Incidences and correlates of Internet anxiety among high school teachers in Taiwan

Abstract

Once high schools are connected to the Internet, teachers are the key to the successful use of the Internet for both teaching and learning. Teacher anxiety, however, can often reduce the success of such technological and pedagogical innovations. The purpose of this study was to explore the Internet anxiety experience by Taiwan high school and vocational high school teachers. This study reviewed related literature in computer anxiety and discussed the further development of the Internet Anxiety Scale (IAS), which was used to survey 136 teachers in Taiwan. The statistical data produced by this study identified four aspects of Internet anxiety: Internet use, hardware construction, management of students' Internet-use, and learning computer-related skills and knowledge. Among these, survey respondents ranked anxiety over managing students' Internet-use as the highest problem. Further, results indicated that female teachers had significantly higher Internet anxiety than did male teachers, and teachers' majors or subject areas appeared to contribute significantly to the level of Internet anxiety as well. Results also showed that both computer-use hours per week and Internet-use hours per week were significantly negative factors when correlated with anxiety over Internet uses, hardware construction, and management of students' Internet-use.

Introduction

In the past several years, Internet technology has rapidly and dramatically changed the way people live and learn. The Internet is being used for education systems and classroom teaching by many countries around the world. For example, the Taiwan government (e.g. the Ministry of Education and the National Science Council) has eagerly promoted network-based learning across 3rd–12th grades (about 9–18-year-olds),¹ as well as at the college level since 1993.

Policies governing the use of the Internet in Taiwan's high schools may be categorized in two major historical stages (Liu, 2000). The first stage (1997–1999) was marked by the installation of the Internet connections to all computers in computer classrooms in every high school. On average, every computer classroom had about 40 computers, and every class from 10th grade (students 14 years of age) to 12th grade (students 16 years of age) was required to spend 2 h per week in the computer classroom. The objective of these 2 h was computer literacy; that is, learning how to use a computer and the Internet. The topics covered included introduction to computer hardware and software, the use of word processing software, the use of e-mail, surfing the World Wide Web and so on.

The second stage (2000–2007) is characterized by the installation of a minimum of one computer with an Internet connection in every regular high school classroom. The twin goals of this stage are to allow teachers to use computers/Internet and projecting equipment (such as LCD projectors or large-size TV monitors in their core curricula (e.g. computer-assisted instruction), and to let students use computers/Internet in their learning and daily life. Educators and curriculum designers believe that familiarity with the Internet in teaching, learning and daily life will help to create computer- and Internet-literate citizens in this Information Age more successfully than merely presenting computers as a subject matter to study, and for rote examination.

Importantly, this second stage imposes a heavy burden on teachers: they are required not only to be Internet literate themselves, but also to know how to incorporate Internet technology and resources into teaching their respective subjects. In addition, teachers have to manage the use of the Internet in a regular classroom setting and solve any problems related to their use. During the first stage, computer teachers assumed all responsibility in the management of computer classrooms. In the second stage, however, teachers in a variety of subject areas are on their own while teaching with the Internet in otherwise traditional classroom settings. Few teachers surveyed have had any computer training during their teacher training, and few have the opportunity for computer-related training now while they are in-service.

Indeed, past research (e.g. Gressard & Loyd, 1985, Lawton & Gerschner, 1982) has shown that teachers are key in the successful implementation of computers in schools. However, if teachers experience anxiety over teaching-related computer-use, this anxiety may impact the success of integrating computers into the school and classroom. As Yaghi and Abu-Saba (1998) stated, “studying teachers' computer anxiety in various international settings is important because it sheds light on the educational and cultural implications of computers” (p. 322).

A careful examination of past research on computer anxiety, however, revealed that most studies were concluded by 1993, that is, before the Internet had widely connected standalone computers. Some studies, such as Beckers & Schmidt, 2001, Bozionelos, 2001, McIlroy et al., 2001, Scull, 1999, Yaghi & Abu-Saba, 1998, were conducted in recent years, but they did not tackle the concept of the Internet or Internet anxiety. If we agree that the Internet has profoundly changed the utility and applications of computers, we can assume that the concept of “computer anxiety” has also changed accordingly. New Internet technology has a variety of properties that a standalone computer did not have. For example, the hyperlinks provided by the WWW allow users to browse and search for information in a non-linear way. Interactivity, another of the Internet's properties most recognized by users, has two aspects: human–computer and interpersonal. Most Internet applications, such as the WWW, are very easy to use, and thus enhance human–computer interactions. Further, some applications, such as chat rooms and e-mail, are especially good at facilitating interpersonal interactions. These new properties, while highly applauded by most users, may cause anxiety in others. Therefore, the concept of computer anxiety should be reconsidered, and a measuring scale should be re-designed accordingly.

As Presno (1998) argues, although many computer anxiety sub-concepts may be applicable to Internet anxiety, there is still a point where the two types of anxiety diverge. She identifies four areas of Internet anxiety from her qualitative study:

• Internet terminology anxiety: anxiety produced by an introduction to a host of new vocabulary words and acronyms.

• Net search anxiety: anxiety produced by searching for information in a maze-like cyberspace.

• Internet time delay anxiety: anxiety produced by busy signals, time delays, and more and more people clogging the Internet.

• General fear of Internet failure: a generalized anxiety produced by fear that one will be unable to negotiate the Internet, or complete required work on the Internet.

This study attempted to take Internet anxiety into consideration in developing new Internet-related questions (statements) to add to the widely used Computer Anxiety Rating Scale (CARS, Heinssen et al., 1987, Lankford et al., 1994). For example, questions such as “Search for particular information from numerous Internet resources” echoes Presno's net-search anxiety. In addition, “Learning computer/Internet terminology” attempts to take Presno's Internet-terminology anxiety into consideration.

Because the subjects of this study were teachers in high schools and vocational high schools in Taiwan, questions about teachers' management and supervision of students' Internet-use were also developed. As mentioned earlier, teachers in these schools face greater challenges than ever before. They not only need to acquire Internet capabilities themselves, they need to actually engage in Internet use, in front of students. Intensive interviews with our target subjects prior to this study indicated that they had strong sources of anxiety other than typical CARS-identified anxieties: classroom management and concerns with students' abuse, or inappropriate use of the Internet were included in these. Therefore, this study offered several new questions in these areas of anxiety.