New electronic technologies provide powerful tools for managing and processing the rapidly increasing amounts of information available for learning; teachers, however, have often been slow in integrating computers into the curriculum. This study addresses the question of how prospective teachers construct affective and cognitive models about computer environments. The study involved 177 first year students taking two different courses at a rural university in Australia; the first group was composed of 92 pre-service elementary school teacher trainees who were involved in a technology subject containing a computing component and the second group was made up of students majoring in computer studies. Students in both groups were administered a mixture of instruments that included affective (anxiety and attitude) and cognitive (knowledge and mental models) measures through questionnaires and interviews. Teacher education students as a group were found to be less knowledgeable, more anxious, less confident, and to have less liking for interactions with computers than the other group. Among teacher education students, female students were found to be more anxious and less confident with computers than male students; there were no anxiety differences between male and female students in the computer science course. Carefully planned courses and application experience addressing both affective responses and cognitive understandings are needed in order for teacher education students to be able to use technology effectively in classroom teaching and learning. (Contains 30 references.) (AEF)