Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

This [PC/Internet] technology promises to have a far larger and more serious impact on our society than the introduction of television, possibly as great an influence on history as the industrial revolution or the printing press. Television primarily involves only leisure time; this technology will affect work, school and play—personal, family and business relationships. Surveying the Digital Future: How the PC and Internet Are Changing the World.

The introduction of a new medium into society has frequently been a flash-point for media effects research focusing on children and adolescents (Wartella & Reeves, 1985). In each case children have been recognized as a special audience, one that deserves special consideration (Dorr, 1986; Wartella, 1995). The introduction of television prompted numerous studies (e.g., Schramm, Lyle & Parker, 1961), and provoked much discussion and public debate over its proper place in society. The effects of the media on children’s mental development has been a common theme (e.g., Van Evra, 1990; Winn, 1977). From early on, media effects researchers have focused the attention of the nation on the media’s dysfunctional effects. From the Payne Fund studies on the effects of motion pictures (e.g., Charters, 1933; Dale, 1935) to Dr. Fredrick Wertham’s (1954) exposé of comic books to the Surgeon General’s (1972) report on television and violence, social scientific researchers have frequently examined how the media have served to undermine the positive influences of family and social institutions (McLeod & Reeves, 1980; Wartella & Reeves, 1985). Television, since its inception, has been derided by some for its believed adverse affect on children’s cognitive and social development (Morgan, 1980; Healy, 1990). Rosengren and Windahl (1989) observed that such responses are typical when new media and children intersect.

For every new mass medium appearing on the scene, a "moral panic" has occurred, one of the fears expressed having been that the new medium would deactivate youth, turning them into passive, more or less narcotized victims of the new medium. (p. 249)

Researchers exploring the effects of educational media, however, have argued from a similar set of assumptions to reach dramatically different conclusions. Instead of exploring the possible negative effects of the media, proponents of "powerful effects" have heralded the positive effects promised by the use of educational media in the classroom (e.g., Kozma, 1994; Salomon, 1978).

The history of educational technology, specifically the use of mass media in an educational context, is infused with promises of revolutionary proportions (Cuban, 1986). Access to books, instructional motion pictures, radio, and more recently television and interactive multimedia has been envisioned as the panacea for all that ails our educational system. The use of the World-Wide Web in the classroom is only the latest in a long history of mass media technologies that have been embraced by the educational establishment. Libraries, along with the liberating technologies of the postal service and telephones, were once envisioned as facilitating the elimination of schools (Illich, 1970). Educational films, radio and television programs, and educational computer software have all been employed with similar hope and optimism. The most recent savior of education is the global, interactive, multimedia database known as the Global Information Infrastructure, the Internet, and the World-Wide Web.

Defining the Internet and the World-Wide Web

The Internet is a global network of computer networks which uses packet switching to deliver digital data using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) standard developed by Robert Kahn and Vinten Cerf. A formal definition of the term Internet was adopted on October 24, 1995 when the Federal Networking Council (FNC) unanimously passed a resolution stating:

The Federal Networking Council (FNC) agrees that the following language reflects our definition of the term "Internet." "Internet" refers to the global information system that--(i) is logically linked together by a globally unique address space based on the Internet Protocol (IP) or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons; (ii) is able to support communications using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons, and/or other IP-compatible protocols; and (iii) provides, uses or makes accessible, either publicly or privately, high level services layered on the communications and related infrastructure described herein. (Leiner, et al., 1998, n.p.)

