Research Report: Learning to Become Internet Literate
By: Marissa Kuroda
G18, Spring 2003
The Internet
is an incredible device for modern technology and information literacy. Learning to become Internet Literate can be
intimidating. It is important to be
Internet Literate to retrieve information and to keep up with modern
technology. I have found three very
basic phases that some students have experienced: 1) Frustration and confusion 2) Dealing with
difficulties
3)
Overcoming difficulties and Motivation/Peace
Phase I: Frustration & Confusion
When
learning something new, we may tend to feel frustrated or confused. The frustration usually results from people
being intimidated by computers.
Frustration may lead to other emotions such as anxiety, stress, and
feeling overwhelmed. We tend to “fear
the unknown”. We try to identify with
the problem and overcome technophobia.
“Frustration is a very common emotion experienced by Internet users.”
“My frustration rooted from the fact that I was intimidated by computers and never took the time to fully familiarize myself with them. I was required to know such an overwhelming amount of information about them in order to complete my assignments for this class. Not only was I frustrated with the requirements, but more honestly, I was disappointed in myself for not already understanding the information.”
“Frustration is the most common developmental phase that most students experience when ‘learning the Internet’. From this emotion stem others such as anxiety, stress, and the sense of feeling overwhelmed.”
Aiko:
“Learning something new is not easy and difficulties will arise…Difficulties that one deals with in Phase I (Experiencing Difficulties phase) come in the form of confusion experienced from knowing little or nothing about what one is learning and/or frustration from putting new learning into practice. For example, learning to upload files to the Internet was a source of confusion for me because I was not familiar with the term. I knew what downloading was, but I didn’t know that its counterpart, uploading even existed. At times I became frustrated with uploading because I would forget a step and then I would have to start over.”
“I think with everything that’s new, we all feel that emotion of “frustration & anger”! When learning something new, we may not get the hang of it the very first time, with the exception of a very few, and we become angry at ourselves, the computer terminals, the teacher, and just the world! I’m speaking from experience! There were times when I felt like throwing the computer terminal on the ground because it wasn’t doing what it was supposed to do, so I thought.”
1) Describe the students’ points of views: Frustration is a very common developmental
phase that most students experience when learning how to use the Internet. The students experienced frustration and
confusion because they were learning something new. One of the students (Megan) was intimidated
by computers and she never took the time to fully familiarize herself with
them. She felt overwhelmed and
disappointed in herself. According the Aiko, learning something new is not easy and difficulties
will arise. You will experience
confusion from knowing little or nothing about the Internet and computers.
2) My reaction; My experiences
this semester: During the course of this
semester, I was frustrated and confused at first on how am I going to do the
assignments. I felt overwhelmed with a
sense of insecurity about all the new things I had to learn about the
Internet. I was especially confused and
frustrated with the notion of “uploading my documents and homepage”. I am somewhat familiar with making webpages, but this was different. Usually I would use HTML and Java scripts to
make my webpages on my geocities server. For this class, my homepage had to be on the
PSY459 directory and under another completely different server, so I didn’t use
my HTML skills. I used the Netscape Navigator
composer program to design my homepage.
This webpage design program is very different and I had to learn
something new. It was also my first time
having to upload documents to a class directory. I have uploaded other things like songs or
pictures, but not documents. I was very
frustrated and confused during this whole process of trying to figure
everything out.
3) Explanation:
This first phase of experiencing frustration and confusion is an
external phase. In this first phase, you
affectively start to learn better self-efficacy expectations and you try to
overcome technophobia. Cognitively, one
must learn to memorize items pertaining to online skills. They must learn to acquire some Internet
knowledge. This would be the beginner’s
or novice stage in which they are in the process of learning. Affectively, the students must learn to
achieve focus on the Internet. They must
learn to be motivated, accurate, and persistent. Behaviorally, the students will behave as
active learners. The first few stages of
learning and achieving new knowledge will usually always be quite difficult and
confusing.
