Surfin' at school - the use of the Internet in classrooms

American Demographics, Nov, 1997 by Nancy Ten Kate

Many opinion leaders-including the president of the United States-are campaigning for Internet access in public schools. They may think the Internet is the best thing to hit classrooms since the number-two pencil, but teachers and librarians haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet. While over half of public schools have access to the Internet, only 13 percent of teachers, computer coordinators, and school librarians believe that it helps students' performance in school, according to a new survey by Market Data Retrieval and Education Market Research.

These educators recognize some positive attributes of Internet access. Three-fourths say it is useful as a research tool. However, 81 percent believe that the Internet needs to be more closely connected with curriculum and textbooks, and better organized to improve student performance. The same share also believe links to other instructional-theme web sites would be beneficial.

Even though the Internet isn't vastly improving the learning of public school students, teachers still see access to it as important. Seventy-two percent of survey respondents use the Internet for instruction. National Geographic, NASA, PBS Online, Scholastic Network, and America Online Education are their top-ranked web sites. Those with a favorite web site were more likely to use the Internet frequently: 43 percent use it daily and 33 percent weekly.

For more information on the "National Survey of Internet Usage: Grades 3-12," a survey of 6,000 teachers, computer coordinators, and school librarians, contact Erica Erickson at Market Data Retrieval and Education Market Research; telephone (908) 665-5369.