Issues of Educational Uses of the Internet: Power and Criticism in Communications and Searching

Abstract

This article draws upon poststructuralism in its discussion of issues in using the Internet with preservice teachers. A research study examines a group of preservice teachers' interactions with the Internet in searching for information and in communications. An in-depth case study allows for the characterizing of communications on the Internet, discussions of embodied computing, and issues of being silenced by communications. Other topics include: brotherhoods on the Internet, ethical issues, issues of privacy versus the public nature of the Internet, the sharing of text and sharing of voice, language of Internet searches, and explorations of the Internet. Discussion of these issues includes asking what does it mean to be active and who is in control? A comparison of information versus knowledge as power on the Internet is also important to the discussion of the Internet.