THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE AND USE OF ONLINE INFORMATION-SERVICES IN SCHOOLS

A 2-yr investigation was undertaken in six schools, one primary and five secondary schools, into the educational value and use of online information services. The schools worked for six terms using a range of datafiles from a selection of U.K. and overseas online hosts. The files are normally used by adults in business, industry, government and research organisations. They are available at commercial rates and are generally very large, sometimes extending to several million records. The intentions of the project were to study the use that might be made of such files to support the needs of the school curriculum for individual pupil research into topical issues, to explore any constraints, and to uncover management and training issues. Seven online host companies provided free or cheap access to their files: DIALOG Information Services, BLAISE-LINE, FT PROFILE Information, DATA-STAR, the European Space Agency Information Retrieval Service (ESA-IRS), KOMPASS Online and the Online Computer Library Centre Inc. Europe (OCLC). The article draws upon the evidence provided from teachers' and librarians' diaries, interviews with both staff and students, and observations and analyses of searches in progress. Educational benefits included support for topical investigations through access to information not available in schools or their localities, language and information skills development. There were some changes in teachers' roles. For example, away from the role of information provider towards that of co-learner/investigator.