, sleepless, fat, and weird and also with glasses, aching eyes and strange hair. Those students that “draw her/himself while s/he does something with computer” mostly picture activities of playing computer games, web searching, studying and computer chat, in order of occurrence. Boys draw playing computer games more than girls.
Introduction For long years, most of the studies focusing on gender differences in utilization of information technologies in education show that males have been more active in this area compared to females (McCarthy & Moss, 1994). Reinen & Plomp (1993) and Shashaani & Khalili (2001) predicted that females will continue to be dominated by males in terms of utilization of information technologies in education. Females are less interested in computer science/information technology and IT related professions than males probably because of their misperception of appearance and work style of people in this area (Gurer & Camp, 2002). The statements exemplifying these misperceptions include: “information technologies are not for women”; “information technologies only consist of programming”; “information technologies are difficult”; “information technologies are boring”; “people in IT related
professions must spent very long hours in front of
computers”; “people in IT related
professions do not communicate with others”; “information technologies is machine centered” and “software is for males”. In addition to stereotype judgments about information technology/computer science, there are some other prejudices concerning physical appearance, personal characteristics, social relations of people working in this area. For instance, most of the time, people with IT related jobs are described as male, boring, a-social and unattractive to opposite sex (Hazzan, 2003).
Same results are found by different
researchers. Richardson, Weaver and Zorn (2005) found that girls perceive people working in IT related jobs as boring, a-social; and therefore they do not prefer to work in this area. A positive perception of computers provides primary school students with the ability to utilize computer and other hardware effectively during their lifetime, a tendency towards IT related jobs and self-confidence in this area. Therefore, current perceptions towards computers and IT technologies should be identified and improved, if necessary. This study aims at determining whether 4th, 6th and 8th grade primary school students’ perceptions of computers differ based on gender and grade. Methodology and Data Collection The study adopts a qualitative approach. It was conducted at four public primary schools in Ankara/Turkey during autumn of 2008-2009 education year (n=874). About half of the participating students are female (429) and the rest is male (445). In addition, about 34% of students (294) are fourth grade, 35% (304) sixth grade and the remaining 31% (276) eighth grade. Data are collected by qualitative data collection methods. 4th, 6th and 8th grade students are requested to conduct a drawing study including three different computer related subjects. The first subject of the study is “drawing an environment where computer is used”; second “drawing a person(s) using computer” and finally “drawing yourself while you do something
with computer”. Drawings are categorized and analyzed by content analysis. The first drawing category is “an environment where computer is used”; the second one, computer users, were subcategorized into three: (i) gender of computer users, (ii) physical characteristics of computer users, (iii) other qualifications of computer users; the third category is type of computer activity. In each category; frequencies and the distribution of data are calculated. Cross tables are created using Excel. Results Results from the drawing subject of “drawing an environment where computer is used” 38% of students drawing a home environment while 21% portray a computer lab and 17% depict internet café when they are asked to draw an environment where computer is used. Girls draw home and computer lab more than boys who portray internet café more than girls. Compare to higher grade students, lower grade ones picture home and computer lab more whereas higher grade pupils draw internet café more often. Results from the drawing subject of “gender of computer users” 96% of male students drawing computer users picture only males while only one male student pictures a female and just four male students draw both sexes as computer users. On the other hand, about 70% of girls draw females as computer users, 17% picture males and 11% both sexes. Also, grade level goes up, the tendency to picture computer users as males increases as well. Results from the drawing subject of “physical characteristics of computer users” Students picture physical qualifications of computer users as weird, tired, sleepless, fat and with glasses, strange hair, red and aching eyes. Besides, they identify mental characteristics of computer users as well-informed, intelligent, hard-working, computer addictive, anti-social and ignorant.
