Teachers are turning to the Internet and away from books and libraries, according to a recent survey.
In the statewide poll of more than 100 middle school social studies teachers, 72 percent said they get classroom materials and resources from the Internet. Eighteen percent said they went to the library. Nearly two out of every three said they went to the Web for lessons on Maine, while less than half said they used books.
The Center for Educational Services, an Auburn-based nonprofit group, commissioned the study. Officials there wanted to gauge how much teachers knew about an online program they created for middle-schoolers. They got their answer, and more.
Most of the teachers said they liked having laptops in the classroom. They were comfortable incorporating the Internet into school and regularly used computers in the classroom.
Frank Callanan, project director for the center, calls such comfort with computers encouraging, “especially since most of their education was probably in pre-Google days.”
He believes the state’s laptop program, which gave portable computers to every public middle school student and teacher in Maine, is helping to fuel the trend.
“This wouldn’t be happening if you had to move your room to a (computer) lab or bring the lab to your room,” he said.
In each question that compared books and computers, computers won teachers’ attention. Callanan didn’t think the shift was necessarily bad.
And some librarians agree.
They say technology is infiltrating their business, too.
“We try to find the best source of information that’s available, whether that’s print information or the Internet,” said Karen Jones, deputy director of the Lewiston Public Library.
Like many other libraries, Lewiston’s has worked to couple old-fashioned resources with new technology. It offers Internet access and subscribes to an extensive computer database. Patrons can research a collection of magazines, newspapers and books online or search the stacks for what they want. When students are working on projects, librarians are just as likely to point them to a computer as a book.
In Auburn, the public library attracts students with its free Internet access.
“Then we use that chance to show them all the resources,” said Director Rosemary Waltos.
An Auburn reference librarian visits area schools to teach students the right way to search the Internet. The library hosts an online book discussion group for teenagers. Its new teen area will feature computers with limited Internet access and a large database for research.
Waltos believes they can keep up with the times.
“The Internet is not going to replace public libraries,” she said.
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