| Attitude is tied to behavior, and writing behaviors seem to be affected by using a computer. Technological advances have forever changed the way educators view the process of writing, including the way students learn, how they feel about the way they are learning, and their subsequent behaviors. Numerous studies have indicated that using computers to write changes the way students write, what they write, and the quantity and quality of that writing. However, studies disagreed about how these changes occur, whether they are positive or negative (or neither), and what psychological dynamics, such as attitude, are involved, to what degree, and how they relate to each other. Affect in general and specifically toward computers has been studied, with several computer attitude scales developed during the 1980s and 1990s. However, these scales did not measure attitude nor subsequent behaviors toward complex computer applications, such as the Internet; moreover, none existed for use in English composition. This study measured attitudes toward educational use of the Internet (ATEUI), along with selected behavioral correlates, among English composition students to examine the relationships between attitude and behavior, age, sex, and academic rank. Further, the students were categorized by age to determine any differences between those who were traditional aged (<25) and those who were non-traditional aged (≥25). |
