Updated
April 9, 2005.

First off
* Scorching our planet
* Patent for thought control
* Gore in detail
* Citizen reporters
* Fishing for phishers
* Dutch TV going upscale?
* Such a rude interruption
* Internet & civics

Reflections
* Medium for global civics
* Desktop options
* Software economy in schools
* College and the Internet
* Courts vs democracy
* High school and the Internet

Reference
* Findings of Fact (~420 Kb)

Demo
* Click-step

Editors
Henry K van Eyken
Peter Jones

Technical advisors
Jack Park
Jean Robertson

Art
Elisabeth van Eyken

:::

Living beyond our ecological means A report by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment project . Fleabyte , "thinking with computers" | archive | bootstrap institute | civics in gore | e-mail | First off April 9, 2005 We need stop degrading our habitat Lest we forget, among the natural disasters it is not only climate change we Earthlings need to worry about, there is also the rapid degrading of vitally important ecosystems. We are told by the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, a project commissioned by the United Nations, that humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively in the past 50 years than in any comparable time in human history. Around 1,300 experts from 95 countries participated in the study. A quarter of our planet is now under cultivation and although this has been largely beneficial, the tide appears to be turning. About two-thirds of the ecosystems studied are now either being degraded or used unsustainably. We are warned that the harmful consequences of this degradation could worsen significantly over the next half a century and that this puts at risk the development goals of the U.N.'s Millennium Project. Not all the news is bad: besides the obvious benfits of agriculture and aquaculture we learn that an increase in forest cover in the richer part of the world provides a net sink for carbon dioxide emissions. But we need be concerned about fresh water, capture fisheries, air and water regulation, and the regulation of regional climate, natural hazards and pests. "Although evidence remains incomplete, there is enough for the experts to warn that the ongoing degradation of 15 of the 24 ecosystem services examined is increasing the likelihood of potentially abrupt changes that will seriously affect human well-being. This includes the emergence of new diseases, sudden changes in water quality, creation of 'dead zones' along the coasts, the collapse of fisheries, and shifts in regional climate." In their statement Living Beyond Our Means, the project's board states that "Among the outstanding problems identified by this assessment are the dire state of many of the world's fish stocks; the intense vulnerability of the 2 billion people living in dry regions to the loss of ecosystem services, including water supply; and the growing threat to ecosystems from climate change and nutrient pollution. Human activities have taken the planet to the edge of a massive wave of species extinctions, further threatening our own well-being." Problem now is, what should humanity do about the problem? Said the U.N.'s Kofi Annan, "Only by understanding the environment and how it works, can we make the necessary decisions to protect it." Given the ordinarily slow pace of progress made by politicians, it seems to us that a well-informed global citizenry is an essential part of spurring them on toward arriving at effective solutions. "The pressures on ecosystems will increase globally in coming decades unless human attitudes and actions change." [Ref. the project's website] We ought to be aware that loss of resources causes people to turn on one another, to the point of cannibalism. This is amply described by Jared Diamond in his book "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed." | page contents | archive: first off | April 7, 2005 Sony seeks thought control by ultrasound Sony Corp. has applied for patent for a prophetic invention, i.e. an invention that has yet to be made to work. It describes a means for using ultrasound to transmit data directly into human brains. The benevolent aspect is that it may give those who are blind or deaf a chance to see or hear. There appears to be some confusion surrounding the patent. CNN claims the patent has been granted, but a look at the U.S. Patent Office's site shows it to be an application carrying the date December 30, 2004, but which was filed April 12, 2004. The number is 20040267118, the inventor's name is Thomas Dawson, and the title "Scanning method for applying ultrasonic acoustic data to the human neural cortex." The device would modify neural firing patterns in targeted parts of the brain and thereby create sensory experiences ranging from moving images to tastes and sounds. The New Scientist reports a Sony spokesperson as saying that this particular patent is "based on an inspiration that this may someday be the direction that technology will take us." According to the magazine, "Sony first submitted a patent application for the ultrasound method in 2000, which was granted in March 2003. Since then Sony has filed a series of continuations, most recently in December 2004 (US 2004/267118)." From BioMedPatent.com we learn that US patent law recognizes that one may conceive an invention but that one also then need to reduce the invention to practice (i.e., make a "working example"). Recognizing that not everyone has unlimited resources, provision is made for the "working example" to be a prophetic best guess of how to perform the experiment or put together the machine, as well as, what results would be obtained in the process. Unfortunately, if a prophetic example is defective in some unforeseen manner, one may either lose the bid for a patent in the patent office, or the patent may be found invalid in Court. If a competitor actually reduces the same invention to practice shortly after a prophetic