Since the mid-1990s, many education policy makers have promoted widespread access to the Internet in schools. From the launching of the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund in 1996 to the roll out of the E-rate discounts for telecommunications services in 1998 to the passage of the Enhancing Education Through Technology Act of 2001, national initiatives have rapidly expanded that access. By 1995, the majority of public elementary and secondary schools in the U.S. had access to the Internet.\u00a0 By 1998, the majority of instructional rooms in public schools (i.e., primarily classrooms and libraries\/media centers) were connected to the Internet.\u00a0 With the notable exception of students attending schools in very poor districts, it is now the case that the Internet is as common a school fixture as lockers and library books.[1. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2000a). Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994-2000, NCES 2001-071, by Anne Cattagni and Elizabeth Farris. Project Officer: Bernie Greene. Washington, DC. Available at: http:\/\/nces.ed.gov\/pubs2001\/2001071.pdf<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n Over the same period, access to the Internet has been expanding in locations outside of school, especially to homes with school-aged children.\u00a0 By July 2002, Pew Internet & American Life Project surveys showed that 60% of America\u2019s children, more than 43 million children under 18, use the Internet. About 78% of those between the ages of 12 and 17 use the Internet (about 18 million pre-teens and teens).[2. Unpublished Pew Internet Project survey of 2,501 Americans conducted between June 26 and July 26, 2002. The sample includes 1,527 Internet users. The margin of error for the entire sample is plus or minus two percentage points. For the Internet sample, the margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.] In addition, more than one in five households with children (23%) have broadband connectivity through digital subscriber line (DSL) technology or cable modems.[3. Pew Internet Project data from June 26-July 26 survey. Also, U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (February 2002). A Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet. Washington, DC. Available at: http:\/\/www.ntia.doc.gov\/ntiahome\/dn\/nationonline_020502.htm<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n One of the most common activities that youth perform online is schoolwork.[4. U.S. Department of Commerce (February 2002), Ibid.] According to a September 2001 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project:<\/p>\n\n In addition to these school-related uses of the Internet, teenagers go online for a variety of other activities, including: communicating with friends and family (via email, instant messaging, and chat rooms); entertaining themselves (doing things such as surfing the Web for fun, visiting entertainment sites, playing or downloading games, and listening to music online or downloading it); learning things largely unrelated to school (such as looking for information on hobbies, getting the news, researching a product or service before buying it, looking for health-related information, and looking for information that is embarrassing or hard to talk about); and exploring other online interactive or transaction features (such as going to a Web site where they can express opinions about something, visiting sites for trading and selling things, buying something online, creating a Web page, etc.).[6. The Pew Internet & American Life Project (June 2001). Teenage Life Online: The Rise of the Instant-Message Generation and the Internet\u2019s Impact on Friendships and Family Relationships, by Amanda Lenhart, Lee Rainie, and Oliver Lewis. Washington, DC. Available at: https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/Reports\/2001\/Teenage-Life-Online.aspx<\/a>; U.S. Department of Commerce (February 2002), Ibid.] Indeed, as Don Tapscott foresaw in his 1998 book, Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation<\/i>,[7. Tapscott, D. (1998). Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation<\/em>. New York: McGraw-Hill.] there is evidence that many students are more frequent users of the Internet and are more Internet savvy than their parents and teachers.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n Most other large-scale research on school-related uses of the Internet\u2014as distinguished from research on the use of computers and other technologies\u2014has focused on access.\u00a0 This often consisted of measuring the extent of connectedness to the Internet and assessing the level of support for Internet use in schools (i.e., the amount and adequacy of teacher professional development and technical support).\u00a0 A few survey-based studies, most now several years old, provide some modest insight into the extent and types of Internet use in schools, though typically from teachers\u2019 or school or district administrators\u2019 perspectives.[8. See, for example, reports of the Teaching, Learning, and Computing Study: 1998. Available at: http:\/\/www.crito.uci.edu\/tlc\/html\/tlc_home.html<\/a>; U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2000a), Ibid.; U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2000b). Teacher\u2019s Tools for the 21st Century: A Report of Teachers\u2019 Use of Technology, NCES 2000-102, by Becky Smerdon, Stephanie Cronen, Lawrence Lanahan, Jennifer Anderson, Nicholas Iannotti, and January Angeles. Project Officer: Bernie Greene. Washington, DC. Available at: http:\/\/nces.ed.gov\/pubsearch\/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000102<\/a>; Rockman ET AL and Grunwald Associates (2002). Are We There Yet? Research and Guidelines on Schools\u2019 Use of the Internet. Alexandria, VA: National School Boards Foundation. Available at: http:\/\/www.nsbf.org\/thereyet\/fulltext.htm<\/a>] Missing from this early research are studies that directly ask youth about their school-related activities, attitudes, and experiences with the Internet\u2013in both in- and out-of-school settings. <\/p>\n\n More recently, researchers have begun to conduct studies about technology and Internet use based on the input of teenagers.\u00a0 Many of these studies focus on how young people generally use the Internet or they focus on the experience of one gender. These studies tend to describe students\u2019 use of the Internet for educational purposes in single settings (classrooms) or only in cursory fashion, or are conducted primarily to help companies better target product development and marketing activities.[9. See, for example: Grunwald Associates (2001). Children, Families, and the Internet: 2000. Burlingame, CA: Author.; Just Kids, Inc. (2002). An Environmental Scan of Children\u2019s Interactive Media from 2000 to 2002. New York: Markle Foundation; Knowledge Networks\/Statistical Research (2002). How Children Use Media Technology. Westfield, NJ: Author.; Roban, W., Groppe, L., and Schilt, K. (2002). The Net Effect: Girls and New Media. New York: Girl Scout Research Institute.] Consequently, there is still a need for information about how teens use the Internet in school and for school. This is a topic rife with public policy implications.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n The American Institutes for Research was commissioned by the Pew Internet & American Life Project to conduct the Internet\u2019s Impact on School Project<\/i> (IISP).\u00a0 IISP was designed to describe the rich and varied ways that public middle and high school students use the Internet for school and learning, including their attitudes toward school-related uses of the Internet. Data for this study were collected between the months of November 2001 and March 2002 through two mechanisms:<\/p>\n\n Further details about the study\u2019s sample and methods can be found in the Appendix to this report.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prior Research on Student Use of the Internet for School Since the mid-1990s, many education policy makers have promoted widespread access to the Internet in schools. From the launching of the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund in 1996 to the roll out of the E-rate discounts for telecommunications services in 1998 to the passage of the 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This Study<\/h3>\n\n
\n