| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
This is a limited free preview of this book. Please buy full access.
The published, Computer and Internet Use by Children and Adolescents in 2001 Statistical Analysis Report (2003) and reports of 5–17-year-old students: 68% indicate they have accessed the Internet from the school, 78% indicate they have accessed the Internet from home, and 46% use the Internet to complete school assignments (pp. vi, 22).
A survey of 754 students, who were 12–17 year olds, conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, reports that 94% of those who have Internet access state they use it for school research and 78% state they believe the Internet helps them with schoolwork. Most students (71%) report that they have used the Internet as a “major source for their most recent major school project or report (Lenhart et al., 2001, p. 2).” About half (41%) use email for school purposes, and about one-third (34%) have downloaded a study guide. Roughly three in five (58%) have used web sites made for one of their classes. About one in five (17%) have created web pages for school projects, and (18%) know of someone who has “used the Internet to cheat on a paper or test (Lenhart et al., 2001, p. 2).” These findings support the notion that Internet use has an impact on student learning, and hence, measured performance.
Schoolwork is not the only use of the Internet resource within the home. The U.S. Department of Commerce (2002) and the U.S. Department of Education (Rathbun, West, & Hausken, 2003) rank educational uses of home Internet access as the second most popular use, behind gaming. Is the secondary use of the Internet, homework, of consequence to student performance? A September 2004 publication, Technology and Equity in Schooling: Deconstructing the Digital Divide (Warschauer & Knobel, 2004), questions the contribution of technology access in the home. Specifically, Warschauer and Knobel state, “Although home access to computers has long been regarded as important for supporting students’ academic achievement, research suggests that home ownership of computers alone does not level out inequalities in terms of technology’s contributions to student learning”(p. 563).
The common perception questioned by Warschauer and Knobel is a vision of students refining their homework at home with the new marvel.