Children and the Internet

This article reinforces why I use a classroom website and wiki, as well as a myriad of other interactive tools. My students utilize the Internet and other computer programs approximately 220 minutes per week. They usually enter third grade as ineffective researchers and leave ready to join library science school. :) 

Researchers find a relationship between children’s Internet use and academic performance. By Erika Packard

For most children and teenagers, using the Internet has joined watching television and talking on the phone in the repertoire of typical behavior. In fact, 87 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds are now online, according to a 2005 Pew Research Center report. That’s a 24 percent increase over the previous four years, leading parents and policymakers to worry about the effect access to worlds of information—and misinformation—has on children. Psychologists are only beginning to answer that question, but a study led by Michigan State University psychologist Linda Jackson, PhD, showed that home Internet use improved standardized reading test scores. Other researchers have found that having the Internet at home encourages children to be more self-directed learners.“We had the same question for television decades ago, but I think the Internet is more important than television because it’s interactive,” says Jackson. “It’s 24/7 and it’s ubiquitous in young people’s lives.”The positive effects of Internet use appear especially pronounced among poor children, say researchers. Unfortunately, these children are also the least likely to have home computers, which some experts say may put them at a disadvantage.“The interesting twist here is that the very children who are most likely to benefit from home Internet access are the ones least likely to have it,” says Jackson. “It’s a classic digital divide issue.”Point, click and readIn her research, published in a 2006 Developmental Psychology (Vol. 42, No. 3, pages 429–435) special section on Internet use, Jackson studied 140 urban children as part of HomeNetToo, a longitudinal field study designed to assess the effects of Internet use in low-income families. Most of the child participants were African American and around 13 years old; 75 percent lived in single-parent households with an average annual income of $15,000 or less. The children were also underperforming in school, scoring in the 30th percentile on standardized reading tests at the beginning of the study.Jackson and her colleagues provided each family with a home computer and free Internet access. The researchers automatically and continuously recorded the children’s Internet use, and participants completed periodic surveys and participated in home visits.They found that children who used the Internet more had higher scores on standardized reading tests after six months, and higher grade point averages one yearand 16 months after the start of the study than did children who used it less. More time spent reading, given the heavily text-based nature of Web pages, may account for the improvement. Jackson also suggests that there may be yet-undiscovered differences between reading online and reading offline that may make online reading particularly attractive to children and teenagers. (the rest…)