Feasibility study of tablet PC acceptance among school children in Malaysia

Abstract

Nowadays the use of Tablet Personal Computer (TPC) as a medium of imparting education is gaining popularity among students and teachers. However, limited studies on school children have been conducted on their acceptance of Tablet PCs. Therefore, technology acceptance of TPC by 8th grade school children in Malaysia was studied in this research. The various benefits and current research pattern of TPC in education is described. Then, a mixed mode (quantitative and qualitative) study using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and informal conversational interviews was done to analyse the acceptance and usage of TPC among school children at a private school in Malaysia. The results of this study show that only 46% of the 8th grade students intend to use Tablet PC in the future. The results from this feasibility analyses are discussed and a future research is suggested.