E-learning: A comparison between expected and observed attitudes of normative and dropout adolescents

This study examined the connection between the detachment of youth from society and their attitudes towards e-learning. Previous studies have shown that factors such as socio-economic level, social environment and computer skills influence students' attitudes towards e-learning. The less developed a student's environment is, the greater the tendency to reject this type of learning. The results of the study, the first of its kind in Israel, were inconsistent with those in the literature. The significant demographic differences between the groups did not yield significant differences in attitudes towards e-learning in the areas of motivation and pleasure, and an opposite result was shown in the third area, cognition. This may serve to indicate the usefulness of e-learning to enhance comprehension, as evident by the finding that the dropout group scored higher than the normative group. The present findings emphasize the changes taking place within the lower socio-economic populations in relation to computers and the equalizing capability of computers in education