Internet Knowledge & Skills

Teens: Fabiola, Janet, Joey, Salvador, Anna, Joshua C., “Quiet 8th-grade girl," and Armando
Staff: Saafir, Santiago
Time: 6:00 - 7:00pm Friday April 22
Location: at the Museum
Group: Northside Boys & Girls Club

Today I did a short exploration to find out what the teenagers knowledge of the internet was and how they used the web. After an ice breaker, I had them log into a laptop, pull up a browser and spend thirty seconds to find a page on the web. Next, I had them visit some of their typical sites and spend twenty minute on them. I listed the sites that they visited on the board. We had a conversation about what they use the internet for and how often. I discovered that most of them did not use e-mail, so we spent the last half hour, signing up for e-mail services and trading e-mail.

Here are the major things the teens do on the web, ranked by frequency.

• Play games
• Preview movies
• Listen to music
• Watch videos
• Look information for school projects
• E-mail
• Check horoscopes
• Go to chat rooms

Here's the course of events today
1. They played in the Kidstuff gallery until I showed up after my lab.
2. We did an icebreaker. I had everyone share a story about thier best moment (the teenagers didn’t get what I was asking them to do, many of the stories were about them “winning” by “getting in a fight” or “throwing a water balloon at the principal on the last day of school.” Some described pleasant or fun things like riding their friend’s cool bike, doing flips on a trampoline, or camping out in the backyard. I'll have to try that again later.)
3. Find a website activity described above...here are the sites that the teens visited this afternoon....

• msn.com
• apple.com (The Grudge)
• freeonlinegames.com
• miniclip.com (games)
• warnerbrothers.com (House of Wax)
• google.com (The Grudge)

4. Questions about how they use the internet. Most of the teens don’t have e-mail, don't use chat rooms, or post to discussion boards. The primary use of the internet was to play video games, watch movie previews, and play music videos. One fo the teens mentioned "looking up stuff for homework assignments" but she said she "hardly ever did that. Maybe twice a year"
5. E-mail sign-up