On their own: students' academic use of the commercialized Web

Library Trends, Spring, 2005 by Samuel E. Ebersole

ABSTRACT

This article reviews research conducted in 1998-99 examining students' perceptions and uses of the World Wide Web for academic purposes. Recent developments in the Web that may be of particular interest to educators and parents of students are considered.

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Since the mid-1990s the Internet, and more specifically the World Wide Web, has been eagerly adopted by school districts, administrators, teachers, parents, and students. Recent data from the National Center for Educational Statistics indicates that, in the fall of 2002, 99 percent of public schools and 92 percent of instructional classrooms were wired for Internet access (Kleiner, Lewis, & Greene, 2003). This is even more impressive when you compare 1994 figures, which estimated that 35 percent of schools and 3 percent of classrooms had Internet access. The latest in a long line of technological solutions to our educational woes, the Web, and its evangelists, promise no less than a radical restructuring of the way that students access and acquire information. However, some have raised concerns about the value of the Web as an educational resource. Historians have noted that the use of the Web in a public school setting marks the first time that the end user controls the process of choosing the content to be consumed.

To this end, critics have pointed to the incredible range of content accessible via the Web and its potential for distracting students from the task at hand. Hecht (1997) argued that "having the Internet in the classroom is like equipping each classroom with a television that can be turned on at any time and tuned in to any of 100,000 unrestricted channels, only a tiny fraction of which are dedicated to educational programming (and even those have commercials)" (p. 15). McNealy (1999) voiced a similar concern when he wrote, "Right now, putting students in front of Internet terminals is no better than putting them in front of TV sets. It may even be worse" (p. 17A).

Public education's adoption of the Web as a tool for research and as an alternative to traditional resources raises several issues related to the notion of functional equivalence. First, the wide range of content available via the Web allows it to serve numerous "functions" for students. Second, time spent using the Web in school is time not spent in activities that are displaced by Web use. And finally, the value of the Web for academic research is contingent on the quality of the research material contained therein (Bennett, Wilkinson, & Oliver, 1996). Educators' concern about the unevenness of the quality of information available via the Web is obvious when one reviews the many Web sites devoted to critical thinking skills and Web site evaluation tutorials. The question remains for public schools and the whole of society: With the stakes so high, how can we harness this unwieldy resource so that it serves our educational goals and purposes?

EARLIER RESEARCH

Research conducted in 1998-99 in ten public schools in a Western state found that students believe the Web to be a valuable resource for educational activities; the study also found, however, that students are often unsuccessful in finding appropriate or useful resources on their own (Ebersole, 1999). Approaching the research from a mass communication perspective, this study applied uses and gratifications theory to the questions surrounding students' attitudes and opinions about the Web: what purpose it served for them, how they used it, and whether these were related. The study combined quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and several data-gathering approaches with a sample of middle and high school students drawn from ten public schools.

A paper survey was administered first to approximately 800 students. The survey contained 75 items designed to measure students' (1) affinity for the Web, (2) assessment of the value of the Web for various purposes, (3) skill level for computer and Web use, and (4) uses of, and/or reasons for not using, the Web. The 40 use statements in the survey were generated by students' anonymous responses to an open-ended question asking them to list several things "that the Web is good for." These statements, as well as others generated during a pilot study, were presented as 5-item Likert scales that attempted to measure students' use of the Web at school.

Second, a computer-administered survey requested responses from students as they began to access the Web from the schools' media centers. This brief instrument asked only four questions: grade level in school, gender, how much the student uses the Web during an average week, and the student's purpose for using the Web at this particular time. For the fourth question, the choices presented to the student were factors identified by Principle Components Analysis of the use statements from the paper survey. The seven uses for the Web as presented in the computer-administered survey were "for research and learning," "to communicate with other people," "for access to material otherwise unavailable," "to find something fun or exciting," "for something to do when I'm bored," "for sports and game information," and "for shopping and consumer information." As an option to the seven use statements presented, the student could select "other" and use a text box to enter a use that better described his or her purpose for using the Web at that particular time. The phrasing of the question, "What is your purpose for using the Web at this time?" was designed to measure gratifications sought and the "behavioral intention" (Palmgreen & Rayburn, 1982) of the student.