patent application has been filed, the competitor may prevail in the patenting process. Citizens ought to be quite concerned about two aspects of this development: (1) the granting of "prophetic patents" and (2) the granting of patents that permit brain control. Please, refer to our earlier article, "The connected brain or Das Wohltemperierte Klavier" of October 25, 1999. [HvE] | page contents | archive: first off | April 6, 2005 A look at local civics Fleabyte is intended to be a medium for promoting global civics, but with advancing age there is not much I can do without sufficient funding and suitable people to manage the project, see Fleabyte: A medium for global civics. But it struck me that I might do a series on local civics and learn some useful lessons in the process; lessons about how ordinary folk feel related to those perceived to be in power. Quebec's Municipality of Gore would be a prime pick for the simple reason that I live here. Besides, it may well turn out that the series will serve fellow residents well by fostering a better-informed democracy. Here is hoping .... Just finished, an article on where our tax dollars go. Property owners saw a steep increase in their taxes for the year 2005 which peaked their interest in the subject. This may not look like great fare for people outside this community, but the very attempt to get a better insight in local affairs might turn out to be of a more general interest. Major elements for the series will be people and their community; law, rules and regulations, and costs. Interested? [HvE] | page contents | archive: first off | April 3, 2005 Korean "citizen reporters" complement staffers The South Korean website OhmyNews is working on a new kind of journalism where readers may serve as reporters as well. It publishes in Korean and in English. OhmyNews was founded five years ago and currently employs 50 reporters and receives contributions from some 36,000 "citizen reporters." Says one, "By writing, I've been able to look more closely at my own surroundings and take a more proactive view of things." The site has gained considerable influence and appears to have had an effect on the election of South Korean presiden Roh Moo-Hyun back in 2003. [source: CNN] | page contents | archive: first off | April 2, 2005 Microsoft goes after phishers Microsoft has filed 117 lawsuits against phishers, scam artists who pose as banks and other legitimate businesses to obtain confidential information from unsuspecting consumers. Victims, clicking on what seems to be a legitimate website, are routed to a fraudulent site. [source: CNN] | page contents | archive: first off | April 2, 2005 Reform of Dutch broadcasting advocated The Dutch Commission for Culture has advised Secretary of State Van der Laan that there should be only two Dutch TV channels by the year 2008. They should be publicly funded and not carry advertising. Dutch tax payers should pay more; they currently pay 45 euros per year as compared to 100 euros in the U.K. and in Germany. The increased levy would permit production of film and drama. Existing broadcast associations are not perceived as reflecting the Dutch community and ought to reform themselves into commercial producers. One channel would carry general content, the other in-depth material. Public television may also develop thematic digital channels such as one especially devoted to programs for children. Providing entertainment is not perceived as the fundamental mission of public broadcasters; the focus ought be on news, opinion and background, arts and culture. Radio would include a station for news. One station would be devoted to classical, jazz and world music; another to pop music. [Source: NRC-Handelsblad] | page contents | archive: first off | February 18, 2005 Much ado at Fleabyte and at the Bootstrap Institute (continued) "The fact that no new items have appeared on this site since October 28 does not mean that nothing is going on here. In fact, there is just too much going on at Fleabyte and at the Bootstrap Institute for this editor to comfortably cope at this time, and for at least another month." This is what we wrote all of two years and three months ago, on November 10, 2002. And throughout all that time, we kept wondering whether or not to resume publishing. Fact is, we find it difficult to do so. Fact is also, we think it important to do it if we have any chance at all to make this publication become truly a medium for global civics that is both educational and informative. Of course, that calls for establishing and financing an organization with many volunteers and at least some permanent staff. Although we very much doubt we can do that, things do not seem hopeless altogether. Hence, we shall give it a try. We describe our objective and what needs to be done in the article Fleabyte:  A medium for global civics. | page contents | archive: first off | October 28, 2002 Pew: Dealing with constituents online The Pew Internet & American Life Project published a first-ever survey of mayors and city concillors of the National League of Cities about their use of the Internet. This survey, published October 2, found that local officials use the Internet as part of their official lives and overwhelmingly use email to communicate with their constituents. But email has gone sour for Congressional representatives, who feel swamped by email, especially with the loads of messages dumped on them by activists' campaigns. They have come to dismiss email as not very meaningful. For local officials, however, the Internet provides a clear civic payoff as they learn about constituents' opinions and activities when they go online. Thanks to email, more local groups are being heard and recognized at the local level. Nevertheless, the Internet is not (yet) ushering in a revolution in municipal afairs and local politics. [The Pew report in pdf] | page contents | archive: first off |

