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| Sep 25, 2006 1:22 am |
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re: re: re: re: re: How people FAIL to make good use of the Internet. |
John Stephen Veitch
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Barry
Thank you for reminding me about www.pewinternet.org who have done some useful work. However having done my research and having read their results, I still claim the two are not contradictory.
Pew is measuring things that are very Web 1.0, are you connected, do you have broadband, can you use a search engine, do you buy stuff on the Internet?
I'm looking for Internet Literacy, the ability to engage with other people, the ability to join and engage with groups of people. The ability to engage in conversations, to publish some of your own material, to comment on blogs, to use lists, to contribute to bulletin boards. Pew doesn't ask about any of this important activity.
Looking at Pew's numbers, the only one that seems different in NZ is the buying online behavior. I think that's got something to do with sales tax in the USA. People can apparently sometimes avoid taxes by buying out of state. You can't do that in NZ.
I've learnt something important in the last month. At least 10% of the population here, (NZ's educational standards are supposed to be very high.) as adults, have a very weak ability to read and write. If that's the case, for them online literacy is a long way off.
NEWNESS in the tools available online, commonly leads to a lack of imagination about how to use those tools. Often the people who created the tool are not themselves aware of how it will be used. My basic theory is this.
When people learn to join and converse with other people, whatever skills, tools, knowledge they need to do what they want to do, is likely to appear "just in time". When you are "ready to learn" you begin to ask the right questions and somebody will point you to the answer. But if you don't participate in groups, that's less likely to happen.
Active participation in list, and on places like Ryze networks is fundamental to developing Internet Literacy. How many people are doing that? Far less than 10% of all those connected to the Internet. Even those who join Ryze, (who at least recognised a need to join a group) are 80% absent on a permanent basis, they never participate.
Regards
John
John S Veitch
Adapt to Experience - http://www.ate.co.nz/
Innovation Network - http://veech-network.ryze.com/
Private Reply to John Stephen Veitch (new win) |
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