Mind the gap! High school students´ attitudes toward computer-based learning

This paper is devoted to the topic of e-learning in schools, addressing the question of whether the so-called “digital natives"¹ may be found among high school students - while using the computer as a learning tool. In particular, computer-related attitudes, which may affect personal characteristics and individual learning skills, are examined in relation to their effect on the usage of computer-based learning media. The investigation is based upon the attitude scales of FIDEC from INCOBI-R which are applied to a user group of “secondary school students” (n = 763), in contradiction to “university students” usually found in the literature. Students\´ positive attitudes toward computers as learning tools were confirmed. It is noteworthy that those are even significantly more positive than toward the computer as an entertainment medium. Among education oriented respondents this gap between computers as an entertainment medium versus learning tool - as shown in the observed target population - is rather small. However, it means that students from a high educational level use the computer for both learning and entertainment.