Reflections

Computing to a purpose

:::
February 18, 2005
Fleabyte: A medium for global civics
by  Henry K van Eyken

Ingenuity gap
The future is inexorably on our minds. We raise children and provide for their education, we take out insurance, participate in civics, recycle garbage, donate to medical research; on it goes. Among our global concerns: dwindling natural resources, climate change and environmental degradation, epidemics, terrorism and criminality, poverty, racial and ideological strife, malign dictatorships or poisoned democracy. The list goes on ad nauseam.

Many groups exist to address mankind's problems, or try to. They may raise funds for the downtrodden or to improve a hospital near or far, they may investigate issues of a global scale as is done by the Millennium Project which aims to advise the United Nations on how to address some of mankind's major ills.

There is an insight to be gained from knowing what goals the Millennium Project is currently working on. Here is the list:

   1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
   2. Achieve universal primary education
   3. Promote gender equality and empower women
   4. Reduce child mortality
   5. Improve maternal health
   6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
   7. Ensure environmental sustainability
   8. Develop a global partnership for development

Each of these goals entails an immense amount of judgments, organization, persuasion, expertise in many fields, dissent between academic disciplines, and plain slugging - all of which effort may go to naught in the arena of political trade-offs and power play. A careful reading of these goals shows just how inadequate they really are. Why, for example, that word extreme in goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger? Why not address poverty and hunger, period? And why not make goal 2 the achieving of a higher level of universal education than merely primary? Or to put it differently, why not educate for a better grasp of what is read? The answer to these questions is that the more ambitious goals are less likely to be adopted by the United Nations. And here is the rub: collectively we hinder our own progress. It has been said that we reach out with one hand and slap it away with the other. Might this be mostly due to our limited capability of taking a wider wider view of things?

Offhand it escapes me why items 4 to 6 are listed separately. One might think that all three could readily be covered by a single heading, say "Global access to quality health care." But then again, consider the current discord surrounding national health care programs within the U.N.'s member states. How can a world body readily come to terms on an issue that not only divides its members, but that divides the very citizens of these members?

Next look at those formidable issues, 7 and 8, in which improving our human habitat and economic development are pitted one against the other; a long-term desire against a short-term urge to excessively produce, consume, and discard. Humans act on a blend of rational thought and emotional impulses. Nothing wrong with that; it is in the nature of being human. But for our common survival's sake, wouldn't it be well to know how best to strike some balance and come to a widely understood agreement among people?

