Researchers find kids need better online academic skills
by Beth Krane - November 13, 2006
When researchers in the Neag School of Education asked 25 seventh-graders from middle schools across the state to review a web site devoted to a fictitious endangered species, the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, the results troubled them:
* All 25 students fell for the Internet hoax;
* All but one of the 25 rated the site as “very credible;”
* Most struggled when asked to produce proof – or even clues – that the web site was false, even after the UConn researchers told them it was; and
* Some of the students still insisted vehemently that the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus really exists.
The students – identified as their schools' most proficient online readers – are taking part in a federal research project, funded by a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
The project is currently underway in six Connecticut middle schools.
“These results are cause for serious concern,” says the project's lead researcher, Don Leu, who holds the John and Maria Neag Chair in Literacy and Technology at UConn, “because anyone can publish anything on the Internet and today's students are not prepared to critically evaluate the information they find there.”
Leu also co-directs the New Literacies Research Lab, the only academic research center of its kind nationwide.
He established it when he arrived at UConn five years ago.
“At the New Literacies Research Lab, we see the Internet as this generation's defining technology for information, communication, and learning,” says Leu.
But, he adds, classroom instruction in online reading and other “new literacies” is “woefully lacking.”
Douglas Hartman, professor of education, and Julie Coiro, assistant research professor of education, are the lab's other co-directors.
The lab's full research team, which includes a past president of the National Reading Conference and the editor of the Journal of Literacy Research , comprises four professors, six doctoral students, three undergraduate students, and a project coordinator.
Members of the team say that reading comprehension on the Internet requires more complex skills than simply reading a book.
Reading search engine results; critically evaluating the veracity of online information; synthesizing information from various hyperlinks; and communicating clearly via e-mail, are among the many new reading and writing skills required online.
The aim of the federal study, conducted in collaboration with researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina, is to refine and pilot a model for teaching these new online skills to adolescent students living in poverty, who are at risk of dropping out and may not have access to the latest technology at home.
“We believe proficiency in online reading has the potential to boost gains not only in English, but also in math and the sciences, and to reduce school drop-out rates,” Hartman says.
However, most schools have not had the time or resources to integrate effective online literacy skills into their curriculum, he adds.
And they don't have the incentive: There's not a single state in the country that formally evaluates students' online skills or literacies the way they assess traditional book reading, says Leu. |
