Survey Finds Wired Youth
Do Most Research Online
Seventy-one percent of American middle- and high-school students who use the Internet looked mainly to online sources for their last big research papers, according to The Internet and Education, a study released September 1 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. “For many teens, the Internet has replaced the library as the primary tool for doing research for significant projects,” the study notes; only 24% of the 754 12–17-year-olds surveyed had relied mostly on libraries for recent assignments.
However, certain libraries can find a glimmer of positive news in the report: In its analysis of aggregate or portal sites, the Pew study singles out the Salt Lake County Library System’s Kids’ Pages as one of the best on the Web.
Respondents most often mentioned “the ease and speed of online research” as its main advantage over libraries. The study also revealed that 41% collaborate with their peers through e-mail and instant messaging. Of course, ease and speed are not always good things: 18% of respondents admitted knowing someone that had plagiarized on an assignment or test because “cutting and pasting text from a Web site…is effortless,” the study noted.
Posted September 10, 2001.
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