CyberSchool. (Education).

In its early days, (that's way, way back in the early 1990s) surfing the Net was an adventure filled with wipe-outs and rogue waves. Users had access to a vast storehouse of knowledge but finding what you wanted was frustrating. It was as though you walked into the world's biggest library after someone had tipped all the shelves over a switched off the lights.

Then, along came the smart search engine. The rest, as they say, is history.

Canada is near the top of the class when it comes to Internet access in its schools. By the start of the school year in September 2000, Canada came second in the world behind Sweden in terms of the number of Internet-savvy students. Brendan Kelly says "The faster a society gets up to speed [on the Internet], the more powerful it will be." Mr. Kelly is an expert in education and technology at the University of Toronto, and he adds: "We're really into a new era when the Internet will be a major vehicle for research and education."

The federal government has latched onto this notion. Industry Canada claims that ours is the first country in the world to connect all its public schools, including first nations schools, to the Internet. The SchoolNet program has set a goal of having 250,000 Internet-connected computers in schools in 2001; that's the equivalent of one computer in every classroom in the country.

At the same time, Canadian teachers' colleges are churning out new teachers with Internet expertise. So, we can expect to see more projects such as the one that teacher Wendy King started at Coley's Point School, Newfoundland. The Groundhog Project for K-6 students now involves almost 100 classrooms in Canada and the United States. And, the Internet has gone into space; SchoolNet has hosted live Webcast lessons from the International Space Station.

Many schools have set up links with counterparts in other areas of the country or the world. Grade 7 students on a reserve in Manitoba have hooked up with youngsters in a Mexican city school to work on saving the Monarch butterfly.

The Center for Applied Special Technology, based in Washington, D.C., reported that a study of urban school districts showed that elementary school students with access to the Internet had an advantage in learning over those without access. The study concentrated on 500 fourth- and sixth-grade students in Chicago, Ill.; Dayton, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; Memphis, Tenn.; Miami, Fla.; Oakland, Calif.; and Washington, D.C. Its results showed that students who used the Internet scored higher on nine learning criteria, which included greater insight into a topic and accuracy in handling information.

Taking this a step further, instruction is now moving onto the Internet. Entire university courses can now be completed in cyberspace, without any apparent negative effects on learning. This was the conclusion of a 1999 study completed at Southwest Missouri State University in the U.S.

Test scores were measured among a group of students who completed their courses the traditional way and another group who received all their instruction via the Internet.

The study's authors wrote that: "First, there was no significant difference in test scores between the two groups despite the experimental groups not attending even a single on-campus lecture. This was amazing to those associated with the study, all of whom half-hoped to validate the significance of the class lecturer to the learning process."

In addition, there was some evidence that students using the Internet had a more positive learning experience than those attending lectures. "It is the belief of the researchers," the study says, "that Internet-based instruction is at worst a neutral factor regarding students' perceptions about their learning. No student in the experimental group stated that they would never take another Internet-based course nor were indications of dissatisfaction with experiences or technologies provided."

Location of students' access to the Internet

Ages     All Locations   Home   School   Other

5--18         82%        45%      71%     37%
5--9          48%        21%      32%     13%
10--14        93%        50%      84%     43%
15--18        96%        58%      85%     55%

Source: Statistics Canada, General Social Survey, 2000
Location of students' access to the Internet by socio-economic status

All ages               All Locations   Home   School   Other

Education of parent

High school diploma
  or less                   79%         34%     69%     34%
College, trade/
  vocational diploma        82%         45%     73%     40%
University degree           86%         66%     73%     38%

Household income

Less than $30,000           78%         26%     69%     35%
$30,000-$49,900             77%         33%     67%     35%
$50,000-$79,900             83%         48%     73%     40%
$80,000 and above           86%         65%     74%     37%

Source: Statistics Canada, General Social Survey, 2000

STATISTICS CANADA 2000

Percentage of parents with home computers who say they bought them specifically for their children: 55%

Percentage of parents who reported educational advantages as the greatest benefit of their children's use of the Internet: 66%

Percentage of parents who have used the Internet: 59%

Websites

Groundhog Project - http://www. stemnet.nf.ca/Groundhog/

MOOSECrossing - http://www.cc.gatech. edu/elc/moose-crossing/

SchoolNet - http://schoolnet.ca

The Global Schoolhouse http://www.gsn.org/

RELATED ARTICLE: The school as community.

IN MINDSTORMS, Seymour Papert has a vision of a `technological samba school.' At samba schools in Brazil, a community of people of all ages gather together to rehearse dance routines for the Mardi Gras carnival. Members of the school range in age from children to grandparents and in ability from novice to professional. But, they dance together and as they dance everyone is learning and teaching as well as dancing. Even the stars are there to learn their difficult parts. People go to samba schools not just to work on their presentations, but also to socialize and be with one another. Mr. Papert imagines a kind of technological samba school where people of all ages gather together to work on creative projects using computers. MOOSECrossing is an

interactive Website for kids 9 to 13 that attempts to recreate that vision of the school as community.