Introduction Information and communication technology (ICT) has gained a lot of interest by policy makers, resulting in a number of ICT-monitors (Unesco, 2003-2004; SITES, 2006). In these monitors often questions are asked on ICT-usage, perceptions and competences, by using the word ‘computer’ as a proxy for ICT. Students’ and teachers’ answers on the computer-question is assumed to apply for other information and communication technologies such as iPods, television, etc. Research on survey wording however, reveals that the wording of an item can have a large impact on the results, especially when measuring attitudes (Schuman & Presser, 1981; Wood & Williams, 2007). In this contribution we study whether indeed computer can be used as a proxy for ICT. Method Participants Thirty-seven Ghanaian last year secondary education students participated, on average 17.22 years old (SD = .71) In a second study 62 German university students participated; on average 22.45 years old (SD = 3.70) Procedure The procedure in the two studies differed to some extent. In the Ghana-study, students were given the instruction to write down the first 10 things students thought of when hearing the word computer. This was asked during a regular class. In the German-study, students participated in an experiment on the use of support devices. As an intermediate task they were first asked to write down 5 associations with the word ‘computer’. The second intermediate task (after reading a text), was to write down 5 associations with the word ‘ICT’. Results In the Ghana study the associations students express are all related to the computer as such. The most frequently made association is with storage device. Thirty three students give this as an association, followed by electronic device (N=23) and data processing (N = 22). Entertainment (N = 16) is followed by hardware (N = 15) and communication (N = 15). Also attributes of computers are mentioned such as keyboard (N = 11), monitor (N = 8), mouse (N = 10). The computer is often associated with an input (N = 13) and output (N = 11) device. From the results it can be seen that Ghanaian students mainly think about a computer as a desktop device. In the German study a comparison could be made between the association with the word ICT and those with the word computer. With respect to the word computer; also here a large group of associations refer to the desktop and its devices, such as monitor (N = 25), key-board (N = 25), and mouse (N = 21). The most frequent association made here is internet (N = 37). With respect to ICT; also here on the first place the internet is given as an association (N=42). Next different information and communication technologies are mentioned, namely computer (N=23), television (N = 21); telephone (N=22), mobile phone (N = 16) and radio (N = 14). Discussion and Conclusion These two studies reveal that the word ‘computer’ is not automatically associated with ICT. Survey designers should be careful in using computer as a proxy for ICT. The studies reveal that there may be cultural differences in the interpretation of the words, which complicates matters for international monitors. The German study reveals clearly that the word computer results in more ‘narrow’ associations then ICT. At the moment data is collected in Belgium and South-Africa on this issue. This data will be available and analyzed by the date of the ECER-conference.

Association tasks: participants were asked in one study to write 10 associations they made when hearing the word 'computer'. In the other study participants were asked to write down 5 words they associated with 'computer' and 5 words they associated with 'information and communication technology'. The instructions were given orally to the participants.

Desktop-like applications are associated witht the word computer, while with ICT, also telephone and television are for instance thought of. Results show that it is not so evident to replace ICT with computer in surveys. Moreover, cultural differences seem to occur. The data collection in Belgium and South Africa may shed more light on this issue.