Ian Jukes article

Let's start by heading off on a tangent. Let's talk about the growth
of the Internet. Consider that in '93, there were no users of Web -
this was mainly because Marc Andreessen, the creator of Mosaic, which
eventually became Netscape and then was bought out by AOL, had just
graduated from high school. Now, according to the latest statistics
(September 2002) use is just exploding. First, the existing Web
continues to expand at a phenomenal pace. In just the past 24 hours,
it's estimated that 3 million new Web pages were uploaded, 196,000
new Internet-access devices and 144,000 new Web users were added. By
2003, there will be more Web pages than people on the planet. There
are estimated to be more than 600 million regular users in 170
countries. And it's projected that there will be 1 billion regular
users by the year 2005.

Conservatively, in terms of pages of content and Internet traffic,
it's estimated that the Web is doubling in size every 120 days, which
means that conservatively it is doubling in size 3 times per year! If
this is the case, more than 80% of the sites that will exist a year
from now don't exist today. This is absolutely stupendous, biological
growth-like bacteria or disease.

Consider the explosion of Email. In September 2002 it was estimated
that more than 19 billion email messages and million instant messages
were sent daily in the US alone (most of them to my in box about
erectile dysfunction) - this figure is anticipated to reach 30
billion email messages daily by the year 2004. Email use is estimated
(Oracle ad) growing at 1,000 times the rate of conventional mail. In
1990 there were 15 million email boxes - now there are more than 400
million email boxes in the US alone. This is more email boxes than
telephones, TVs, people. Access to the Web combined with use of email
has lead to a fundamentally new mindset for many people.

According to a June study from the Pew Internet and American Life
Project, 60% of homes, 70% of homes with children, and 74% of
teenagers are on-line in America

As this applies to learning, one-fifth of high school students began
using computers between the ages of 5 and 8. Seventy-eight percent of
middle and high school students use the Internet (which is probably a
conservative figure), and 94 percent of that number had used the
Internet as a major research source for a recent major school project

Due in large part to its high profile and sometime controversial
education technology public policy initiatives, it is conventional
wisdom that much of this use occurs in schools. Yet, little is known
about student use of the Internet for schoolwork or about their
attitudes towards the broader learning that can take place online.
Nor has there been much exploration of the consequences of those
teenage views for educators, policy makers, and parents.

With these trends in mind, an interesting new report entitled "The
Digital Disconnect," from the Pew Internet and American Life Project
says the "most Internet-savvy (students) -- complain that their
teachers don't use the Internet in class or create assignments that
exploit the enormous potential of the Web.

Students report that the single greatest barrier to Internet use at
school is the quality of access to the Internet. They say it's too
slow and often, even when there is access, there's too much
censorship. They complain about filtering software, saying it
prevents them from reaching legitimate educational materials.

Perhaps most significantly, students said they wanted to use the
Internet for more of their schoolwork, but teachers too often lacked
the imagination to use it for anything other than mundane tasks.

Is this a big surprise. What part of "duuuh" don't we understand. The
reason is obvious. Internet-savvy students are far ahead of their
teachers and principals in understanding the potential and taking
advantage of online educational resources because this is the first
generation in history that knows more about a new technological
development than the generation before

Of course, student use of the Internet for school does not occur in a
vacuum. Students' experiences, and those of their states, districts,
schools, teachers, and parents, strongly affect how the Internet is
adopted in schools. Nonetheless, large numbers of students say they
are changing because of their out-of-school use of the Internet-and
their reliance on it. Internet-savvy students are coming to school
with different expectations, different skills, and access to
different resources.

Students are frustrated and increasingly dissatisfied by the digital
disconnect they are experiencing at school. They cannot conceive of
doing schoolwork without Internet access and yet they are not being
given many opportunities in school to take advantage of the Internet.
Many believe they may have to raise their voices to force schools to
change to accommodate them better.

This problem is only going to grow worse over the next few years, and
it's going to create a problem for educators in two ways. First, as
we are seeing in financial, medical, media, and legal areas, the vast
quantities of information available to non-specialists will mean the
undercutting of elites. What will teachers do when their students
come to class often understanding more about the subject being taught
then they do themselves? Secondly, the way kids learn is changing,
but educators are totally unprepared for the shift.

Currently, most students are taught in a convergent matter - one
thing at a time, for a certain period of time, often in a repetitive
manner. But with the Internet and its primary tool, the Web, students
are learning in a divergent manner, following interests and passions
as they see fit, often doing more than one thing at a time (surfing
the Net while carrying on an instant message conversation, while
watching TV, while listening to the radio, doing homework and
they're bored). The only answer is more teachers who recognize that
the revolution has begun, and that it can't be stopped.

For this to happen we, as decision makers, have to stop committing
assumicide - assuming that simply by placing computers and Internet
access next to teachers, that we can change long standing educational
practices. That by some magical process of osmotic or proximal
adoption, something of significance will happen to education.

Again, what part of the equation don't we understand. The bottom line
is that, without the development of ongoing and relevant,
instructionally related staff development that aligns Internet usage
to our instructional intentions, and which emphasizes the use of the
Web for HOTS (higher order thinking skills and processes) rather than
LOTS (lower order thinking skills and lots of information) we will
never harness the remarkable potential of the Internet to transform
the learning experience.

What's the definition of insanity - it's doing the same thing you've
always done (often with new tools), but expecting or wanting or
needing completely different results. And if we keep doing what we've
always done, we'll continue to get what's we've always got - and in
doing so we will fail ourselves by failing our children.