Phase II: Dealing with
difficulties
There
are ways to deal with difficulties.
Perseverance is key. Realize that the task to accomplish is not
going to disappear. Learn to cope and
don’t be afraid to ask for help from others.
Don’t give up! Students must
learn to postpone quitting and to eliminate procrastinating. A student can be reinforced through self-pep
talks and social identification with other students who had experienced similar
difficulties. Familiarizing yourself
with the content and asking questions will help you better process the
difficulties that you encounter.
Students must participate in interactive involvement. The students must become engaged affectively
and cognitively, by proceeding with self-confidence to gain mastery in Internet
navigation and file management techniques.
Students may also start doing some generational modeling.
Aiko:
“Don’t let difficulties stop you in your tracks. Overcome them with perseverance. Keep on trying, don’t be afraid to ask questions , keep at
it, you’re bound to get it.”
“There is a decision to be made regarding those difficulties. To do or not to do, that is the question here. Does one give up in the face of difficulties or does one persevere and keep trying, gaining confidences with each successful attempt, while adjusting to failed attempts…There were many times when I became so confused and frustrated that I was tempted to give up, but I decided not to. I made a conscious decision each time I attempted a task for this course to persist through difficulties”.
“It is important to relieve as much ‘anxiety, stress, and pressure’ as
possible in order to continue with the project”.
“The primary cause of the initial stress was simply a fear of the unknown...It is therefore important to allow enough time after the completion of the actual project and before the due date to explore different ways to improve the overall appearance of one’s web site.”
“If you are one that is really trying to learn but felt as if you have
been defeated by a computer earlier on, checking out and even copying other people’s pages and putting
your own information on them will help you learn the whole process”
1) Describe the students’ points of views: The students kept on trying and dealt with
the difficulties. They overcame with
perseverance. According to Aiko, it’s either you do the assignment and get it out of
the way or you procrastinate or give up.
She persisted through the difficulties and didn’t give up in the face of
difficulties. Megan dealt with her
difficulties by trying to relieve anxiety and stress while working on the
assignment. She also allowed for enough
time after completing the assignment to improve her website. In other words, she didn’t
procrastinate. She didn’t wait until the
last minute to get things done. As for
Michelle she dealt with her difficulties by copying other people’s pages and
gaining inspiration to learn the whole process.
These students all
had their own ways of coping and dealing with the difficulties
encountered.
2) My reaction; My experiences
this semester: I dealt with my
difficulties in a very similar way to these above 3 students. I dealt with my frustration and confusion by
asking Dr. James a lot of questions. I
also asked people I knew who were Internet Literate to help me out with using
FTP uploading program and search engines online. I also looked at some of the previous
generational papers and printed them out to keep and look at as a
reference. I read the instructions for
the research report many times and made sure I understood what to do. Last but not least, I didn’t procrastinate!
3) Explanation:
This phase is related to becoming self-directed autonomous learners
through generational modeling.
Affectively, the students oriented themselves and learned to maintain a
sustained effort. Critically, the
students engaged in problem solving and analysis procedures. Behaviorally, the students will monitor their
efforts and act as a lifelong learner.
Cognitively, the students will acquire style of reasoning and access the
criteria pertaining to learning to becoming Internet literate.
Phase III: Overcoming
Difficulties & Motivation & Peace
After
you complete the task, you will feel a great sense of accomplishment. Once you become Internet Literate, you will
feel motivated and at peace. You will
want to share what you have experienced to others in need of help. Students at this phase will show loyalty
towards what they have learned. They
will be more inventive and innovative.
The students will have begun to accept the Internet.
“Once you see your potential, you feel like you want to do more and even
try new things on the Internet. Once you surf around and feel more confident,
you can learn more about the Internet and learn newer and better techniques.”
“The fact that you overcame the whole process is a great feeling. It gives you the feeling that you can do almost anything if you persevere.
Aiko:
“Once you have overcome your difficulties and become practiced in your information search behavior, you’ll want to share what you have experienced to others, especially to those who will be going through the same experiences as you.”