The above paragraphs show our inability to expeditiously deal with complex issues that are in urgent need of solution. Much time is wasted between recognizing a problem and overcoming it, an often fatal lag that political scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon calls an ingenuity gap.

When as individuals we are faced with such questions we tend to simply turn away from them, perhaps preserving our individual sanity with some folksy wisdom, "give us the grace to accept what we cannot change." As for issues we might grasp and help do something about, we are confronted with their sheer number, a number so large that most of them occupy us only fleetingly at best. Chances are that something coming to our attention one moment is displaced by something else the next. Grasping complex problems is like pouring water in our cupped hands; we can only hold that which wets our skin. Ah yes, people may read and casually chat about issues large and small, but that is for being social more than to generate some action. Action we leave to scientists and politicians; the very they we complain about for not doing their job.

From the perspective of those politicians who sincerely wish to represent their electorate, it would be helpful if their constituents were mostly to sing from the same songbook. This ideal, one expects, would be furthered if people were more equally informed about issues and had the means for better understanding them. Such processes of refining opinion would be a way of shortening the time lag between sensing a problem and solving it, a means of lessening the ingenuity gap - which is an outcome we are seeking.

A good lesson was taught by the tsunami that last December (2004-12-26) killed nearly 200,000 people around the Indian Ocean. The news of this disaster, the images, the stories - these combined to create a heightened popular sense that funds were urgently needed to bring help to the stricken regions. The initial effect was a rapid shrinking of the ingenuity gap. Most of the money given or pledged came from governments, except in the United States and Britain where most of it came from private donations. Politicians knew with greater certainty what their electorates (and worldwide public opinion) stood for (The Economist, Feb. 12, 2005).

[Continued: Enabling and defeating ourselves

Software

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January 5, 2003
Desktop options
by Michael C. Barnes,
President, NorhTec

The paragraphs below introduce a businessman's look at Windows and Linux desktops that appears on the site of DesktopLinux. Of course, one person cannot know everything there is to know so it is well to also read readers' comments evoked by the article.

I have recently completed an evaluation of over thirty different desktops. It was a unique opportunity and one I must admit was quite fun. The purpose for this evaluation was that I wanted to select the right operating system environment for a commercial computer product. I believe that my findings might be useful to others looking at their options.

The purpose of my search was to identify the best desktop to support a variety of functions--personal, professional, and entertainment. I tried to approach this project with an open mind.

The first Desktop I evaluated for this project was Microsoft Windows XP (we will refer to it as XP from here on out). Prior to using XP, I had migrated to Windows 2000. Windows 2000 proved to be a very stable workhorse. I had upgraded from Windows 98 Second Edition (from here on out, I will simply refer to this version as Windows 98) and the improvement in stability and performance was substantial.

The problem that I had with Windows 2000 was locating drivers. When I migrated to Windows 2000, I found I had to replace some of my peripherals as they were not supported by Windows 2000. There were many devices that simply were not supported by Windows 2000. I tried to upgrade from Windows 2000 to Windows XP. This approach was not totally satisfactory. I found that in the end, I was better off getting rid of my existing Windows installation by blowing away the Windows directory and reinstalling Windows XP from scratch. I then reinstalled all my software. This left all my data intact.

When you install XP or Windows 2000, you have a decision to make. The decision is whether to convert your drive to NTFS or not. I have done both. I believe that for most users, leaving file system FAT32 is best. NTFS is suppose to be more stable and faster, but it is also very difficult to convert back to FAT32 in case you change your mind.

[Continued: XP was the easiest install ...]

Software

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January 5, 2003
Alternative computing in education
by Michael C. Barnes,
President, NorhTec

How school administrators can economize on computer softwares. Here is the lead-in to advice appearing on the website of NorhTec.

Purpose of this document. - Two years ago, my daughter, a high school freshman, was working on her social studies project and she told me I had to go out and buy Microsoft Office. At that time, I worked for Sun Microsystems so I used StarOffice and insisted that my whole family use it. I asked to see her homework assignment.

