October 26, 1996

Study Shows Value of Wired Classroom

By PAMELA MENDELS

tudents who use online material in some settings may perform better than those who are not plugged into the Internet, according to a new study, arguably the first to take a close look at the effect of online work on learning.

Related Articles Weighing Costs of Internet Access for Every School, Library (Oct. 21) SPECIAL REPORT: THE WIRED CLASSROOM Union City: Computers and School Reform (Oct. 20) Nationwide, Net Days Wire U.S. Schools (Oct. 19) Not Everyone Is Eager to Jump on the Net-Day Bandwagon (Oct.19)

Nonetheless, education experts as well as the director of the study say that much more research needs to be done before there is conclusive evidence that the Internet is an unqualified boon to the classroom.

And some experts who believe that the educational value of the computer has been exaggerated remain unconvinced of the teaching powers of cyberspace.

The issue of online access in the classroom has taken center stage recently as schools across the country race to install Internet connections through volunteer NetDay events this fall. Communities have been told by everyone from business spokesmen to President Clinton that schools need to be wired if students today are to be able to compete for 21st century jobs demanding computer literacy.

But despite the zeal for wiring schools, there has been little hard research to date documenting the benefits of the Internet for education.

The study, released last week, compared the final assignments prepared by two groups of children studying the civil rights movement, one with access to online research information, the other without. The study found that, in general, the students with access to online resources turned in better work.

As a result, "I am encouraged that online use can provide some benefits to students that they would not otherwise have," said Robert D. Hughes, research coordinator for the project. Hughes is also director of family and community literacy for the organization that conducted the study, the Center for Applied Special Technology, a Peabody, Mass.- based not-for-profit educational research group.

The study was sponsored by Scholastic Network and the Council of Great City Schools, but only the Center for Applied Special Technology had a hand in the research.

Experts in technology and education say that research so far on the learning impact of online access has been sparse, in large part because the Internet is still so young. Robert O. McClintock, director of the Institute for Learning Technologies at Teachers College of Columbia University in New York City, said that the new study could well be the first carefully executed research focusing on the effects of online access, as opposed to other technologies, in education.

But although McClintock, a proponent of online use in the classroom, said that he was "gratified" by the results of the study, he cautioned that they should be viewed as a first indication, not a definitive piece of evidence, that the Internet has benefits for students.

"The conclusion that on the basis of that one study, one can say the Internet facilitates or improves the quality of education for students is building a big conclusion on a narrow base," McClintock said. "I'd like to see more serious research. It is a well-done study in its terms, but there is a lot more to be done before we know the effect of the Internet on education."

It is a well-done study in its terms, but there is a lot more to be done before we know the effect of the Internet on education. Robert O. McClintock Director, Institute for Learning Technologies

Thomas K. Glennan, who has studied the use of computers in schools in a report for RAND, the policy research institution where he serves as senior advisor for education policy, said that similar studies needed to be undertaken to determine what effect, if any, Internet access has on science, math and other disciplines, not just social studies. "You want to build up a set of those studies whose results are quite consistent with one another," he said.

Other experts, meanwhile, say that studies focusing on Internet benefits for education are misguided because they assume that the sorts of skills children can gain from cyberspace are educationally worthwhile. These critics say, among other things, that courses incorporating Internet use place a too-heavy emphasis on data collection and comparison, an activity that may be particularly inappropriate for young learners.

Moreover, said Steven L. Talbott, author of The Future Does Not Compute -- Transcending the Machines in Our Midst, no computer can teach as effectively as a human being. He warned that placing a heavy emphasis on machinery in the classroom would be inevitably to diminish the role of the teacher.

"The teacher used to be criticized for being a technician, for simply shoveling stuff into a student," Talbott said. "Now we let the shoveling come out of data bases and the teacher is very explicitly a technician."

Whatever the debate, the study remains a first step in investigating the Internet's role in schools.

The study tracked 500 students, fourth and sixth graders in 28 classrooms from mostly poor neighborhoods in seven cities around the United States, as they participated early this year in a two-month social studies program focusing on civil rights.

All the children used the same course of study and were encouraged to use multimedia reference materials and video tapes. Only one group, however, had access to information online, through wired computers that were placed in their classroom. At the end of the course, students, divided into small groups, were required to create a project that would demonstrate what they had learned.

A teacher not affiliated with the study then rated the projects, measuring them for nine different skills, everything from accuracy of information presented to demonstration of insight into a problem. On average, in all nine categories, the students who had used online resources, ranging from the World Wide Web to Scholastic Network to e-mail, turned in better assignments. And in five areas, the differences were statistically significant.

Hughes, the project's research coordinator, said that he was especially struck by the difference in one category: presentation of a full picture. In this area, students with online resources scored, on average, 51 percent better than their non-wired peers.

"I think students should be able to do more than find information," Hughes said. "They should be able to process it and present it in a way that shows they understand its implications. When they can show that, they are doing powerful levels of learning."

Hughes said that much more work needed to be done to determine the best way the new technology could be employed in a classroom setting.

"We need to know what kind of training teachers need," he said, "and how to adapt the traditional curriculum to take advantage of online use."

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• Executive summary of the report

• Center for Applied Special Technology

• Steve Talbott's views of computers in education

Pamela Mendels at mendels@nytimes.com welcomes your comments and suggestions.