Originally designed by the federal government as a means to decentralize computing capabilities and, according to some historical reviews, to ensure functionality in the event of nuclear war (Sterling, 1993; Aikat, 1995; Howe, 1998), the computer network that has since come to be understood as the Internet grew out of military and academic origins. The first installation was made at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in September of 1969 and federal funds provided by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) later made possible increased networking of computer resources located throughout the country. The development of electronic mail in 1972 enabled "people-to-people" traffic and spurred the kind of enormous growth that continues to this day (Leiner, et al., 1998). Other computer networks merged with the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) and the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) systems (created in 1986 by the National Science Foundation) to become what we know today as the Internet. According to Vinton Cerf (1995), the birth of the Internet can be placed at 1969 (ARPANET), 1973 (INTERNETTING project at ARPA), 1983 (standardization on TCP/IP protocols), 1986 (Interop trade show and connection to commercial routers) or even 1994 (public recognition and coverage by the mass media). In January of 1993 the NSF awarded $12 million in grants to several companies to take over responsibility for the Internet and make access easier for business and individuals. ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990 and in May of 1995 the NSFNET was decommissioned. During the middle to latter part of the 1990s what could arguably be considered the most important consumer service available via the Internet rose to prominence—the World-Wide Web (WWW).

The WWW is variously understood as a multimedia, hypertextual collection of information and entertainment resources available to computer users who are connected to the Internet. The WWW was conceived in the late 1980s by Tim Berners-Lee, then a software engineer at the European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN). Berners-Lee’s development of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) provided the building blocks from which the WWW would be constructed (Berners-Lee, 1998). One factor that has led to the enormous growth of the WWW is the ease of use afforded by the Graphical User Interface (GUI) employed by the leading browsing software applications. The "browser" is the computer software application that allows the user to access the WWW using "point and click" navigation through hypertext links and graphical icons. The widespread diffusion of browsing software, since Marc Andreessen’s invention of National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) Mosaic in 1993, has given WWW users an easy way to access the myriad of media content available via the Internet. It should be noted that WWW browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer typically contain features that allow access to a wide range of Internet services, e.g. email, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and telnet, that were once separate Internet applications. However, the WWW itself continues to change and those who create content for the WWW continue to offer new services. Indeed a complicating factor is that the WWW is dynamic and constantly mutating into something new. Each month brings new technological developments that expand on the range of media and mediated experiences that are available over the WWW.

For the purpose of this study, the WWW is defined by the communication services delivered over the Internet and available via the two leading browsers, Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. Many of the more advanced features, e.g., streaming video and audio, Java™ applets, Shockwave™ animation, and Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), offered on the WWW are available only after plug-in applications have been installed in the browser and it is anticipated that the range of advanced features will vary greatly from school to school. But even without the advanced features, the WWW is a dynamic and rich environment in which informational and entertaining content can be delivered in a full range of multi-media forms.

Growth of Information Technology/Internet/WWW in Public Schools

Information technology (IT) is broadly understood as computers and computer networking technologies and its widespread adoption has been compared to the industrial revolution in terms of its impact on society (Alberts & Papp, 1997). Likewise, the recent and rapid growth of the Internet has been perceived as a potential boon for education (Perelman, 1992; Ravitch, 1993; McClintock, 1992; Berge & Collins, 1998). Former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Reed Hundt declared email to be the "‘killer application’ that can vastly improve the quality of American education" (Hundt, 1998). At the request of students, teachers, and administrators, federal, state, and local agencies have been actively engaged in accomplishing a goal first proposed in 1994 by the Clinton administration, that is, placing computers with Internet access in every school by the year 2000 (Clinton, 1994, 1996; Clausing, March 1999). Statistics from the Department of Education suggest that much progress has been made in recent years. In one year, from 1997 to 1998, the percentage of public school classrooms connected to the Internet rose from 27% to 51%. In that same year the percentage of public schools connected to the Internet had risen to 89%, up from 35% in 1994 (National Center for Educational Statistics, 1999). Even before the recent rush for Internet and WWW access, schools had begun the process of acquiring computer hardware. A study by Market Data Retrieval reported in the Chicago Tribune (Poe, 1998) revealed that the number of public school students per computer fell from 36.5 in 1993 to 7.3 students per computer in 1998.