The assignment looked as if it was a study guide written for the school by Microsoft. The requirement was for the students to do a presentation and on each page, they would use a function that was built into Power Point.

The first issue I had was that I did not believe that this exercise helped my daughter learn social studies. The second issue was that I don't believe the school has any right telling the students what software they had to use to prepare their homework assignments. I wrote a letter to the school and met with the administrators. The administrators assured me that it was not the school's policy to dictate what software a student used.

I won the fight, but I wonder how many parents have had to go out and purchase Microsoft Office in order to complete some homework assignment.

The other day, I watched my daughter work hard on an assignment. The document looked like it had some very advanced formatting features. I asked her what word processor she was using. She said she was using OpenOffice. I was surprised because I had only provided her with StarOffice 5.2. I was quite proud that she had downloaded OpenOffice and had adopted it as her standard word processor.

Many years ago, I bought Microsoft Works. It was the MS DOS version. I thought that MS Works was one of the best software packages I had ever used. It had just enough of the features I needed to write sophisticated letters, do spreadsheets, and create databases. Back in the days of laptops with no hard drives, I used MS Works to do everything. I would write proposals and costing, all on this one, very nicely integrated program.

[Continued: I had not heard about MS Works ...]

College students and the Internet

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September 16, 2002
The Internet goes to college: How students are living in the future with today's technology
Lead-in to a study published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project

"Yahoo!, Napster and many other Internet tools were created by college students, and, while the vast majority of college students are simply Internet users, as a group they can be considered pioneers. Studying college students’ Internet habits can yield insight into future online trends."

"Colleges and universities might be experiencing an Internet generation gap between professors and students in terms of their Internet usage interests or abilities."

Summary of findings
College students are early adopters and heavy users of the Internet. - College students are heavy users of the Internet compared to the general population. Use of the Internet is a part of college students’ daily routine, in part because they have grown up with computers. It is integrated into their daily communication habits and has become a technology as ordinary as the telephone or television.

* One-fifth (20%) of today’s college students began using computers between the ages of 5 and 8. By the time they were 16 to 18 years old all of today’s current college students had begun using computers - and the Internet was a commonplace in the world in which they lived.
* Eighty-six percent of college students have gone online, compared with 59% of the general population.
* College students are frequently looking for email, with 72% checking email at least once a day.
* About half (49%) first began using the Internet in college; half (47%) first began using it at home before they arrived at college.
* The great majority (85%) of college students own their own computer, and two-thirds (66%) use at least two email addresses.
* Seventy-eight percent of college Internet users say that at one time or another they have gone online just to browse for fun, compared to 64% of all Internet users.
* College Internet users are twice as likely to have ever downloaded music files when compared to all Internet users: 60% of college Internet users have done so compared to 28% of the overall population.
* College Internet users are twice as likely to use instant messaging on any given day compared to the average Internet user. On a typical day, 26% of college students use IM; 12% of other Internet users are using IM on an average day.

College students say the Internet has enhanced their education . - Internet use is a staple of college students’ educational experience. They use the Internet to communicate with professors and classmates, to do research, and to access library materials. For most college students the Internet is a functional tool, one that has greatly changed the way they interact with others and with information as they go about their studies.

* Nearly four-fifths of college students (79%) agree that Internet use has had a positive impact on their college academic experience.
* Almost half (46%) of college students agree that email enables them to express ideas to a professor that they would not have expressed in class, but, some interactions are still primarily face-to-face: Only 19% of students said they communicate more with their professors via email than they do face-to-face.
* Nearly three-quarters (73%) of college students say they use the Internet more than the library, while only 9% said they use the library more than the Internet for information searching.
* About half of all college students (48%) are required to use the Internet to contact other students in at least some of their classes.
* Two-thirds (68%) of college students reported subscribing to one or more academic-oriented mailing lists that relate to their studies. They use these lists to carry on email discussions about topics covered in their classes.
* More than half (58%) of college students have used email to discuss or find out a grade from an instructor.
* Nearly two-thirds (65%) of college students who email professors say they report absences via email.

