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=Examining Student Behaviors in Online Research= Sharon Waskow and Phyllis DiBianco Scarsdale Middle School / High School STI: New Literacies How has the Internet changed the way students do inquiry research and how does that impact my role as teacher of information literacy skills?**
 * The question we began with was:

In particular, we planned to focus on several sub-questions and issues.

As we discussed these broad questions we realized that we needed to still narrow our focus on specific behaviors that we could observe in the time available for this course. We then teased out some questions that would get us started. We worked with random 7th, 8th and high school students. We were interested in finding out: Do they click? If so, when and why? Is there a pattern? // Briefly describe how you went about exploring possible answers to your questions. // 1. We asked group of 8 students to read an online text from a database which contained hyperlinks. We did not specify how they should approach the information, but did tell them that we would be asking questions after their reading. ABC-CLIO American History website  The articles we used were: Protest Organizations Flower Power Generation Gap 2. We observed and noted their reading behaviors with an observation checklist: 3. After the reading we asked the following questions and took notes on what they said: 1. Do you usually read things straight through to get a good understanding of material? 2. Do you ever follow hyperlinks? If so when? 3. Do you find hyperlinks helpful when you want to learn about something? 4. Are hyperlinks distracting? 5. Do you usually print out information from the Internet as opposed to taking notes from the screen? (Sometimes,never, always) 6. Which do you prefer, reading information (for schoolwork) online or on paper? 7. Why do you prefer one over the other? // Provide some examples of the "answers" you found and your interpretations of what they might mean. // 1. No student clicked on hyperlinks. Reasons given: 2. Printing articles: One middle school student said she was about to go off the page she was on because she couldn’t find demographic information for her disease. A “Statistics” hyperlink was pointed out and it yielded the information she needed. It seems that the student didn’t make the connection between “statistics” and “demographics”. We took the opportunity to observe eighth grade students while they were engaged in research about a disease of their choosing. Their task was to find an article about a health issue and answer some basic questions in preparation for creating an informational brochure. The results here again revealed limited use of hyperlinks. One middle school student said she was about to go off the page she was on because she couldn’t find demographic information for her disease. A “Statistics” hyperlink was pointed out and it yielded the information she needed. It seems that the student didn’t make the connection between “statistics” and “demographics”. She looked at the hyperlink but didn't know what it offered. // Consider and describe in some way what your findings might mean and the implications they might have. // It occurred to us that the reading selection we used may have affected the results for two reasons. One, if the students were not interested in the protest movement of the 60’s they may not be motivated to click on hyperlinks in the body of the text or in the margins. Two, the fact that the reading was not part of a subject assignment for a class may have meant that participants took it less seriously.
 * Is the reading process different from a computer screen vs. print media?
 * Do students approach research differently when the Internet is available? How is it different from the “traditional” approach?
 * What can we learn about student habits to help us help them with research strategies?
 * What are typical student online reading behaviors?
 * How do students approach reading for information when they are online?
 * What do students do when an online document contains hypertext links?
 * Is there a preference for screen or paper printout?
 * Culture of Protest, 1960-1969 (Overview): Free Speech Movement **
 * || Reads text online all the way through || Returns to online text to click on hyperlinks || Clicks on hyperlinks within body of text as they come up || Clicks on hyperlinks in margins || Returns to main page after following links || Handwrites notes taken from the screen/word processes || Prints out text before reading || Highlights or writes in margins of printout ||
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 * Observations of Students: **
 * · I have a good vocabulary, those were just vocabulary words.
 * · You can tell what the hyperlinks are from the context
 * · I don't need to know any more.
 * · I never follow links.
 * · I click when I don't know what it means from the context, but I would finish reading first. It's like a book, I only look it up when I NEED to know.
 * · I never look at the hyperlinks in the margins.
 * If it's a long article I print it first.
 * I'm more comfortable reading from paper.
 * I don't like reading from the screen. (One student kept increasing and decreasing the size of the font.)
 * I find it distracting to read online.
 * It depends on what I am looking for. If it’s a quick fact I read online. I might print out if it’s a longer article.
 * I read online and printout.
 * I read online when I need the information for a paper or technology project. ..It’s easier to cut and paste.
 * Quotes: **
 * I only use them [hyperlinks] if I need more information.
 * The page had everything I needed to know so there is no reason to go further.
 * I generally don’t take hyperlinks because I’m not sure they will take me to reliable information.
 * I don’t look at or, click on hyperlinks in the margins.
 * I take notes on the computer because it is easier to cut and paste information.
 * Sometimes I print the information out and sometimes I read online. It depends on the assignment.
 * I usually copy and paste all the information I find for a school assignment into a word document and then print it out and take it home. If it’s just for my own interest I read it on the screen. (HS student)
 * I prefer to read text that I can keep in my hand; when using the hyperlinks, I like to see how many window I can open, it allows me to explore terms. Staying on track requires discipline and organizational skill. (HS student)
 * REFLECTIONS: **

** INTERPRETATIONS: ** From our observations and questioning we can make the following statements about student’s online reading behavior: Students say they click on hyperlinks when they __need to__ know more than the main text provides. (We saw little evidence of kids clicking on hyperlinks) Most students do not feel the need to go deeper or further into information. “I have what I need” was commonly stated. Students often thought hyperlinks in the text were definitions of terms. More often than not, they thought they could tell from the context what the word or term meant. There was no need to click on the link. Most of the students we observed ignored the hyperlinks in the margins and said they “never look there.” This was true for the online article we selected for them as well as for the health assignment which required them to look for information for a course. What and how students read online is driven by assignments. If they just need quick facts they are happy to read online. Whether kids print information out seems to be related to personal learning styles. Some print entire documents directly from a web site, with no regard for length, while others copy and paste the relevant sections into a new document. Whether of not kids take notes with word processing or by hand seems to depend on personal style as well as the assignment. Kids express a fondness for cutting and pasting information when they needed the information later for a technology outcome. In general students do not seem to regard hyperlinks as a means to deepening their knowledge. Also, they approach information seeking online as an exercise in getting “just what I need” and no more. The three dimensional feature of online information which hyperlinks provide is not being fully exploited by students.

** ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS AND QUESTIONS: ** We were surprised and somewhat dismayed that so few students used the hyperlinking capabilities on online articles for digging into information. We were operating with the assumption that kids click on hyperlinks regularly and are exploiting the three dimensional capabilities of online information. There seems to be a lack of curiosity and / or patience for “knowing more.” So much information is so readily available to students online, with the additional possibility of copying and pasting and we wonder if it is becoming easier to complete an assignment with minimal mental intervention. How can we design research experiences that would require the steps for thoughtful inquiry, evaluation of resources, and personal student assessment of their own work along the way?

Garland, Kate. “CRT Monitors: Do They Interfere with Learning.” __Behaviour and__ __Information Technology.__ Jan.-Feb. 2004, 43-52. Kamil, Michael. “Reading in a Digital Age.” __Threshold__. Fall 2005: 5-7. McPherson, Keith. “Reading the Internet.” __Teacher Librarian.__ June 2005:60-61. Sutherland-Smith, Wendy. “Weaving the Literacy Web: Changes in Reading from Page to Screen.” __The Reading Teacher.__ April 2002: 662-669. Thuring, Manfred. “ Hypermedia and Cognition: Designing for Cognition.” __Communications of the ACM__. Aug. 1995, 57-66.
 * ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: **