Assessing American children's attitudes towards computer technology

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Abstract
The intention of this research was to develop an instrument with which to assess the attitude(s) of elementary school children in the United States towards the use of computer technologies. This instrument, modeled after the draw‐a‐scientist test, the draw‐a‐teacher test, and the draw‐a‐dentist test, was used to identify the attitudes of 4,982 children in Reading, Pennsylvania and Albuquerque, New Mexico towards computer usage in American society. The results of this study indicate that American children perceive of computer users as being professionals who use computers in their everyday work, rather than as a separate occupation. American adults perceive of scientists and technologists, including computer users, as being white‐coated; bespectacled; elderly men, who work in equipment filled rooms, and who carry slide rulers in their hands and mechanical lead pencils in their pockets [1, 2]. American elementary‐aged school children do not hold the same stereotypes as their parents towards the use of computers and computer technology.