Results from the drawing subject of “drawing yourself while working with computer” 17% of girls and 66% of boys picture a game playing environment when they are asked to draw him/herself working with computer. Among students drawing themselves making a computer activity, 36% of girls and 16% of boys picture research activity; %22 of female students and 9% of males draw studying, doing homework and writing activity; and finally %21 of girls and %3 of boys portrait chatting. Girls draw researching, studying, doing homework, writing and chatting activates more than boys. Discussion Having provided study results let me discuss them. First of all, 38% of students drawing an environment where computer is used picture a home environment while 21% portray a computer lab and 17% depict internet café. Girls draw home and computer lab more than boys who portray internet café more than girls. Compare to higher grade students, lower grade ones picture home and computer lab more whereas higher grade pupils draw internet café more often. Moreover, as illustrated by Figure 1 and 2, it is seen that female students focus more on the environment while male students concentrate on the computer activity in their drawing assignments. Figure 1. Examples of drawings painted by a girl (at left) and a boy (at right)
Figure 2. Examples of drawings painted by a girl (at left) and a boy (at right)
Second, 96% of male students drawing computer users picture only males while only one male student pictures a female and just four male students draw both sexes as computer users. On the other hand, about 70% of girls draw females as computer users, 17% picture males and 11% both sexes. Parallel to our results, Martin et al. (1992) found that boys at primary schools in US and USSR picture computer users mostly as males while female students draw them generally as females. According to them, most of the time, students reflect their sexes as gender of the computer users in their drawings. On the other hand, Mercier et al. (2006) concluded that students portray computer users mostly as males. Figure 3, it is seen that students drawing computer users picture. Figure 3. Examples of drawings painted by a boy (at left) and a girl (at right)
Our empirical study revealed that as grade level goes up, the tendency to picture computer users as males increases as well. Mercier et al. (2006) also obtained similar results. They found that 8th grade girls portray computer users as males more than those in 6th grade. They also concluded that older students are influenced from culture prejudices more than younger ones. Students picture physical qualifications of computer users as weird, tired, sleepless, fat and with glasses, strange hair, red and aching eyes. Besides, they identify mental characteristics of computer users as well-informed, intelligent, hard-working, computer addictive, anti-social and ignorant. Similar results were also obtained by Mercier et al. (2006), Richardson et al. (2005), Martin (2004) and Newton (2001). In both drawings in Figure 4, it is seen that the eyes of computer users are portrayed as red and swollen caused by computer overuse. As for students drawing psychological characteristics of computer users, they picture computer users as unsociable and psychopath. Figure 5 presents two examples from these drawings.
Figure 4. Drawing examples showing physical characteristics of computer users
Figure 5. Drawing examples showing psychological characteristics of computer users
17% of girls and 66% of boys picture a game playing environment when they are asked to draw him/herself working with computer (see Figure 6). We also found that as grade level increases, students draw more and more computer game activity. Kent & Facer (2004) conducted a study with 1800 primary school students to find out for what purposes computers are used in schools and homes. In their study, playing computer games was identified as the activity that differs most between males and females. Similar results were obtained by Vekiri & Chronaki (2008), Mumtaz (2001) and Colley & Comber (2003) who found that playing computer games is the first choice of primary and high school students as a leisure time activity. Figure 6. Drawing examples of playing computer games portrayed by boys
Among students drawing themselves making a computer activity, 36% of girls and 16% of boys picture research activity (see Figure 5); %22 of female students and 9% of males draw studying, doing homework and writing activity; and finally %21 of girls and %3 of boys portrait chatting (see Figure 7). Girls draw researching, studying, doing homework, writing and chatting activates more than boys. Comparable results were found by Vekiri and Chronaki (2008), Mumtaz (2001), and Bain and Rice (2006).
Figure 7. Drawing examples of researching (at left) and chatting (at right) portrayed by girls
As a conclusion, in this study, we focused on primary school students’ perceptions of computer and tried to reveal the differences in computer perceptions originating from gender and grade. In the course of the study, we conducted a field study in some Turkish primary schools and as a result of it we collected data regarding primary school students’ perceptions of computers. Then, we presented and discussed the results. Where relevant, we compared our results with those from previous studies by various scholars. We hope that present study contributes to not only theoretical literature but also policy development efforts in this area.
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