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Monday, June 15, 1998

Internet use among universities rockets

TECHNOLOGY: Extensive resources, accessibility make going on-line easy

By Andy Shah

Daily Bruin Contributor

Christine Mayor regularly turns in her homework in her pajamas.

No, she isn't a flasher; nor is she lazy. It's just that her Honors English section takes place on-line.

Unusual? Not really. Internet usage on college campuses has grown incredibly in the past five years and is likely to continue rising.

In Mayor's class, students post their essays onto an on-line message board, where students can read each other's work and the professor's comments.

"A lot of students are more candid on the board because it's almost as if you're anonymous," said Mayor, a first-year psychology student.

Mayor is only one of many college students who take advantage of the Internet and e-mail for academic purposes.

"There has been an enormous increase in net usage over the past five years, and even within the last six months," said Matt Rosoff, associate editor of CNET on-line magazine.

People between the ages of 18-34 comprise 39 percent of Internet users, the highest of any demographic group, according to a recent survey by RelevantKnowledge.

Since its inception, the Internet has grown from a tool used only by scholars to communicate with each other to a valuable resource for everyone.

During the past three years, the number of registered Bruin Online users has grown from about 4,000 students to nearly 53,000.

With more information at one's fingertips than ever, many students head straight for the Internet when doing research.

However, when Mayor had to write a paper about sleep, she forgot about using the Internet.

While walking to the library, she met a friend who suggested she try the Internet. After she did, she says the problem was "not finding the material, but choosing from it."

That's not to say that libraries are simply obsolete buildings with nice architecture. Mayor says she still uses the library and finds it easier to have books opened up in front of her rather than switching from one web site to the next.

Also, many web sites are not reliable, says Steve Silberman, a contributing editor to Wired magazine.

"Anyone can put up a web page, (so) you have to be careful in choosing reliable sources."

He added that many students use the Internet frequently because of free access on many campuses.

With the lure of the Internet, many people have become computer literate, said Samrod Shenassa, a third-year film and television student.

"Back in '93, hardly anyone used the Internet for anything other than e-mail and newsgroups," he said

"But the Internet is spreading computers to low-income, inner-city schools where they'd never have them otherwise."

Shenassa said he favors the Internet as a resource over the library because it has direct links to the entire work.

When creating a web page about Jules Verne, he found a full anthology of his work available on-line in several languages, with images and analyzes of those works.

"I'm not implying that libraries are obsolete," he said. "The Internet can't replace a full-color book of Picasso's work."

Shenassa is making a film about a boy who is addicted to the Internet and the tribulations he faces.

Internet addiction is becoming a problem for universities, according to a recent study by CNET.

Undergraduates are reportedly spending an average of 10 hours a week on-line, with 18 percent running up at least 20 hours per week.

Some administrators claim dismissal rates on campus have more than doubled as a result of compulsive Internet usage, according to CNET.

Another characteristic of a wired campus is e-mail. The Washington Post reports of the 9 million students in college, 7 million use e-mail regularly.

"Sometimes you can only get in contact with your professor or teaching assistant (TA) through e-mail," said Eddie Urenda, who works at the Bruin Online help desk.

While some use e-mail to get information from across the country or globe, others use it simply to contact their professor or teaching assistant.

"It allows both the student and the instructor to respond at their own pace," said Urenda.

Matthew Christensen, a humanities TA, said that he's seen a growth in the number of his students who have e-mail accounts.

"Before, only three quarters of my students had e-mail accounts," he said, "but now all of them do."

Although more students are sending him their questions and papers through e-mail now, he discourages them from doing so.

"E-mail is good for more routine communication," he said, "but for teaching, there is an important value in face-to-face communication."

Shenassa said that e-mail allows for more interaction between a student and instructor.

"E-mail provides access to professors beyond office hours, beyond strictly course-related material and even beyond the time frame of the quarter," he said.

He also values message boards, since they help students get assistance for a class.

"They are very helpful for students who have trouble grasping a concept but are afraid to ask, not very sociable or just don't have the time to ask after class," he said.

UCLA was recently ranked as the 23rd-most-wired college in the nation, according to a ZDNet survey.

The survey was based on factors such as how many computers were available to students.

Also, many colleges now allow students to apply for admission on-line.

A recent Harvard conference envisioned a thoroughly wired future for universities.

"Superstar professors on multi-million dollar salaries, teaching the on-line millions" was one vision, according to a News.com article.

More than 800 universities and colleges in the United States offer degree courses on-line, and many more offer non-degree courses.

For academic purposes and beyond, the Internet and e-mail are becoming indelible marks of today's generation.

"Five years from now we'll wonder how we got along without this stuff," Silberman said.

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