Searching for Information on-Line and off-Line: Gender Differences among Middle School Students

There has been a national call for increased use of computers and technology in schools. Currently, however, little is known about how students use and learn from these new technologies. This study examines how students search for, browse, and learn specific information when performing an on-line (Web) versus an off-line (Library) search. Twenty-eight eighth grade students between the ages of 13 and 14 were randomly assigned to one of the two search conditions (Web or Library), each balanced by gender. All participants significantly improved their knowledge of the target question (“How do mosquitoes find their prey?”) from pre-test to post-test. The Web was superior to the Library in supporting students search for target-specific information. There was an interaction in which boys in the Web condition learned more target-specific and target-related information than the girls. Several related findings are explored which may help explain this result.

[1]  Rafi Nachmias,et al.  Information and Communication Technologies Usage by Students in an Israeli High School: Equity, Gender, and Inside/Outside School Learning Issues , 2001, Education and Information Technologies.

[2]  Jenny K. Holder,et al.  A visit to the information mall: Web searching behavior of high school students , 1999 .

[3]  Phyllis Schumacher,et al.  Gender, Internet and computer attitudes and experiences , 2001, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[4]  Jerry Andriessen,et al.  Where is Education Heading and How About AI , 1999 .

[5]  John Todman,et al.  Primary children and teachers' attitudes to computers , 1993 .

[6]  Diane Nahl.  Learning the Internet and the Structure of Information Behavior , 1998, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[7]  Djordje M. Kadijevich,et al.  Gender Differences in Computer Attitude among Ninth-Grade Students , 2000 .

[8]  Herre van Oostendorp,et al.  Cognitive Aspects of Electronic Text Processing , 1996 .

[9]  Tracy Camp,et al.  The incredible shrinking pipeline , 1997, CACM.

[10]  Richard E. Mayer,et al.  Gender differences in responding to open-ended problem-solving questions , 1999 .

[11]  Ananda Mitra,et al.  Gender and Computer Use in an Academic Institution: Report from a Longitudinal Study , 2000 .

[12]  Gregory K. W. K. Chung,et al.  Children's Internet Searching on Complex Problems: Performance and Process Analyses , 1998, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[13]  Dania Bilal,et al.  Web Search Engines for Children: A Comparative Study and Performance Evaluation of "Yahooligans!,""Ask Jeeves for Kids," and "Super Snooper.". , 1999 .

[14]  M. Linn,et al.  Gender, Mathematics, and Science , 1989 .

[15]  Jamshid Beheshti,et al.  The web as a classroom resource: Reactions from the users , 2000, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[16]  R. Owston.  Research news and Comment: The World Wide Web: A Technology to Enhance Teaching and Learning? , 1997 .

[17]  Karen Littleton,et al.  Gender and Social Comparison Effects in Computer-Based Problem Solving. , 2000 .

[18]  Ron Owston,et al.  Research news and Comment: The World Wide Web: A Technology to Enhance Teaching and Learning? , 1997 .

[19]  Dania Bilal,et al.  Children's use of the Yahooligans! Web search engine: I. Cognitive, physical, and affective behaviors on fact-based search tasks , 2000, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[20]  BilalDania.  Children's use of the Yahooligans! Web search engine , 2001 .