“Furthermore, solutions may be easier to discover with a clear mind,
free of hostility and the help of another classmate.”
1) Describe the students’ points of views: The students feel a sense of peace and
motivation because they have realized their potential. Some students may even want to share what
they have experience with others who will go through the same experiences as
you. Students are able to overcome their
difficulties through the help of a classmate and by having a clear mind.
2) My reaction; My experiences
this semester: After I completed making
my homepage for this class and learning how to upload my documents, I felt a
great sense of peace and motivation to help others. I would try to help my classmates with any
questions they may have pertaining to the reports, making a homepage, or using
the Internet. I can totally relate to the frustration and anxiety that some of
the other students were experiencing. I
felt good being of help to the ones who needed it. I also became more motivated to do better and
when I had the free time, I would try to improve my homepage or my reports.
3) Explanation:
The final phase of overcoming difficulties is the final phase in which
the student will affectively acquire balance between inventiveness and service
orientation. Cognitively, the students
will show their creativity from what they have learned. Behaviorally, the students will have achieved excellence and may pass
on the skills that they have learned. Affectively,
the students will gain a sense of work attitudes and ethics of appropriate
behavior in being Internet literate.
Part II:
Self-Observation Data
A) First of all, I would like to
invite you to explore the G18
Forms that I filled out while doing searches on the Internet for this
Research Report. These forms
are valuable because I derived my self-observation data from these forms.
Please review the forms for a while.
B) The data that
was gathered while completing the forum
and Bibliography
assignments of this course. The forums
are weekly postings on the web. Each
week a student posts at least two messages.
The first post is a research message about one of the specified topics
from Dr. James. The second post is a
response message to another student’s post.
The annotated bibliography consists of a summary and evaluation of web
articles used for the weekly forum discussions.
Both the forum discussion and annotated bibliography assignments
required some basic information literacy.
While
completing the forum discussions and annotated bibliography assignments, I
needed to also complete the G18 forms for ten different searches on the
Internet. I felt that filling out these
forms were quite time-consuming and boring, but the data helped me analyze my
time spent on the Internet. I was quite
upset in having to fill out these forms in the beginning, but after a while I
was used to it. I was upset because I
felt that it was very time-consuming. In
conclusion, the data represents my search processes.
C) The following table contains most of the items that
are on the G18 form along with the average score for each of those items.
ITEM |
DATA |
AVERAGE |
|
What kind of mood are you in? |
6,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8 |
7.8 |
|
How long did the task actually take? |
120,90,60,54,45,75,75,75,75,36 |
70.5 |
|
How long do you think this task will actually take today
(in minutes) |
60,60,45,20,20,20,20,20,20,20 |
30.5 |
|
If you compare this task to other search tasks you’ve
done, how long should it take in your opinion? |
6,5,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2 |
2.7 |
|
How important to you is this task today? |
5,7,5,5,5,8,8,8,8,8 |
6.7 |
|
How upset would you be if you found nothing today? |
5,7,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5 |
5.2 |
|
How sure are you that you will succeed in this task? |
6,8,7,6,6,9,9,9,9,9 |
7.8 |
|
How likely is it that you will become good at this type of
task? |
7,8,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,7 |
7.1 |
|
How much luck do you have in searching in comparison to
other types of tasks? |
6,7,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6 |
6.1 |
|
How motivated are you to keep on trying until you succeed? |
7,8,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,7 |
7.1 |
|
Computers and search engines make it easy for people to
find what they’re looking for. |
7,9,8,7,7,7,7,7,7,7 |
7.3 |
|
How likely is it that there will be something specific on
what you’re looking for? |
5,7,5,5,5,9,9,9,9,9 |
7.2 |
|
How much effort do you expect this task to take today? |
3,5,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3 |
3.2 |
|
How irritated did you feel in today’s search task? |
5,4,1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2 |
2.4 |
|
How anxious did you feel in today’s search task? |
