Associated Press Poll Reveals Split on School Internet Use - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, Sept 13, 2001

While half of American adults believe that Internet skills are very important for students, the other half think they are only somewhat important or not important at all, according to an Associated Press poll conducted in August.

Some adults expressed concern that students were becoming too dependent on the Internet. Residents of metropolitan areas were far more likely than those in rural areas to say Internet skills were very important for children in school.

Teens themselves had reservations about the use of information technology in education, though more than two-thirds of teens said they use the Internet as their major resource when doing a big project for school, according to Lee Gainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

The percentage of adults in the poll who felt Internet skills were very important for students dropped steadily as respondents got older, according to the poll. The poll of 1,006 adults was taken July 27-31 and has an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The unbridled enthusiasm for computers and the Internet in education has been tempered in recent years, some researchers say.

"People are realizing the limits of technology for education," says University of Buffalo education Professor Hank Bromley. "The technology becomes an end in itself."