Analyzing k-12 students' attitudes towards computers as a technological tool and education tool by various variables

Under this study the topics which have been examined are; the students? attitudes who use computer in different courses after the 4th grade elementary school and in general; their attitude towards the use of computer as a technological tool and whether their attitude changes or not according to gender; to whether they have computer at home or not; to the teachers? intensity in usage of computer in courses; from which grade and how old they start using computer and the homework? which are done by using a computer. The study covers 749 students who are in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades on the second semester of 2006-2007 of 11 different elementary schools in Sisli and Besiktas, Istanbul. As the data instrument, the ?Young Children Computer Inventory? (YCCI) developed by Knezek and Miyashita (1993) was used in this study. The YCCI is a self report, Likert Type instrument designed to measure young children?s attitude toward computer. In the adoption of the instrument into Turkish the Cronbah coefficient alpha reliability was 0,85. Research results revealed that young students? attitude toward computer differ according to grade and age they start using computer, having homework done by using computer and their gender. Key Words: Computer Attitude, Information Technology, Computer Literacy