Many teachers lag behind Net-savvy students

Ten years ago, when my son Will was in first grade, we noticed he was spending a great deal of time at his
elementary school computer lab. My wife, Patti, complained to the teacher because she felt that Will had
enough computer access at home and needed to focus his school time on basic skills such as reading and
writing. It was then that the teacher told Patti that Will’s presence in the lab was more for her benefit than his.
“I need his help,” she admitted.

By Larry Magid
Special to the Mercury News

In the ensuing decade, teachers in this area have come a long way. Virtually all of Will’s current teachers at
Gunn High School in Palo Alto are at least somewhat literate in computers and the Internet. Many are quite
savvy. Still, several Silicon Valley teachers I spoke with admit that it’s not uncommon for their students to
know more than they do. Sara Good, a math teacher at Mountain View High School, has plenty of experience
with technology yet, “if I have something complicated I want done on the computer,” she said, “I’ll ask my
students and within 30 seconds one of them will have done it for me.”

And why not? It helps build up the students self-esteem to know that their technology skills are useful and
appreciated.

But there is a difference between calling on students’ expertise to help out a teacher vs. a teacher who simply
isn’t knowledgeable or supportive of technology or the use of the Internet.

Nationally, we still have a ways to go. A study released this month by the Pew Internet & American Life
Project (www.pewinternet.org) showed that students, in general, are often more Internet savvy than their
teachers. The report, “The Digital Disconnect: The widening gap between Internet-savvy students and their
schools,” found that, nationally, about 60 percent of all children and more than 78 percent of children between
the ages of 12 and 17 go online. (The study did not go into detail about how much time they spent online.)

Yet, the authors discovered “a substantial disconnect” between how students use the Internet for school
work at home and how they use it during the school day and under teacher direction. For the most part,
according to the study, “students’ educational use of the Internet occurs outside of the school day, outside of
the school building (and) outside the direction of teachers.”

The most Internet-savvy students complained that “teachers don’t use the Internet in class or create
assignments that exploit great Web material.” Even those schools that encourage the use of technology,
according to the study, frustrate some students who complain that “many of the Internet-based educational
assignments they receive consist of little more than completing digitized worksheets.”

The study says that students want “better coordination of out-of-school educational use of the Internet with
classroom activities” and an increase in “professional development and technical assistance for teachers.”

All of this represents a major shift from previous generations. If you think about the educational tools that
were available just 25 year ago, it’s hard to imagine students being more sophisticated than teachers. I can’t
recall teachers at my school asking kids how to use the library or open books. Teachers would sometime have
kids sharpen pencils, erase the chalk board or run the projector because it got them involved and saved the
teacher time, not because the teacher was unable to carry out those tasks.

What we have is another generation gap. Most kids are digital, and most adults are analog. As with any
generalization, there are exceptions but for most teachers I’ve spoken with, the Internet is a tool, not a
lifestyle. It’s something they access from a machine perched inside a classroom, library or home. For students
it’s much more. It isn’t a machine at the library, it is the library. It’s almost a matter of instinct. Ask a teacher
or parent to look up a phone number and, chances are, they’ll find a phone book. Ask a kid and they’ll go to
Switchboard.com or another directory Web page.

The report found that students are using the Internet as a “virtual textbook,” “virtual tutor,” “virtual
guidance counselor” and “virtual study group.” The study found that Internet-savvy kids think of the
Internet as “the place to find primary and secondary material for their reports,” as well as “an important
way to collaborate on project work with classmates,” or to “study for tests and quizzes and trade class notes
and observations.” Students even “look to the Internet for guidance about life decisions as they relate to
school, careers and postsecondary education.”

So what does all this mean? On the positive side it means that students are making productive use of
technology almost regardless of how well it’s being used at school. But there is a downside. Kids may be more
tech-savvy than their teachers and parents, but they’re not usually more educated, wiser or more
discriminating.

The report points out that students are often overwhelmed by the material they find online and are on their
own to distinguish between the gems and the germs. Students are also frustrated by the “frequent
interruptions by online advertisements.” I’m not opposed to advertising; I think it’s extremely sad — perhaps
even criminal — that our kids have to put up with porn ads and obnoxious pop-ups as part of the cost of doing
their school work.

This points to the fact that there is a role for teachers, parents and other concerned adults in the educational
lives of our children. But there needs to be a better connection between how kids learn in school and how they
learn at home.

I’m not suggesting that teachers drop their other activities to become Internet addicts, but the research does
point to the need for increased involvement by teachers — and perhaps parents — in helping to shape and
direct students’ Internet activities. It also calls for a national policy discussion about content on the Internet.

Readers of this column know that I’m opposed to censorship, but I do think it’s time that we started putting
more resources into non-commercial Web sites that serve the educational needs of children.

If federal and state governments can fund libraries, universities and even jump start the Public Broadcasting
System, they also can help build a green space in cyberspace to foster and support learning. Instead of
concentrating simply on regulating the Net to keep the kids out of bad places, let’s concentrate our resources
on building the Net and a professional educational community that understands and supports it.

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