Arab Educational Information Network

Computers as an educational tool and computer skills as a subject have been utilized and taught in Saudi Arabian secondary schools since 1991. During this period, there have been a number of Saudi studies examining the attitudes of teachers towards computer usage, but little research on the attitudes of the students. Moreover, these studies have not been updated recently despite technological advances in educational technology. The present study reports a questionnaire based survey of Saudi Arabian secondary school student’s (boys and girls) usage of ICT. The questionnaire was designed to collect data from students concerning their usage of ICT inside and outside school, and their perceptions towards this usage. The data were gathered from a sample of 270 students (127 boys and 143 girls) drawn from six secondary schools in Riyadh City. The findings indicate a high percentage of computer ownership and access to the Internet among young people in Saudi Arabia. Activities carried out with computers differ between school and home, with Internet based activities more common at home due to lack of Internet access at schools. Students generally shared positive attitudes towards computers, regarding them as having a positive effect on their learning, and want to learn more about them. (Published abstract)