College social life has been changed by the Internet. - The college experience is not only about learning in the classroom, it is also about encountering new social situations and gaining new social skills. College students use the Internet nearly as much for social communication as they do for their education. But just as they use the Internet to supplement the formal parts of their education, they go online to enhance their social lives.

* 42% of college students say they use the Internet primarily to communicate socially.
* Only 10% of college students use the Internet primarily for entertainment.
* Nearly three-fourths (72%) of college students say most of their online communication is with friends.
* Over two-thirds (69%) of college students said they are more likely to use the phone than the Internet to communicate socially.
* But 85% of college students consider the Internet to be an easy and convenient choice for communicating with friends.
* The most popular online social activity is forwarding messages to friends or family, with 37% of college students reporting doing so.
* A significant number of college students use publicly accessible computers on campus for social purposes even when they have their own computer at their disposal: 33% find that the majority of their computer use occurs at school and outside their homes or dorm rooms.

Background
College students are a unique population. Occupying a middle ground between childhood and adulthood, between work and leisure, college students have been at the forefront of social change since the end of World War II. They were among the first in the U.S. to use the Internet for communication, recreation and file sharing, and the first to have regular broadband Internet access. Internet use first became widespread on college campuses in the 1990s, and in many ways the Internet is a direct outcome of university-based research. Yahoo!, Napster and many other Internet tools were created by college students, and, while the vast majority of college students are simply Internet users, as a group they can be considered pioneers. Studying college students’ Internet habits can yield insight into future online trends.

[ Full report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, September 15, 2002 ]

Courts vs democracy?

This review serves to learn from a scholar of constitutional law, not to judge his expertise, which I cannot possibly do. Robert Bork taught constitutional law at Yale University and served as Solicitor General and Acting Attorney General of the U.S. as well as a U.S. Court of Appeals judge. He is now a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. A readership especially interested in computing may like to know that Bork, well known as a conservative lawyer and, in 1987, nominated by President Reagant to the U.S. Supreme Court, worked on behalf of Netscape in its antitrust case and has filed memoranda in favor of a finding against Microsoft. He is repelled by, quoting him, "the impression that conservatives hold the view that companies can do no wrong - which is as foolish as believing that individuals can do no wrong, or that government can do no wrong. There's little justification in becoming yet another political sheep in yet another political herd." [From an interview with Dennis E. Powell for Linux Planet].

What compelled me to read Bork's book is the two quotations that introduce it. One is from the fourth president of the U.S., James Madison, which goes, "I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violence and sudden usurpation. The other is from a legal scholar, Robert Maynard Hutchins, who opined, "The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment." Our sentiments exactly.

The spread of democracy around the globe, is accompanied by deterioration from within. Bork identifies as the causes for this decay the rise of relatively unaccountable and powerful bureaucracies, the decline in belief in authoritative religions, the acceptance of an ethos of extreme individual autonomy, the influence of the mass media, the explosion in size of the academic intellectual class, and, most of all, the ascendancy of activist, ambitious, imperialistic judiciaries. He singles out "activist judges" as the principal culprits for it is they who aid and abet the other forces by enacting an agenda of the "cultural left." Bork supports this last assertion by an exhibit of legal developments in the United States as well as in Canada and in Israel, and on the international scene.

In Israel, especially, non-elected judges exert excessive power. "The Israeli Supreme Court is making itself the dominant institution in the nation, an authority no other court in the world has achieved." Whereas the nation started out as highly politicized, the Court gradually began to interpret statutes in terms of natural justice, "an amorphous concept designed to cut the Court loose from the restraints of positive law.... Even an activity of the greatest political character, such as the making of war or peace, is examinable by judicial criteria." The Court's omnipotence puts Israel's status as a democratic nation in question.

