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Internet Use in Low-Income Families: Findings from the HomeNetToo Project HomeNetToo is a multi-year research project to study how low-income families use the Internet at home and how using the Internet influences their lives (www.HomeNetToo.org). The project is funded by the National Science Foundation. Most of the 120 adult participants were African American (67%), female (80%), never married (42%), and had household incomes of less than $15,000 annually (49%). Most of the 140 children were African American (83%), male (58%), and 13 years old. Findings from HomeNetToo indicate that low-income families make good use of the Internet, logging in for about 30 minutes daily. Most of this time is spent searching for information on the Web, rather than e-mailing. Children in the project who used the Internet more subsequently had higher grade point averages and higher scores on standardized tests of reading achievement than did children who used it less. Other findings based on a separate sample of 140 African American adults suggest that designing the interface to better match user preferences may influence how well health information is learned. Future research is planned to examine how Internet use influences academic performance and how interface design influences learning in low-income children and adults. Speaker: Linda A. Jackson earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Rochester, NY in 1981. She is a Professor of Psychology at Michigan State University and Principal Investigator for the HomeNetToo Project. Her research interests include cultural and social-psychological factors that influence use, and consequences of using information and communication technology (ICT); children’s use of ICT and cultural factors that influence its impact on developmental outcomes; culture, cognition, and learning in ICT environments; and gender and cultural influences on ICT use and career choice. Her recent research focuses on issues surrounding the digital “use” divide. Professor Jackson has over 100 publications in professional journals, books, book chapters, and conference proceedings. |
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