2,3,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2 |
2.1 |
|
How frustrated did you feel in today’s search task? |
4,3,3,4,4,4,4,4,4,4 |
3.8 |
|
How much rage did you feel in today’s search task? |
1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 |
1 |
|
How much effort did this task require of you today
compared to other search tasks in your experience? |
2,4,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2 |
2.2 |
|
How would you evaluate the relevance of what you found
today? |
7,6,8,7,7,7,7,7,7,7 |
7 |
|
How supportive are you of the search engine or computer
facility today? |
8,7,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8 |
7.9 |
|
How easy was it to use the search engine or computer
facility you used today? |
1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 |
1 |
|
If you compare this task to other search tasks you’ve
done, how long did it take? |
7,4,4,2,2,2,2,2,2,2 |
2.9 |
|
Overall how would you rate the success of today’s search
session? |
7,7,7,7,7,7,7,8,8,7 |
7.2 |
According
to the averages, I was able to predict about how long a search session would take
me. There were some discrepancies in my
data. For example, in the first session
I predicted that it will take only 1 hour to complete my online search, but it
actually took me two hours. As time
progressed and I got more used to searching online, I predicted that my search
sessions will take about twenty-minutes, but the actual amount of time it took
was thirty-six to seventy-five minutes.
Eventually it took me less time to search online because I was more comfortable
using the Internet search engines. I
learned to be more Internet literate through the process of these assignments.
During
the online searches, I felt very little rage because I am used to searching for
articles on web search engines. The
Internet is where I usually find most of my information and articles used for
my own research or for more other academic classes. I also didn’t feel much anxiety either
because before taking this class, I already was familiar with using the
Internet. In doing research of any kind
or just for finding some information online, I believe that the Internet is a
very useful tool. Living in a modern
technology society, we must be somewhat “Internet Literate”. Therefore, I am very supportive of search
engines on the Internet.
The
Internet world is a world of it’s own. Not only can you find articles for your
research topics, but you can also buy things online and book hotel
reservations, and also find dating partners through online dating services.
D) From the data, I conclude that I’ve been consistent
for the most part of my search sessions.
My overall mood (7.8) while doing these searches was pretty above
average. I’m usually in a good mood
unless I am not so enthusiastic about what I’m doing. I felt that these online search sessions were
quite interesting because I got to learn a lot.
I learned more on how to use search engines and how to be more aware of
the “good” versus “bad” content online.
On average the search sessions took about 70.5 minutes. I think that this average is sufficient
enough to allow for some quality research for a brief forum discussion. Usually I will just take about 30 minutes or
less to search online.
E) In comparison to the data of one of the G17 student
reports: Similarities/differences?
In Aiko’s research report, she had less discrepancy between how long she thin it will take her to complete the searches to how long it actually took. It showed in her data that it actually took about 53 minutes. She estimated that it will take about 52 minutes. She also didn’t take as long as me to search online because I took about 70.5 minutes. It also showed that she expected to make more of an effort than me. She rated an 8 on a scale of 1-10 (1 being the lowest), and I rated about a 3.2. Maybe I was more confident in finding something specific. Aiko also rated that the task will be more important to her. She rated the importance of the task an average of 8.11, while I rated it a 6.7. In the end, we both rated that search engines were pretty easy to use.
Part
III: The Psychology of Information
Literacy
A) Instructor's
article & "Threefold
self"
Summary
of Instructor’s article:
There
are three phases of internalizing learned online skills. Phase 1 is an external to phase
3 which is internal. The internal phase
is higher on the motivational hierarchy.
The Internal phase exerts more control over the lower or more external
items. Phase 1 is becoming information
literate through generational identification.
Phase 2 is becoming self-directed autonomous learners; and finally Phase
3 is exercising leadership and inventiveness.
The 3 phases corresponds to Beginner (Novice); Intermediate; and
Advanced stages. Each phase is also
marked by affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor
behaviors.
