it4L

A nice piece of research illustrating some useful statistics about use and perceptions of the Internet. For example, 87% of teenagers use the internet but only 68% use it at school. {I wonder why this discrepancy should exist? Are those features of the Internet which teenagers want to use/are comfortable with not being used in areas appropriate to the pupils’ own perceptions of what the Internet can be used for?
Interestingly, the report highlights that those without Internet access at home are much less likely to go online even when online access is available. While it’s what I would expect, I wonder if it might be an indicator of the non-participant’s expectations of what online resources are capable of delivering? Conversely it might show that more immersion and familiarisation with online resources and learning of the tools to access them is ever more likely to develop more e-confident learners, so if we accept that greater access to appropriate resources is a Good Thing then the delivery of the means and skills to have that access must also fall into that category. Those who do not have access (through not having a connection, or not having the skills or expectations of success) could be seen to be disadvantaged in the same way that they would be in not learning to read.