Class Experiment on use of Internet in Classroom - Kenya

Class Experiment on Internet in usage in class by secondary school students

In my school we had new software installed in the computer lab. The software allowed the teacher to control the students PCs from one location which we would call the “teacher control centre” (TCC). The TCC allowed the teacher to view all the students’ workstations and even take over the control of the students PC without the teacher having to physically move to the particular student. The students were not informed of the features of the newly installed software.

I sampled a group of students from form 3, they fell in the age bracket of (15-16) years. They were allowed an uninterrupted 1 hour session to browse the Internet; all the while I kept an eye on the TCC, monitoring what each group was doing.

Observation

 I did not give them any prior information on what websites to visit, within 5 minutes, of the twenty 21 computers that we had in the room (see figure 1), 11 had already logged in to a social website; facebook, 4 were on youtube, 3 were on popular European soccer clubs 1 was on an entertainment site 1 was on adult site and 1 was still googling. The computers were shared between 2 students and about 4 were shared by 3 students.

After 1 hour, I blocked the popular SNS and none of the computers could access it. I noted that a group of students affected were getting irritated and they tried logging into other sites, next I blocked youtube, the irritation now became more evident as the noise levels in the lab was raised. I next moved to block the sites of popular European teams, and the reaction was almost instantaneous, some students clicked and others started peeping at others screens, one student was even courageous to come forward and tell me that the net was not working. I feigned ignorance and told him to try other sites, I even suggested in passing.”…..try educational sites “.  The students who had initially taken over the control of the computer in their work-station gave up the mice and the keyboard and they became passive participants.

For the next 1 hour I observed that students were keen to search on educational materials in science, history, computing, career opportunities and institutions of higher learning. See the table below

Activity by the students on the Internet (Sites visited)	No. of computers observed	Activity on the students monitors after blocking “facebook”	Activity on the students monitors after blocking “Youtube”	Activity on the students monitors after blocking “Soccer teams site”
Facebook Youtube European Soccer teams Entertainment sites Adult sites Others (Google, educational sites etc)	11 4 3 1 1 1	- 9 4 3 2 4	- - 5 2 1 13	- - - 2 1 18
Total	21	21	21	21

It was very evident that social networking services (SNS) such as facebook is very popular with students. It was not possible to establish the number of students who had registered on facebook. 

Of particular concern were the students who visited the adult sites. In spite of several posters displayed on the wall, and verbal instruction given to the students, some still went ahead and browsed the adult sites. I sought to know where they had got information about those sites, and the response was almost instantaneous; “From friends”. Interestingly almost all the students knew the code name of the adult sites “gwati”. This is a clearer indicator that peer influence plays a big role in motivating the students on visiting the adult sites.

Conclusion

The above case study should however not be used to make a generalized conclusion that the same effect would be observed in a different set –up say for example a girl school, or a rural school. A more comprehensive study would probably yield different results although its only a slight deviation that would be expected.

This clearly demonstrated that, students when left on their own to use the internet will only engage in areas that seem to entertain and socialize.  Proper supervision, control and guidance will help the students unlock their potential in looking for information that will have direct impact on their academic life. Further when 2 or more students share a computer, they are more creative in terms of the information that they look search for in the net.

As pointed out, Internet appears to have some educational effects on children’s attitude towards learning. For example, Clifford Stoll(2000) argues that multimedia systems such as computers or Internet may lower or decrease children’s problem-solving ability, intellectual curiosity and motivation for learning.

However, this can be overturned by offering guided supervision to the students on the use of the Internet.

Further, implementation of “Information Moral education” is as important as using an interactive hands-on approach to moral learning. Teachers and educators should emphasize the need to balance both the positive and negative aspects of ICT.