The purpose of this study is to explore, how do students search in an Internet learning environment Kidnet and how they perceive the usability of KidNet. The learning environment is designed to facilitate Internet reading in school context. By Internet reading we refer to process consisting of several phases like understanding the task, searching for information with a search engine, evaluating, selecting the main ideas, and completing the task by writing a synthesis (e.g. Frerejean, 2019). Performing all these phases to fulfil the task requires a complex set of skills (e.g. Bråten et al, 2014). These skills are required even in many European primary education curricula (see, e.g. Finnish National Board of Education, 2016). However, many students seem to have problems to perform. According to ICLS 2018 every third Finnish student has not reached the expected proficiency level for dealing with the Internet as a learning environment. Hence, explicit training and learning of these skills are required (e.g Frerejean, 2019; Leu et al, 2017 ; Sormunen & Alamettälä, 2014). We designed a learning environment called KidNet to support learning of internet reading skills in school context especially in primary education for science instruction. Internet reading requires reading of many sources and can so support understanding of complex phenomena like climate change or biodiversity (e.g. Bråten et al, 2014).

KidNet is a web-based solution which is a closed and safe learning environment. KidNet comprises all phases of internet reading from the assignment over searching for information, evaluating the information, selecting main ideas and concepts, to performing the assignment by writing a synthesis.

This study focuses on search phase and has a deeper look into children’s perceptions of using the learning environment. Searching can be seen as gatekeeper and the first phase for the entire process of internet reading. The search skills include locating the information, to generate efficient search terms within an effective search strategy and scan for relevant information, which is both relevant for the task and reliable. Previous studies have shown that children are using the internet for searching for information on a daily basis (e.g. Azpiazu et al 2016; Paul, 2018), but their practices of searching information seems to differ from adults’ search practices (Bilal, 2001). Furthermore, recent research indicates that children often have mental model about search engines and think that google acts like a person. They ask a question and get an answer right away (Kodama et al. 2017). Thus, children seem often to search with entire questions, and are not able to formulate effective queries to find information that meets their information needs (Bilal & Gwizdka, 2018).

In addition to search phase we are interested in how primary school students perceive the usability of the Internet learning environment. In this study we apply a model developed by Davis (1986), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), to investigate two key factors: perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU). The TAM model has been widely used. It is considered reliable and valid (e.g. Davis & Venkatesh, 1996). Furthermore, the study investigated the perception of two more factors, the need of support and the effectivity of KidNet. It is suggested that when users consider the learning environment KidNet easy to use, they perceive that Internet reading is useful, then they will use the learning environment KidNet in future.

Hence, this exploratory study deals with the following two research questions:  

- How did students search phase look like in Kidnet? 

- What kind of perceptions have the children in using KidNet learning environment?

The participants were 23 six-graders aged from 12 to 13 years from a primary school in an urban area of Finland. The trial took part during 90 minutes lesson. The lesson comprised an introduction into Internet reading and the learning environment KidNet, the KidNet trial itself and the questionnaire. The inquiry assignment was twofold: the first task was “How eyes of humans and horses differ from each other?” and build the basic understanding for the second task “what people should consider when they deal with horses?” There were in total 21 sources, three of them were relevant for answering the task. All other sources were not relevant for the task. The questionnaire consisted of 13 items following Likert scale (1-5; 1= strongly agree to 5 = strongly disagree). The items dealt with perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU) and perceived need for support (PNFS) and perceived effectivity (PE). Furthermore log data and search events including search terms were recorded and counted. The results concerning the search phase indicate that the students used the search phase in average 4 times (M=4.4; SD=2.3), so they jumped from another phase like writing or evaluation again to the search phase. The frequency of used search terms ranges from a minimum of one search term up to a maximum of 11 with the mean of 5.7 (M=5.7; SD=2.8). The students used a phrase as a search term in average 1.2 times (M=1.2; SD=1.4; min=0; Max=6). More than 90% of the search terms are taken from the text of the task. The hint, using an asterisk in the search term, was often used (M=3.0; SD=2.6). In sum, the search practices in this trial seem to be fully in line with previous research. The five main factors were built as a sum score, each consisting of three items. For each sum score the Cronbach’s alpha value was excellent (Cronbach’s alpha(PU)=.90; Cronbach’s alpha(PEU)=.95; Cronbach’s alpha(PNFS)=.91; Cronbach’s alpha(PE)=.89). The learning environment was perceived mainly as useful (M=2.4, SD=1.1), easy to use (M=1.9; SD=.84) and efficient (M=2.0; SD=.92). The students perceived the need for support as moderate (M=3.2; SD=1.2). Furthermore, the children considered the project interesting (M=2.3; SD=1.1).

The results of our study indicate that students´ search practices are mainly in line with previous studies (e.g. Bilal & Gwizdka, 2018). Students used often whole sentences based on the task to search for information. Furthermore, they were not able to formulate effective queries. The search terms were mainly taken from the task and the frequency of queries was quite high. An interesting additional aspect was the usage of asterisk in the query. The students used the tip. The learning environment seems realistically to depict reality how children use the internet for internet reading. The students perceived the learning environment as useful and easy to use. So it can be suggested that the students will use it for learning in future. However, the number of participants was small and the trial was relative short. Furthermore, the KidNet is still in the development process and offered that time only basic features to cover the main phases of Internet reading without support and more sophisticated functions. However, this study is a promising intermediate step and more research should be done with a bigger sample concerning the whole Internet reading process and on how to teach these skills in schools. Especially in science teaching context learning environments like KidNet can be useful in the future for supporting internet reading skills.

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