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A Digital Divide Between Students and Educators?
By Bob Woods
August 16, 2002

When it comes to education and the Internet, U.S. teenagers wish their teachers and schools would just get with it and include the 'Net more in their curriculum, according to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Students want to better coordinate their educational use of the Internet when they're out of school with in-classroom activities, according to the study. In addition, they want the quality of Internet access in schools to increase -- some students said their schools' environments discouraged the use of the Internet.

Internet-savvy students -- three in five children under the age of 18, and more than 78% of kids between 12 and 17 go online, according to an earlier Pew study -- rely on the 'Net to help them with completing their schoolwork. They use it for research, collaboration with other students, and as a resource for information passed on to them by other students or teachers. Students also use it as a "virtual guidance counselor" and as a way to store important school-related materials.

One of the big areas for students is in the collaboration area. Using instant messaging (IM) and e-mail, they're able to create, join, leave and rejoin at will what the Pew Internet group calls "virtual study groups." At times, these groups can be "synchronous," or in real-time. But the Internet lets those groups become "asynchronous" as well -- communication can occur with some kind of time delay because of interruptions for dinner or a favorite television show, for example.

"So it's not just the paradigm where the Internet is the library," the study quoted a high school-aged male as saying. "It's not the library, it's a chat room...You can talk to people from somewhere else, compare notes or whatever."

A high school girl, meantime, said, "Not only do I do research online, but I also use it for chatting with people for school. If I forget an assignment or need assistance on a concept I cannot grasp, the Internet is an easy way for me to get in touch with a peer who might be an aid to me."

On the Other Side of the Equation

While students see great value in using the Internet, they'd give many educators failing grades for their views on using the Internet in schools. They say they use the Internet in different ways outside of school than in the classroom. Students see this disconnect coming partially from school administrators, and not teachers, setting the tenor for Internet use at school. Different school systems have different levels of Internet access, differing standards for student technology literacy and different restrictions on student Internet access, they say.

In addition, teachers' requirements for using the Internet with schoolwork vary widely. When teachers do assign Internet-based assignments, the tasks tended to be "poor and uninspiring." Many teachers do not assign Internet-based homework because they feel it is unfair to those who don't have 'Net access at home, students also said.

And when it comes to Internet use in school, students feel that software-based filters often block important information, and many feel discouraged from using the Internet by their perceived difficulties in accessing educational material. At the same time, many students recognize a need exists to protect teenagers from inappropriate material and adult-oriented commercial ads.

With all of this in mind, students say they want:

  • Better coordination of their out-of-school educational Internet activities with their classroom activities;
  • A significant increase in the quality of access to the Internet in schools;
  • Professional development and technical assistances for teachers, so they can better integrate the Internet into the classroom;
  • A priority placed on developing programs to teach keyboarding, computer and Internet literacy skills;
  • A continued effort to ensure that high-quality online information to finish school assignments be made available in the school environment -- without undue limitations on students' freedoms;
  • Policy makers to take seriously the "digital divide" between students who do and don't have Internet access outside the school. Students want administrators to understand the subtle inequities among teens who have varying qualities of Internet access outside of school.

So what should educators take away from this study? Pew Internet officials said schools should heed the Latin writer Seneca's words: "The fates guide those who go willingly; those who do not, they drag."

The Pew Internet study was based on interviews conducted in 14 focus groups of public middle and high-school students in several selected metropolitan areas across the U.S. -- 136 students in all. The non-profit, non-partisan organization also said its group was gender balanced and racially diverse. The survey was conducted between November 2001 and March 2002.

In addition, the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Internet & American Life Project solicited personal essays from students in the same age group via a special Web site. About 200 students voluntarily submitted essays.

Bob Woods is the managing editor of InstantMessagingPlanet.

 


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