| This study addressed the lack of investigation of the presence of computer anxiety in rural school teachers. The primary purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to determine if computer anxiety exists in public elementary, middle, and secondary school teachers in a rural county in Mississippi, (2) to ascertain if there was a statistically significant relationship between computer anxiety of the teachers and the following demographic variables: age, gender, race, and educational level, and (3) to determine the ways these teachers use computers and computer applications in the classroom.; A census design was used to gather the data from the Noxubee County School District. In order to gather the data, a 52 item questionnaire was developed---12 of the questions were standard demographical and computer use questions and the remaining 40 questions were a modified version of Oetting's (1983) Long Form Computer Anxiety Scale (COMPAS) Instrument. To analyze the data, two techniques were utilized---descriptive statistics and an Analysis of Variance. These techniques revealed that the majority of the rural school teachers surveyed used computers and applications for word processing and for research. The study also found that age, race, gender, and the level of educational attainment were not statistically significant predictors of computer anxiety in these teachers.; From these results, it was concluded that appropriate training programs should be developed to help these teachers cope with computer anxiety. It was also concluded that these teachers should be trained in the ways that technology can be used in their work environment. |