Based on the assumptions "that all media can instruct, and that learners can learn from virtually all media" Salomon (1978) argued, "The only considerations, then, it should seem, are managerial and economic" (p. 37). Clearly the economic issues surrounding WWW access in public schools are of paramount importance. With a projected cost of between $10-$47 billion to provide every classroom with Internet connectivity (McKinsey & Co., 1995), the allocation of resources, both fiscal and human, has escalated in recent years. Expenditure of public and private funds for computers, wiring of school buildings, and telecommunications services has increased dramatically and subsidies have followed. In May of 1997, the FCC announced that in response to initiatives included in the Communications Act of 1996 schools and libraries would become eligible for support totaling $2.25 billion a year for telecommunications services, internal connections, and Internet access (Overview, 1997; Universal Access, 1997).

However, many school districts are finding that the initial purchase of hardware and software is only the beginning of the cost of placing computers into schools. Slonaker (1998) cited experts who said that schools pay an additional $300 per year in maintenance and repair costs for every $1,000 expended on computer hardware. The article also cited a report by IDC/Link, a market research company, that predicted that schools nationwide will be spending about $9 billion a year on computer technology by the year 2000. Frequently the result is that administrators are making tough choices about what to cut in order to keep computers functioning and systems online. In the midst of this monumental effort few have stopped to consider the critical questions surrounding the use of this new medium. Neil Postman said, "I thought that television would be the last great technology that people would go into with their eyes closed. Now you have the computer" (quoted in Oppenheimer, 1997, p. 62).

New Media and Displacement Effects

The introduction of any new medium, or its introduction into a new social setting, raises issues about the things that it displaces. Early studies of children’s behavior before and after the introduction of television described the phenomena in terms of the functional similarity of the new medium and what it displaced (Himelweit, Oppenheim, & Vince, 1958; Schramm, Lyle, & Parker, 1961). In the mid 1970s Williams and Handford (1986) explored the effects of the introduction of television on other leisure activities for residents of three Canadian towns named Notel, Unitel, and Multitel for the purpose of the study. The researchers noted that young people’s participation in sports and community activities dropped after television was introduced. Researchers exploring new media displacing traditional media use, e.g., Williams and Boyes (1986) and Brown, Cramond, and Wilde (1974), have examined the displacement effect of television. In the latter study, children in a small village in Scotland were studied before and after the introduction of television. The researchers described the "functional reorganization" of media usage that resulted.

This notion of functional equivalence has been used to explore how traditional media use changes when a new medium becomes available and how interpersonal interaction is affected by increased media use. Rubin and Rubin (1985) proposed a research agenda that would apply the uses and gratifications perspective to explore the interface of mass with interpersonal communication. According to Rubin and Rubin, media can provide a viable and functional alternative to interpersonal interaction in certain instances. A pilot study by Cowles (1989) investigated consumer perceptions of teletext and videotex and found support for the idea that these interactive media are perceived as having more personal characteristics than non-interactive electronic media (p. 88). Interactive and interpersonal mediated communication, e.g., electronic mail, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and interactive game playing, all possible via the WWW, are just a few examples of mediated communication that can substitute for more traditional interpersonal interaction.

While television use sometimes occurs simultaneously with other media, e.g., newspapers and magazines, it is important to recognize that the active and demanding nature of interactive media use reduces the likelihood of this occurring. Lin and Lepper (1987) found that while videogame use typically supplements rather than displaces other leisure activities, they also reported a significant negative correlation between boys’ use of arcade video games and the number of books read. Research recently reported in the New York Times (Richtel, 1998) indicated that increased WWW usage at home results in a reduction of television viewing, reading, and sleeping. This substitution of new media experience for other media or non-media activity is an example of what Windahl (1981) called a "consequence" of media use.

The adoption of the WWW by schools raises several issues related to this notion of functional equivalence. First, the multifaceted nature of the WWW suggests that it should have an extremely wide range of "functions" that it can perform for students. Second, time spent using the WWW in school is time that is not spent in activities that are displaced by WWW use. And finally, WWW usage for academic research, as a functional equivalent of traditional research sources, is contingent on the quality of the research material contained therein (Bennett, Wilkinson, & Oliver, 1996). Even for students with the best intentions, the quality and age-appropriateness of the information available varies greatly. Concern of educators over the unevenness of quality of information available on the WWW is evidenced by the many WWW sites devoted to providing training on how to evaluate the usefulness of information made available on the WWW (see Appendix A).

