Sample Research Proposal on THE STUDENTS AND THE INTERNET: HOW CYBER CULTURE CHANGED OUR SCHOOLS

CHAPTER 1 Thesis Statement: Cyber culture creates a new attitude on students because they adopt what they learn in the internet to their actual interaction with their fellow students and teachers. Internet cafés have in recent years become pretty much ubiquitous. It provides access to information, for instance, basic access to services such as health, education and others.  Moreover, internet cafés provide relatively cheap and efficient way of communicating, considering the limited purchasing power and poor infrastructure. However, the high internet access rate in the United States today does not take place because of internet cafes alone. The increase of internet access in the United States is fairly evident. Even minus the internet access at home, students can easily access the internet when they are at school. Wells and Lewis (2006) reported for the National Centre for Education Statistics that in fall 2005, nearly 100 percent of public schools in the United States had access to the Internet, compared with 35 percent in 1994. In other words, more and more students are having access to the internet creating more users and contributing to the already growing cyber society. But what is cyber society? To answer this question, the definition of society is imperative. Society is basically the overall relationship among humans and the things that surround us (Albrow, 1999). Human society in general, not just societies in the plural, extends to all human beings, the total number of members of the animal species (Albrow, 1999). Thus, a cyber-society can be defined as the overall relationship among humans, software, programs and others through the use of the internet. Like the actual society, the cyber society also has norms and cultures that members ritually or habitually conform to. CHAPTER 2 PROBLEM STATEMENT             Culture can be defined as the ways of acting, thinking and feeling which are transmitted from generation to generation and across societies through learning, not through inheritance (Albrow, 1999). Culture includes language and technology both of which involve the communication of ideas and the possibility of sophisticated co-ordination of action. This vastly enhances adaptability (Albrow, 1999). Cyber culture is basically the culture in online societies or communities. Communities can be found in online forums, chats and other specialized website that discusses a particular topic. Schools even distribute reading materials nowadays for students and instructions are being delivered through emails (Wells and Lewis, 2006). In other words, there has been already a close contact between cyber culture and school communities. However, does this contact change anything in the school community? This is main thesis that will be explored in this study.   RESEARCH QUESTIONS             The main question that the study will try to answer is how cyber culture changes the school community in the United States. Additionally, the following are the research questions that will be explored in the study: Ø      What are the positive and negative effects of internet access to schools in the United States? Ø      Does cyber culture affects the learning progress of students within these schools? Ø      How do the teachers view cyber culture? Do they think it can help in the creation of a better learning environment? Ø      How do the students view cyber culture? Are they fond of cyber culture or do they think it's just a waste of time? Ø      What are the advantages and disadvantages of cyber culture within the school community?   RESEARCH OBJECTIVES             The main aim of the study is to be able to identify the effects of cyber culture to the school community or culture. It aims to determine if such connection or interaction has any positive or negative impact to the latter. Through this study, the following objectives will be completed: Ø      To conduct a survey on several students within a specific school who are active members of a particular cyber society. Ø      To conduct a survey on teachers who are teaching in a school where students have 100% access to internet. Ø      To be able to assess and analyze the impact of internet access and cyber culture among students on the progress of learning and the environment within the school. CHAPTER 3     METHODS             The study will be explanatory in nature as it will try to investigate relationships among two variables. A survey method will be used to collect the data. On the other hand, the latest SPSS software will be used to analyze the data.