Weaving information: Students' use of the Internet to find information

As access to information via the Internet has become a priority for many school districts, the need for students to be able to find and select information from the Internet has also grown in importance. The purpose of this study was to examine carefully students' experiences finding information on the Internet. It includes observations of what students did during class, conversations with them and their finished assignments as well as interviews with the students and their teacher. This study identified influences on the students' searching behavior, and their ability to search for, evaluate and select appropriate information. Barriers to the students finding information included: student's mental model of the Internet, student's background knowledge of the subject, the varied content of the Web pages, non-standard interface to the content, and problems caused by the technology (hardware and software).;This research is a case study of middle school students using the Internet. In order to examine the interdependence of the influences outlined above, it is important to look at the teacher and the students in their environment. Having observational data from a classroom during the period 1995--1998 at the beginning of the Internet's introduction to education is useful for its historical value as well as for the light it sheds on emerging practice. It is especially important as we consider how introduction of something as complex as the Internet into a classroom provides new affordances for and limitations to the educational process. For the Internet is not just a tool or a source of information, it enlarges the educational environment in new and unexplored ways. This study provides data that contribute to our understanding of the Internet phenomenon generally, and that can help in planning future use of the Internet in schools, as well as raise questions for further study.