Statement of the Problem

The Internet, and more specifically the WWW, is being eagerly adopted by school districts, administrators, and teachers almost without exception. However, the use of the WWW in the classroom marks the first deployment of an educational medium in which the end user can access a virtually unlimited breadth of content. Hecht (1997) argued, "having the Internet in the classroom is like equipping each classroom with a television that can be turned on at any time and tuned in to any of 100,000 unrestricted channels, only a tiny fraction of which are dedicated to educational programming (and even those have commercials)." McNealy (1999) voiced a similar concern when he wrote, "Right now, putting students in front of Internet terminals is no better than putting them in front of TV sets. It may even be worse" (p. 17A). And while the resource is huge—Lawrence and Giles (1999) estimated 800 million web pages—some have argued that only a fraction of the millions of Web pages hold any educational value for this K-12 audience (see, for example, Bennett, Wilkinson, & Oliver, 1996; Tillman, 1998; and Kirk, 1996).

This raises some interesting questions regarding the use of the WWW in an educational context. Even students who seek out educational content may be thwarted by the very attributes heralded by WWW proponents, e.g., the WWW’s breadth and depth of information. For example, consider the dilemma facing students who are expected to make sense out of unfiltered and unedited information that is scattered widely in a virtual sea of competing information of variable quality and appropriateness. Research into selective exposure, defined as "behavior that is deliberately performed to attain and sustain perceptual control of particular stimulus events," (Zillmann & Bryant, 1985, p. 2) has raised new questions about new media technologies that provide an abundance of choice and place even greater control over consumption in the hands of the consumer. In a nonlinear medium, when educational content is sometimes packaged as "edu-tainment," what is to prevent students from skipping over the "edu-" and attending only to the "-tainment?" In a review of aptitude-treatment interaction (ATI) studies, Clark (1982) found that students, when given a choice, often mistakenly choose instructional methods that result in less learning. While it is clear that children can and do learn from mediated messages, the more important question of "what is learned?" remains.

Recently there have been calls for research to determine the effect of computers with Internet access on student achievement (Kozma & Quellmalz, 1996). Linda Roberts, Director of the Office of Educational Technology, spoke at the SchoolTech Exposition and Conference and reminded educators of the need to collect data that will support or reject the spending of billions of dollars for computers and wiring (Mendels, 1998, April 27). A recent US Department of Education report (National Center for Educational Statistics, 1998b) concluded by listing four challenges that remain for educators and school districts as they embrace this new educational technology. The challenges are: technical support for hardware and software; teacher training and development; "increasing effective use of the Internet to enhance student learning; and protecting students from inappropriate material on the Internet" (n.p.). Inappropriate content available on the WWW has received renewed attention in the wake of the tragic events at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado in April of 1999. A Gallup poll commissioned by NBC and the Wall Street Journal found that 82% of those polled believed the Internet to be at least partially to blame for the shootings (Bowman, 1999).

Just as early studies on the effects of television on young viewers focused on the introduction of the medium into society, studies of the introduction of the WWW into society, and more specifically our public schools, ought to address critical issues. For example, is affinity for the WWW and skill level at using the WWW correlated with specific uses? How do student attitudes regarding the WWW’s defining characteristics affect WWW use? Do students perceive the WWW to be primarily a source of information or entertainment, and how does this perception affect usage? How do students describe their own use of the WWW at school, and how does this compare to actual sites visited?

Preliminary data collected during a pilot study (Ebersole, 1998) indicated that for middle and high school students accessing the WWW from computers in public schools, the most frequently visited sites were those that were also the least educational. And while "research" was the most frequent response to the question "why are you using the WWW at this time?", content analysis of the sites visited suggested that "looking for something interesting" was the more likely explanation for the majority of sites visited.