It is such amorphous concepts as that of natural justice that taint activist judges in the United States. Viewing the legal landscape internationally, he warns that the global influence of the United States causes the shortcomings of its legal practices to spill out around the world.

[Continued: Different people have ... ]

High-school students and the Internet

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August 26, 2002
The digital disconnect: The widening gap between Internet-savvy students and their schools
Introduction to a report on a study commissioned by the Pew Internet & American Life Project by Douglas Levin and Sousan Arafeh, American Institutes for Research

"Students report that there is a substantial disconnect between how they use the Internet for school and how they use the Internet during the school day and under teacher direction."

Using the Internet is the norm for today’s youth. A July 2002 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that three in five children under the age of 18 -- and more than 78% of children between the ages of 12 and 17 -- go online. Due in large part to high profile and sometime controversial education technology public policy initiatives, it is conventional wisdom that much of this use occurs in schools. Not surprisingly, one of the most common activities that youth report undertaking online is schoolwork. Yet, little is known about student use of the Internet for schoolwork or about their attitudes towards the broader learning that can take place online. Nor has there been much exploration of the consequences of those teenage views for educators, policy makers, and parents.

To address this issue, the American Institutes for Research was commissioned by the Pew Internet & American Life Project to conduct a qualitative study of the attitudes and behaviors of Internet-using public middle and high school students drawn from across the country. The study is based primarily on information gathered from 14 gender-balanced, racially diverse focus groups of 136 students, drawn from 36 different schools. The student experiences and attitudes revealed in the study’s focus groups were further supplemented by the stories of nearly 200 students who voluntarily submitted online essays about their use of the Internet for school.

Key findings from the study include the following:

Internet-savvy students rely on the Internet to help them do their schoolwork—and for good reason. Students told us they complete their schoolwork more quickly; they are less likely to get stymied by material they don’t understand; their papers and projects are more likely to draw upon up-to-date sources and state-of-the-art knowledge; and, they are better at juggling their school assignments and extracurricular activities when they use the Internet. In essence, they told us that the Internet helps them navigate their way through school and spend more time learning in depth about what is most important to them personally.

Internet-savvy students describe dozens of different education-related uses of the Internet. Virtually all use the Internet to do research to help them write papers or complete class work or homework assignments. Most students also correspond with other online classmates about school projects and upcoming tests and quizzes. Most share tips about favorite Web sites and pass along information about homework shortcuts and sites that are especially rich in content that fit their assignments. They also frequent Web sites pointed out to them by teachers --some of which had even been set up specifically for a particular school or class. They communicate with online teachers or tutors. They participate in online study groups. They even take online classes and develop Web sites or online educational experiences for use by others.

The way students think about the Internet in relation to their schooling is closely tied to the daily tasks and activities that make up their young lives. In that regard, students employ five different metaphors to explain how they use the Internet for school.

The Internet as virtual textbook and reference library. Much like a school-issued textbook or a traditional library, students think of the Internet as the place to find primary and secondary source material for their reports, presentations, and projects. This is perhaps the most commonly used metaphor of the Internet for school -- held by both students and many of their teachers alike.

The Internet as virtual tutor and study shortcut. Students think of the Internet as one way to receive instruction about material that interests them or about which they are confused. Others view the Internet as a way to complete their schoolwork as quickly and painlessly as possible, with minimal effort and minimal engagement. For some, this includes viewing the Internet as a mechanism to plagiarize material or otherwise cheat.

The Internet as virtual study group. Students think of the Internet as an important way to collaborate on project work with classmates, study for tests and quizzes, and trade class notes and observations.

The Internet as virtual guidance counselor. Students look to the Internet for guidance about life decisions as they relate to school, careers, and postsecondary education.

The Internet as virtual locker, backpack, and notebook. Students think of the Internet as a place to store their important school-related materials and as a way to transport their books and papers from place to place. Online tools allow them to keep track of their class schedule, syllabi, assignments, notes, and papers.

[ Full report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, August 14, 2002 ]

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