The Books or the Computers: An Attitude Comparison Study from Rural Areas

Information and Communication Technologies have altered human lives from the deep inside. On the other hand, not everyone is fortunate enough to access and utilize technologies like others. In that sense, humanity has witnessed not only technological advancements but also digital divides. The literature discusses that digital divide varies in accordance with the location of living, gender, socio-economic or educational background, and so forth. This study focuses on digital divide issue in rural area context by comparing attitudes of high school students (n=412) toward books and computers. In the light of technologies, people have initiated a discussion on whether students will be better learners with computers where the digital divide will make rural area students at disadvantaged. The survey included (i) demographics, (ii) the same attitude sentences toward computers (21 items) and books (21 items), separately (42 items in total), (iii) 17 items on preferences computers over books or vice versa. The convenience sampling collected data was analyzed and resulted several such as a tendency toward books for learning activities whereas a tendency toward computers for leisure. Gender (male vs. female), type of school enrolled (regular versus vocational), having a library or a personal computer at home, and location of living (county center versus village) were considered as other variables toward attitudes in a rural area context