The Attitudes of the students’ of the junior high and high schools in the old city of Jerusalem towards the use of the Internet

Abstract

The study aims to explore the attitudes of students’ sample from the

junior high and high schools in the old city of Jerusalem towards the use of

the Internet. It also attempts to determine the differences in these attitudes,

which result from the variance in the independent variables’ groups.

The study sample consisted of (162) students, which were selected

randomly, and represented a rate of (26%) of the study’s population (No.:

611) , which consisted of pupils from three schools of the Palestinian Authority

(Al- Awqaf) inside the old city who are using the Internet.

The main findings showed that the attitudes of the students towards

using the Internet were a medium score for the three domains of the research.

The general use factor obtained a high score, the misuse domain obtained

a medium assessment score, followed by the acquired bad habits domain,

which obtained a low score. Also, the findings of the research indicated that

there are statistically significant differences in Internet use among some

independent variables’ groups: gender (for males) , Class (for grade 7th) ,

place of use (for Internet cafes) , number of hours spent in using the Internet

(for four hours and more) , and the number of years (for three and more) .

The study showed that a large segment of the pupils didn’t use the

Internet in the positive direction. The absences of entertainment areas, and

the community institutions for serving the youth and teenager groups in the

old city, make this group escape to unmonitored usage of the Internet in order

to meet their needs. The most important recommendation was to conduct

more researches and awareness programs on the topic of Internet’s misuse

among students.