Assessing the impact of the Internet on a group of education faculty members: A qualitative study

This study was designed to assess the impact of the Internet on a group of education faculty. The purpose of the study was to describe and delineate the personal and educational experiences of a group of faculty members who had direct and unrestricted access to the Internet from their office computers. Based on the naturalistic paradigm and modeled after Gallo's (1993) study, the present study explored the barriers these faculty encountered when using the Internet, the ways they utilized the Internet, the impact the Internet had on their attitudes toward computer technology, and their preferences for connecting to the Internet. Respondents were 10 full-time faculty members who represented the four departments and one school of the College of Education. Data sources for this study included participation in two types of interviews (Patton, 1990), ongoing e-mail correspondence between the respondents and the researcher, completion of a grounded survey, and the respondents' personal reflections in the form of a journal.;The findings of the study revealed that these faculty members' experiences with the Internet were consistent with many of the reported findings involving the use of computer-mediated communication in higher education, the results of telecommunications studies involving preservice teachers during early field experiences, and the results of emerging studies involving librarians and the Internet. Problems of comprehension, time constraints, access, and inadequate administrative support emerged as barriers to faculty members' use of the Internet. Respondents viewed the Internet in different ways. Some faculty members thought that the Internet was exciting and powerful, while others thought it was frustrating and created a system of "haves" and "have-nots." All faculty members preferred direct access to the Internet over a dial-up/terminal host connection. Respondents overwhelmingly used Eudora (for e-mail) more than any other Internet-related application.