Fishman, B., Kupperman, J., & Soloway, E. (1998). Introducing urban Latino families to the Internet at home: Preliminary issues and trends. In A. Bruckman, M. Guzdial, J. Kolodner, & A. Ram (Eds.), International Conference on the Learning Sciences (pp. 105-111). Atlanta, GA: AACE. © 1998. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Distributed via the Web by permission of AACE. Introducing Urban Latino Families to the Internet at Home: Preliminary Issues and Trends Barry Fishman, Jeff Kupperman, Elliot Soloway The University of Michigan, School of Education, 610 E. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1259 Tel: 734-647-9572, Fax: 734-647-9158 Email: fishman@umich.edu, jkupp@umich.edu, soloway@umich.edu Abstract: What happens when a community that has previously had very little or no exposure to the Internet receives Internet access at home? This paper describes a project that provided television set-top Internet access devices to Latino families as part of a project to link the school and home in an inquiry-based science curriculum. The early phases of adoption of the Internet and “NetTV” devices by families are described, with special attention paid to different ways families make educational use of the Internet. This paper describes results from the early phases of a project that has introduced the Internet to urban Latino families with no previous Internet experience, as part of an effort to link science activities between the home and the classroom. For nearly two decades the Internet, and more recently the World Wide Web, has been touted as new media for learning with tremendous potential [Fishman, Hoadley, Harasim, Hsi, Levin, Linn, Pea, and Scardamalia 1997]. Most studies of Internet use for learning, however, have been limited to school settings [e.g., Gomez, Fishman and Pea in press] [Linn 1996]. Two notable exceptions are the Buddy Project [McMahon and Duffy 1993] and the HomeNet Project [Kraut, Scherlis, Mukhopadhyay, Manning and Kiesler 1996]. However, in most of this work, the populations under study do not represent a departure from the mainstream Internet users, who are generally white, well-educated, and of higher than average socio-economic status [Hoffman, Kalsbeek and Novak 1996]. In cases where different populations are addressed, it is typically through school-based activities. According to new studies, white and minority students have roughly equal access to the Internet in schools, but minorities have comparatively little access from the home [Hoffman and Novak 1998]. Available demographic data on Internet use only recently began reporting on race and ethnicity, and most commonly accepted statistics indicate that only a small percentage of Web users are Latino [e.g., Hoffman, Novak and Venkatesh 1997]. In addition, most data on who uses the Internet indicate a relationship to socio-economic status, especially in terms of education. While 76.6% of Latinos with a college education have some access to the Internet (either at home or in the office), that number drops to 16.3% for high school graduates and only 7.1% for those without a high school diploma [Wilhelm 1998]. Thus, while a growing number of students may be getting access to the Internet in schools, their families are not, and there is very little use of the Internet in lower-income Latino homes. In the Spring of 1998, researchers from the Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education (hi-ce) at the University of Michigan [1] provided a group of Latino families with access to the Internet through television set-top boxes (NetTV) [2]. This access was initially provided to help families participate in a science curriculum unit about the physiology of breathing. In this unit, the Internet was used for collecting and displaying data about lung capacity and environmental factors related to breathing. The entire family is asked to participate in these data collection activities and enter their data from home via the Internet. A compelling advantage in selecting NetTV for families’ Internet access (as opposed to full-fledged computers) is the fact that NetTV uses the family television set as its display, encouraging placement of the NetTV in the household’s “public” spaces, such as living rooms or family rooms (though the actual placement of the NetTV devices was a choice made by individual families). We came to understand that in order for NetTV to be a viable medium for families to engage in school activity, they must also be encouraged to use it as an extension of their regular recreational or entertainment activities. Uses such as these, that extend far beyond the scope of our curriculum on breathing, may help to increase families’ overall comfort level with the tools, thus preparing them to use it more naturally when engaged in curriculum-related activities. [1] For information about hi-ce, please refer to http://www.hi-ce.org/. [2] These set-top boxes are commonly called WebTV, which is a trademark of WebTV Networks and used by companies that market devices based on that network’s standards. We are using set-top boxes manufactured by uniView, a WebTV competitor, and therefore will refer to these devices using the shorthand “NetTV”.