'i'hmcs in liducaliun 2:1, 35-46, 2001 © Lmdrr Hooks. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaYXWVUTSRPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Dealing With 1 st Year University Students "Computer Anxiety" Chris Panagiotakopoulos and Gerasimos Koustourakis cpanag@eap.gr Hellenic Open University Sahtouri 16 & Ag. Andreou, 26223, Patras, Greece ABSTRACT The introduction of computers in every workplace, as well as the education, at a rapid pace, is not always problern-free. The existence of anxiety or phobia towards computers has been proved by many researchers to be a problem, which indeed imposes restraints on any future encounters one may have with computers. In order to establish the existence of any such anxiety or phobia in the workplace or education, this jtudy was conducted by means of a specially designed questionnaire within a sample of first-year students at the Department of Primary Education - University of Patras..The test was carried out both before and after a six-month course on computers so as to enable any deviations in anxiety to be traced. The results showed that the sample initially exhibited symptoms of computer anxiety, which was, however, drastically reduced at the end of the course. There were generally no significant differences between the sexes insofar as the degree of anxiety was concerned (except for one anxiety-provoking factor). Finally, the statistical analysis granted a high degree of reliability to the questionnaire used. INTRODUCTION Many researchers (Fisher, 1991; Rosen & Maguire', 1990;'Jay, 1981) have • recorded the existence of "technophobia", as this is expressed with anxiety, detestation, or a general negative attitude of the subject towards technology. With the introduction of computers in every day life and their radical extensive application in almost every workplace, computer anxiety or the phobia towards computers (computerphobia) consists a real phenomenon (Tseng, Macleod & Wright, 1997; Moldafsky & Kwon, 1994) and it can be said that it's rather the crucial point of technophobia. According to Hess & Miura (Hess & Miura, 1985) and Scott & Rockwell (Scott & Rockwell, 1997) among others, computer anxiety has to do with avoiding the computer on many levels of "encounter". Rosen & Weil (Rosen & Weil, 1990) in their determination of the main symptoms of technophobia included the following? • anxiety towards any present or future interactions of the man with computers or any types of technology based on them.