[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 190 (Thursday, November 30, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S17859-S17860]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                              Introduction

       The Internet and other rapidly expanding components of the 
     so-called ``information super-highway'' are becoming more and 
     more popular with all age groups. As of now, there is little 
     government regulation of the ``menu'' available on the 
     Internet. This presents an interesting issue for our law-
     makers: is use of these systems of great enough significance 
     for the government to take some kind of role in their 
     existence? The environment of a high school seemed to be of 
     interest because of the growing technology being offered 
     there. It was decided at an early point that it would be 
     extremely difficult to survey the entire school, and 
     therefore might be more beneficial and reliable to survey 
     only the Freshmen and Senior classes to see computer use at 
     both ends of the age spectrum at Champlain Valley Union High 
     School. The intent was that the survey would provide Senator 
     Patrick Leahy with some statistics about rural high school 
     use of computers and the Internet. These results could be 
     used to indicate the extent students in a rural school use 
     computers regularly and how they use them. The survey was 
     conducted between September and November of 1995.


                               The School

       Champlain Valley Union High School is located in Hinesburg, 
     Vt. and is the public high school for the towns of Hinesburg, 
     Charlotte, Shelburne, and Williston. The school is comprised 
     of over 950 students. The communities that make up the school 
     are mostly middle class. The school prides itself on having 
     extremely high standards of technology. There are 
     approximately 250 computers at CVU, the majority of which are 
     Apple Macintoshes. The school has a computer lab which is 
     open to all students during their free time. It is comprised 
     of both IBM and Macintoshes. The Physics program has 
     approximately 20 Power Macintoshes that make up the Physics 
     lab. The school also has a foreign language lab and a 
     business lab, with roughly 30 units each. The majority of 
     computers in the lab are connected to the school's 128-kbps 
     Internet connection. Students have access to most of what is 
     available on the net, including the World Wide Web and other 
     popular net services.


                         Results of the Survey

       The survey was distributed to the Freshmen through the 
     Freshmen core program at CVU and there was an almost 
     immediate result with 96% of the Freshmen responding. The 
     seniors were harder to reach in that there is no single class 
     which all seniors take. The surveys were distributed through 
     the advisory program in which all students participate. Due 
     to the difficulty of student and faculty schedules however, 
     there was only a 70% response to the senior surveys. Although 
     this number may be low, the data is statistically valid due 
     to the similarities in answers for all seniors and the fact 
     that those who responded do not leave out any particular 
     group or type of student. The advisories that responded show 
     a random group of students, therefore it is a good sampling 
     of the class as a whole. Two hundred and seventeen Freshmen 
     and one hundred-forty Seniors responded. The results are as 
     follows:

     Percent of those surveyed owning a home computer:
       Freshmen--90%; Seniors--91%

     Percent of those owning a home computer that use it:
       Freshmen--97%; Seniors--98.5%

     Percent of those owning a home computer with family members 
     who use it:
       Freshmen--86.5%; Seniors--96%

     Amount of computer use per week by percentage (home computer 
     owners):
       Less than 1 hr.--Freshmen: 6%; Seniors: 5%
       1-3 hrs--Freshmen: 20%; Seniors: 16%
       4-6 hrs--Freshmen: 74%; Seniors: 79%

     Primary uses of home computer:
       Word Processing/Homework--Freshmen: 95%; Seniors: 97%
       Internet/E-mail--Freshmen: 20%; Seniors: 20%
       World Wide Web--Freshmen: 11%; Seniors: 9%
       Games--Freshmen: 39%; Seniors: 30%

     Percent of students who use school computers:
       Freshmen--68%; Seniors--93%

     Primary uses of the school computer:
       Word Processing/Homework--Freshmen: 80%; Seniors: 82%
       Internet/E-mail--Freshmen: 34%; Seniors: 70%
       World Wide Web--Freshmen: 20%; Seniors: 27%
       Games--Freshmen: 4%; Seniors: 6%

     Degree of influence school computer usage has had on overall 
     computer use:
       High--Freshmen: 24%; Seniors: 47%
       Moderate--Freshmen: 41%; Seniors: 40%
       Little or none--Freshmen: 35%; Seniors: 13%


                              Conclusions

       It is shown that usage of school computers is much higher 
     for seniors even though home computer ownership is almost 
     equal. According to the results, 25% more seniors use school 
     computers than freshmen. The majority of seniors say that 
     access to computers in the school has greatly influenced 
     their overall computer usage. It would appear that computer 
     education earlier in a student's career enhances additional 
     use. The key seems to lie not in computer ownership, but 
     rather with computer knowledge. The earlier students become 
     fully computer literate, the earlier they utilize the tools 
     they possess more effectively. There are possible reasons to 
     account for the large discrepancy in the percentage of 
     freshmen and seniors using computers in school. The freshmen 
     have not been exposed to the computers as long, and the 
     courses they take are not as challenging to require as much 
     computer usage. Yet it is clear that seniors use computers 
     for more 

[[Page S17860]]
     than just class work, therefore their exposure must have left an over-
     all positive impression.
       It is interesting that E-mail and Internet usage basically 
     doubles for freshmen and triples for seniors when they are in 
     school as opposed to at home. This can probably be explained 
     by the fact that they may not have access to the Internet at 
     home, or even if they do, they do not have the sophistication 
     of technology available at the school. This does tell us that 
     if these systems are available at schools, people will use 
     it.
       A fascinating statistic is that family computer use rises 
     almost ten points between freshmen and senior years. This 
     tells us that the computer education young people are getting 
     in school may be influencing their families to try out 
     computers with their children. According to the survey, about 
     90% of homes within this population own a personal computer. 
     This can be compared with a national estimation of only 35%. 
     This can be partially accounted for by the higher than 
     average income in this area, but one has to wonder if the 
     influence of computers in schools encourages people to go out 
     and buy a home computer, and, further to avail themselves of 
     high technology enhancements such as Internet access and on-
     line services.


                        CVU COMPUTER USE SURVEY

       Participants: This is a survey that will be used to assist 
     the United States Senate through the offices of Senator 
     Patrick Leahy as they endeavor to craft legislation that will 
     enhance computer access and resources to students throughout 
     the country. Senator Leahy hand-picked CVU as a reliable 
     source to retrieve this information. With this in mind, we 
     ask that you take the time to complete the survey honestly.

     1. What grade are you in?
       Senior      Freshman
     2. Do you have a computer at home?
       Yes      No
       (if no, skip to question 7)
     3. Do you use your home computer?
       Yes      No
     4. Do other members of your family use your home computer?
       Yes      No
     5. How extensive would you say that YOUR computer use is?
       Rarely used (less than 1 hour per week)
       Sometimes used (1 to 3 hours per week)
       Used Often (4 to 6 hours per week)
       Used very often (more than 6 hours per week)
     6. What are your primary home uses for the computer?
       Homework/Word processing
       Internet/e-mail
       World-wide web
       Computer games
     7. Do you use a computer in school?
       Yes      No
       (if no, skip to question 9)
     8. What are your primary uses of the school computer?
       Word processing/problem solving
       Internet/e-mail
       World-wide web
       Computer games
     9. How has computer access in the school influenced your 
     overall computer usage (both at home and in school)?
       Greatly influenced
       Somewhat influenced
       Had little or no influence

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