Normally, when trying to find trends of net use, we’ve had to use statistical data and research from the USA, with research programmes such as Pew Internet Foundation providing enviable information and insight into the changing use of the internet in North America.

In the Spring of 2008, several major research pieces were launched. Ofcom’s Social Networking Research helped form part of the information set included in the primary research carried out by Dr Tanya Byron for her Review of the risks faced by children in their use of the net and video games. We’ve also seen the first in-depth summary of access to the internet and its uses across the UK population in the Oxford Internet Institute’s Internet Surveys. Finally, Ofcom’s Media Literacy Audit of the UK, with separate analysis for Scotland, was published at the end of May 2008.

Connected Live’s Research Summary Series
Not everyone in education management will have the time to read the detail of these reports, find the relevant information and make meaning out of it for their own circumstances. This special series of posts, every day in the run up to the new school year, aims to take selected highlights from the reports, and frame them in such a way as meaning can be drawn from them by those managing ICT in Learning and Teaching Scotland and our stakeholders in Local Authorities and other educational institutions.

You can find all the posts under our special series Research category, on the left-hand menu of this blog.

Categories: Research