To read The Digital Disconnect," from the Pew Internet and American
Life Project go to http://www.pewinternet.org/

To download the full report in Adobe PDF format:
<http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/pdfs/PIP_Schools_Internet_Report.pdf>download


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The Digital Disconnect from the Pew Internet and American Life Project Ian Jukes Let's start by heading off on a tangent. Let's talk about the growth of the Internet. Consider that in '93, there were no users of Web - this was mainly because Marc Andreessen, the creator of Mosaic, which eventually became Netscape and then was bought out by AOL, had just graduated from high school. Now, according to the latest statistics (September 2002) use is just exploding. First, the existing Web continues to expand at a phenomenal pace. In just the past 24 hours, it's estimated that 3 million new Web pages were uploaded, 196,000 new Internet-access devices and 144,000 new Web users were added. By 2003, there will be more Web pages than people on the planet. There are estimated to be more than 600 million regular users in 170 countries. And it's projected that there will be 1 billion regular users by the year 2005. Conservatively, in terms of pages of content and Internet traffic, it's estimated that the Web is doubling in size every 120 days, which means that conservatively it is doubling in size 3 times per year! If this is the case, more than 80% of the sites that will exist a year from now don't exist today. This is absolutely stupendous, biological growth-like bacteria or disease. Consider the explosion of Email. In September 2002 it was estimated that more than 19 billion email messages and million instant messages were sent daily in the US alone (most of them to my in box about erectile dysfunction) - this figure is anticipated to reach 30 billion email messages daily by the year 2004. Email use is estimated (Oracle ad) growing at 1,000 times the rate of conventional mail. In 1990 there were 15 million email boxes - now there are more than 400 million email boxes in the US alone. This is more email boxes than telephones, TVs, people. Access to the Web combined with use of email has lead to a fundamentally new mindset for many people. According to a June study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 60% of homes, 70% of homes with children, and 74% of teenagers are on-line in America As this applies to learning, one-fifth of high school students began using computers between the ages of 5 and 8. Seventy-eight percent of middle and high school students use the Internet (which is probably a conservative figure), and 94 percent of that number had used the Internet as a major research source for a recent major school project Due in large part to its high profile and sometime controversial education technology public policy initiatives, it is conventional wisdom that much of this use occurs in schools. Yet, little is known about student use of the Internet for schoolwork or about their attitudes towards the broader learning that can take place online. Nor has there been much exploration of the consequences of those teenage views for educators, policy makers, and parents. With these trends in mind, an interesting new report entitled "The Digital Disconnect," from the Pew Internet and American Life Project says the "most Internet-savvy (students) -- complain that their teachers don't use the Internet in class or create assignments that exploit the enormous potential of the Web. Students report that the single greatest barrier to Internet use at school is the quality of access to the Internet. They say it's too slow and often, even when there is access, there's too much censorship. They complain about filtering software, saying it prevents them from reaching legitimate educational materials. Perhaps most significantly, students said they wanted to use the Internet for more of their schoolwork, but teachers too often lacked the imagination to use it for anything other than mundane tasks. Is this a big surprise. What part of "duuuh" don't we understand. The reason is obvious. Internet-savvy students are far ahead of their teachers and principals in understanding the potential and taking advantage of online educational resources because this is the first generation in history that knows more about a new technological development than the generation before Of course, student use of the Internet for school does not occur in a vacuum. Students' experiences, and those of their states, districts, schools, teachers, and parents, strongly affect how the Internet is adopted in schools. Nonetheless, large numbers of students say they are changing because of their out-of-school use of the Internet-and their reliance on it. Internet-savvy students are coming to school with different expectations, different skills, and access to different resources. Students are frustrated and increasingly dissatisfied by the digital disconnect they are experiencing at school. They cannot conceive of doing schoolwork without Internet access and yet they are not being given many opportunities in school to take advantage of the Internet. Many believe they may have to raise their voices to force schools to change to accommodate them better. This problem is only going to grow worse over the next few years, and it's going to create a problem for educators in two ways. First, as we are seeing in financial, medical, media, and legal areas, the vast quantities of information available to non-specialists will mean the undercutting of elites. What will teachers do when their students come to class often understanding more about the subject being taught then they do themselves? Secondly, the way kids learn is changing, but educators are totally unprepared for the shift. Currently, most students are taught in a convergent matter - one thing at a time, for a certain period of time, often in a repetitive manner. But with the Internet and its primary tool, the Web, students are learning in a divergent manner, following interests and passions as they see fit, often doing more than one thing at a time (surfing the Net while carrying on an instant message conversation, while watching TV, while listening to the radio, doing homework and they're bored). The only answer is more teachers who recognize that the revolution has begun, and that it can't be stopped. For this to happen we, as decision makers, have to stop committing assumicide - assuming that simply by placing computers and Internet access next to teachers, that we can change long standing educational practices. That by some magical process of osmotic or proximal adoption, something of significance will happen to education. Again, what part of the equation don't we understand. The bottom line is that, without the development of ongoing and relevant, instructionally related staff development that aligns Internet usage to our instructional intentions, and which emphasizes the use of the Web for HOTS (higher order thinking skills and processes) rather than LOTS (lower order thinking skills and lots of information) we will never harness the remarkable potential of the Internet to transform the learning experience. What's the definition of insanity - it's doing the same thing you've always done (often with new tools), but expecting or wanting or needing completely different results. And if we keep doing what we've always done, we'll continue to get what's we've always got - and in doing so we will fail ourselves by failing our children. To read The Digital Disconnect," from the Pew Internet and American Life Project go to http://www.pewinternet.org/ To download the full report in Adobe PDF format: <http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/pdfs/PIP_Schools_Internet_Report.pdf>download • Previous Articles