During
the initial phase of becoming Internet Literate, learners acquire the ability
to orient and focus on the most external elements of the task or
situation. The most external elements
involve maintaining self-confidence, acquiring disciplinary content, and acting
out membership status. Affectively a
student maintains self-confidence by eliminating procrastination and
identifying with other students who have gone through similar experiences. Cognitively a student acquires disciplinary
content by taking in what previous generations have written. Finally in the sensorimotor
phase, a student learns behaviors appropriate to that of a generational
member. A student will acquire
information literacy by identifying affectively, cognitively, and through sensorimotor processes with previous and current
generations.
While
students are going through Phases 1 and 2, they will simultaneously enter into
Phase 3. Phase 3 is when the student
will exercise leadership and inventiveness.
There is more of an interior involvement of loyalty that is involved in
this final phase. Affectively, the
students will feel a sense of loyalty and motivation. Cognitively, the students will show their
creativity. In the sensorimotor
phase, the students will have achieved information literacy.
Threefold
Self:
|
Affective: Distress
(Feeling) |
A stressful stimulus
(e.g., using the Internet) may cause one to feel negative or positive stress. |
|
Cognitive: Consider
(Thinking) |
Getting familiar with
the content |
|
Sensorimotor: Consequence (Behavior) |
Computer Literacy is
the final developmental phase of this learning process. |
B) How does my research report fit this
approach? Phases and examples from my data.
I
believe that in creating my home page and these reports, I have demonstrated
the 3 phases of becoming Internet literate.
In phase 1 in becoming information literate through generational
identification, I went through several stages.
Affectively, I overcame technophobia by realizing that other students
were experiencing the same feelings as me.
Cognitively, I gained some knowledge of how to do this research report
by modeling the other students’ reports.
In the sensorimotor stage, I began to
recognize my role as a student in this generational curriculum class.
In
phase 2 of becoming a self-directed autonomous learner through generational
modeling…I affectively learned to maintain sustained effort by valuing details
and completeness. Cognitively, I
acquired critical thinking skills by engaging in problem solving and analysis
procedures. In the sensorimotor
stage, I acted as a lifelong learner by following directions appropriately.
In
phase 3 of exercising leadership and practicing inventiveness through
generational loyalty…I affectively became service oriented and acquired the
motivation to be an innovator.
Cognitively, I showed my creativity by producing web pages that are
complex and original. In the sensorimotor stage, I achieved excellence by producing a
web site.
C) What is Information Literacy?
Information Literacy Competancy Standards for Higher Education
Information
literacy is a set of abilities that require individuals to “recognize when
information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use
effectively the needed information.”
Being information literate is increasingly important with rapid
technological change. One must learn to
be information learner. Being
information literate is common to all levels of education, learners
environments, and all disciplines.
An
information literate person is able to determine the extent of information that
is needed, access the needed information in an effective and efficient manner,
evaluate the information and its sources critically, incorporate selected
information into one’s knowledge base, and to use information effectively to
accomplish a specific purpose. Last but
not least, an information literate person must understand the economic, legal,
and social issues of information and also be able to access and use information
ethically and legally.
Information
literacy contributes to lifelong learning.
It also extends learning beyond formal classroom settings. Information literacy is usually the key
outcome for college students and is very important as individuals move into
their careers and increasing responsibilities in all areas of life.
D) Making the connection (Research Report, Generational
Curriculum, Information Literacy)
The goal of Information Literacy is obtained through the research report
fulfilling the principles of the Generational
Curriculum. By completing this
research report, it taught us how to evaluate the learning process of others
and one-self. It also teaches us hot to
evaluate our own data and the data of others.
Last but not least, it expanded the notion of “Information Literacy” and
being Internet Literate by reading other students’ previous reports and
articles on the web. This research
report was a great way to teach us how to critically evaluate relevant content
with careful thought, how to access information online, and how to employ the
information we found online.
The combination of the online community/classroom used in the
generational curriculum will effectively promote information literacy.