This study is designed to determine the leading uses for the WWW as described by adolescent students in selected public schools and to compare the students’ stated use with actual sites visited by students. The research presented in this study will provide data that may be used by public school administrators as they create policies and procedures for WWW access by students.

Significance of the Study

Communication scholars have for some time been calling for greater attention to issues of political importance (Mueller, 1995; Noam, 1993; Wartella, 1993). Research into the use of the WWW in public schools has important implication for local, state, and national policy and funding initiatives. While a study such as this is only a beginning in the quest to assess the value of this new medium, it is an important first step in that it allows for the identification of motivations of individual users. This study can also help to identify crucial points where intervention may be necessary in order to realize the WWW’s full potential as an educational resource. Once we understand what motivates students to utilize this medium, we can better design incentives that encourage educational use and discourage use that distracts students from that goal. After all, evidence that exposure to educational WWW sites results in learning is really only important if students choose to access educational WWW sites.

Educational opportunity has often been viewed as a leveling influence in society. Similarly, educational media broadly disseminated has been promoted as a means to provide enrichment for those who need it the most. However, critics of the educational benefit of television have argued that the self-selected audience for educational programs is most often comprised of children from economically and educationally advantaged homes (Cook, Appleton, Conner, Shaffer, Tamkin, & Weber, 1975). The very audience that is least in need of the potential benefit of educational programming is the most likely to choose to attend to this program content (pp. 22-23). This observation led Wakshlag (1985) to conclude that the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children may actually be increased by selective exposure to educational television.

This concern is similar to one voiced by proponents of universal Internet access for school-age children. While "universal service" was formerly a policy directed towards the equitable distribution of basic telecommunications services to all members of society, new and advanced services such as the Internet and WWW are now being promoted as necessary for full participation in this new information society (Universal Service and the Information Superhighway, 1996). Based on a "public utilities model," arguments for new communication services date back to the early years of radio (Mander, 1984). Even then, dissemination of information, "especially addresses by the President," was promoted as a necessity (p. 175). In the decade of the 1980s, when microcomputers were first being placed in schools in large numbers, Chen, Lieberman, and Paisley (1985) recognized the need for research to address the enormous potential that the computer held for both good and bad. They wrote,

The microcomputer may turn out to be a divisive force between the technology haves and the have-nots. But there is hope that it can be used in ways that will narrow existing educational and socioeconomic deficits. Research will be instrumental in sorting out the computer’s merits and demerits from among its many uses. (p. 278)

Today, proponents of universal access to this global information network argue that the mere existence of this powerful new medium will, if remedial steps are not taken, lead to the creation of two classes of children; the information "haves" and the "have nots" (Falling Through the Net II, 1998; Hoffman, & Novak, 1998). The implication is that access to the Internet and WWW must be made available to all children regardless of their ability to afford the necessary hardware, software and connection fees. However, history suggests that mere access to content is not enough. Unless some structure exists to ensure the quality of the content consumed by children, the potential benefit of the Information Superhighway may never be realized.

Summary

The purpose of this introductory review is to explore the origins of the WWW and its adoption by and use in public educational institutions. The shortage of useful data to describe current usage of this new medium was cited as a rationale for this study and others that may begin to provide much needed analysis. The displacement effect that follows the introduction of new media was explored in light of the functional equivalence that the WWW may serve for this particular audience in this specific context. Questions were raised about the defining characteristics of this new medium and its appropriateness and usefulness for educational purposes. Focusing on student perceptions and attitudes, questions were raised about the effect of these variables on use behavior.

The following chapter will present a review of the literature regarding the defining characteristics of the WWW, a review of adolescent media use, and the development of uses and gratifications theory and its application to traditional and new media technologies. Also, the following chapter will include a review of a pilot study that was conducted for the purpose of informing the design of the present study.