Reflections on the Findings
The focus of this study was to explore literacy researchers’ and innovative teachers’ thinking about the benefits of Internet-based curricular activities and instructional practices used to enhance students’ literacy. Teachers surveyed said they observe that Internet-based learning activities make reading enjoyable for students, foster use of critical reading skills, facilitate students’ reading fluency, and enhance understanding of content.
Interestingly, we found that these teachers and researchers believe students need well-developed basic literacy skills in order to benefit from Internet-based opportunities. Survey respondents indicated that in Internet-based activities, students improve vocabulary development, process writing skills, and comprehension of text. Those interviewed and surveyed also indicated that higher order literacy skills -- such as organizing information according to research questions, comparing and contrasting, and synthesizing information into new and meaningful structures -- are important when engaging in Internet-based literacy activities.
The findings highlight the following prevalent instructional practices and principles among participating teachers:
Most teachers, however, are not taught how to foster students’ self-directed learning habits and are steeped in traditions of teacher- rather than learner-centered practices. In addition, it appears from this study that teachers themselves need well-established self-directed learning habits in order to research and develop teaching and learning strategies pertinent to Internet-based education.
The findings from this study bring to the foreground a concern about teacher preparation programs. Most survey respondents and interviewees in this study reported that they taught themselves how to use the Internet in the classroom. To help a wider group of teachers meet the challenges of using the Internet effectively with students, pre- and inservice training programs will need to incorporate and address classroom use of this technology. Policies are needed to guarantee that all teachers have ready access to the Internet to engage in emerging online professional development communities.
The literature and the group of researchers interviewed for this study place a great deal of importance on the value of the Internet as a vehicle for participation and exchange. The teachers who responded to our survey, however, were more likely to have their students use the Internet for research and publishing than for participation in online communities. Two explanations emerged for this. First, institutions’ acceptable-use policies may make it difficult to use the Internet for these purposes. If such restrictions are common, schools could explore ways to allow more collaboration and exchange while still protecting students online. Second, teachers gave themselves relatively low ratings for proficiency in some participatory activities, such as evaluating online groups and using collaborative applications. This finding, if reflective of broader trends, indicates that more schools need to adopt acceptable-use policies and incentives that foster teachers’ use of the Internet for collaboration and Web publishing as well as for seeking information.
For some readers, the curricular activities and instructional practices highlighted in this report may appear to be out of reach or unnecessary for meeting student learning standards. And there is little doubt that for some, engaging in the types of activities our participants described would require making sweeping changes. We acknowledge that changes are needed to use the Internet effectively in the classroom, and we suggest that the Internet can be used to achieve the student and teacher standards identified at the beginning of our report.
Teachers are central to implementing any change within a school system, including establishing curricula in which Internet resources play a part. According to Becker (1999), “To a large degree, teaching students to use computer resources such as the Internet remains a specialized province of the ‘computer teacher’ rather than having been integrated into the instructional repertoire of teachers across all subjects” (p. 11). However, in Becker’s survey, teachers of humanities classes, including social studies and English, demonstrated slightly higher use and perceived value of the Internet as compared with other teachers. English language arts teachers, expert in fostering students’ development of reading and writing skills, have an unique role to play in effectively implementing uses of the Internet in education. Teachers and aspiring teachers need to have ready access to the resources and professional support needed to meet the challenge of preparing today’s youth with literacy skills applicable to the 21st century.
From “Literacy Learning on the Net: An Exploratory Study,” by M.L. McNabb, B. Hassel, & L. Steiner
Reading Online, June 2002
© 2002 North Central Regional Educational Laboratory