A comparison of youngsters' use of CD‐ROM and the Internet as information resources

Abstract

Little research has compared youngsters' use of CD-ROM and the Internet for information-seeking purposes. Nevertheless, the area has recently been addressed within a largely qualitative project more generally devoted to young people's information universes. Home access to the Internet was seen to be more limited than that to CD-ROM, although the former was consulted to tackle needs of a greater number of types. The strategies employed to exploit each form of information resource were essentially similar. No attempts were reported to check the credibility of any information retrieved from electronic sources. The Internet was, however, used more frequently beyond the informants' own homes than was CD-ROM. There was also greater employment of the Internet by adults acting on the youngsters' behalf. As Internet use for school purposes rose in accordance with age, that of CD-ROM declined. When youngsters themselves compared the two resources as information-seeking tools, CD-ROM software was criticized for its lack of detailed material and the Internet for the problems in locating what was desired. Project findings have implications in a range of areas, including the marketing of CD-ROM packages, research and development and practices within schools.

Children, teenagers, and the Web

“…Almost no work has been undertaken to compare young people's information seeking on the Web with any of these other technologies, although the sixthgrade students in Large and Beheshti's (2000) study did comment briefly on CD-ROMs as an alternative to the Web as a source of information for school projects. In contrast, Hirsh (1999) included print and CD-ROM as well as the Web in her investigation of information evaluation by elementary school students, and Shenton and Dixon (2003) compared students' use of CD-ROM and the Web as information resources. Shenton and Dixon found that the search strategies adopted were similar for both technologies.…”

Children's Information Seeking and the Design of Digital Interfaces in the Affective Paradigm

“…From this literature investigators have focused on the cognitive behavior and alluded to one or two affective factors expressed by users such as preferences, satisfaction, frustration, and joy (Bilal & Wang, 2005;Shenton & Dixon, 2003;Large & Beheshti, 2000;Sullivan, Norris, Peet, & Soloway, 2000;Hirsh, 1999;Kafai & Bates, 1997). According to Picard (1997), common factors that computer users experience include confusion, frustration, dislike, like, joy, satisfaction, motivation, and preference.…”

Creating Metadata for Children's Resources: Issues, Research, and Current Developments

“…Retrieval requires an intersection of metadata used within the system and the user's search terms. Information-seeking research has uncovered representation obstacles such as spelling errors, misuse of search features, diffi culty in selection of initial and alternate search terms, and the inappropriate nature of the system's controlled vocabulary (Moore & St. George, 1991;Solomon, 1993;Borgman, Hirsch, Walter, & Gallagher, 1995;Hirsh, 1997;Bilal, 2000aBilal, , 2000bShenton & Dixon, 2003;Abbas, 2001). Other research links children's cognitive and developmental abilities to issues of retrieval as well as system design (Cooper, 2002;Bilal, 2000aBilal, , 2000bBorgman, Hirsch, Walter, & Gallagher, 1995;Hirsh, 1997).…”