QED releases public school Internet use research - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Internet Strategies for Education Markets: The Heller Report, Sept, 1999

Quality Education Data (QED, Denver, CO, www.qeddata.com) has released its 4th Edition of Internet Usage in Public Schools. Their research shows that 89% of K-12 public schools have at least one connection to the Internet, a figure that is up 7% from the previous year. Classroom access to the Internet is up by 23%, with 57% of the nation's classrooms having direct Internet access now, compared to only 34% in 1998.

Social Studies classrooms are the mostly likely to have an Internet connection, with 81.9% reporting access. That figure compares to 77.1% a year ago. Language Arts classrooms (78%) are the next most likely followed by science (77.8%) and math (73.4%). Interestingly, connectivity in math and science classrooms dropped off slightly from last year. Students in these key subject areas most often access the Net in the classroom, followed by computer labs and the library media center.

The study also indicates that teachers are using the Internet more. More than three-fourths of teachers (76%) are using the Internet in teaching, a number which compares to 65% in 1998. Which web sites are used is difficult to pin down. Yahooligans is popular, indicated as a top three teaching aid by 7.9% of respondents and a top three recommendation by 13.2% of teachers. Scholastic was listed as a top-three teaching aid by 6.6%, and the U.S. Department of Education by 6.2%. NASA was a top-three recommendation by 7.9% of respondents.

Teachers are also increasingly accessing the Internet from home. Sixty one percent reported having Internet access at home, up from 56% in 1998. The bulk of those (75.2%) subscribe to an ISP or service such as AOL. Another 12.6% get free service through a school or college.

A significant 5 8.3% of schools use software to control access to objectionable materials. Nearly a quarter of respondents (24.4%) said they did not use filtering software, and another 17.3% did not know. Most respondents (70.9%) did not know which brand of filtering software was used. Cyber Patrol was most frequently listed (10.3%) followed by SurfWatch (4.8%), Bess (3.0%) and Net Nanny (2.4%).

Wired schools also have access to reasonable bandwidth. Only 12.7% reported use of dial-up lines. Cable modems serve 9.9% of schools, ISDN Lines, 4.9%, and T-1 or T-3 lines (14.1%). Nearly a quarter of respondents (22.6%) simply indicated use of a district LAN to access the Net.

The reports sells for $350 and contains over 150 pages with 50 tables, charts and graphs. It is available in print or on CD-ROM in a pdf file format with networking and downloading capabilities.