Date of Award

1996

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Curriculum, Instruction, and Media Technology

Abstract

The purpose of the investigation was to determine the extent that Indiana secondary school principals' perceptions of policy existence, censorship concern, Internet usage by faculty, and Internet usage by students were associated with community population, school size, economic rating, number of schools per district, and the cognitive skills index of the school district. A simple random sample of all Indiana secondary schools was selected for use in this study. Sixty-one randomly selected schools were then administered the survey via telephone interview. The collected data were then analyzed using a t-test. All twenty-five hypotheses were then tested at the.05 level of significance. Analysis of data for this study revealed that Internet connection in Indiana secondary schools was not affected by the school's size, economic rating, number of schools per district, or the community's population. These findings suggested that Internet deployment appeared to occur statewide simultaneously. Rural areas established communications as efficiently as urban; small districts connected as quickly as larger districts; poorer areas developed as comprehensively as wealthy areas. Findings of this study also revealed that the existence of an Internet policy was associated with both the number of schools per district and a school's cognitive skills index. No significant relationship existed between the existence of an Internet policy and the schools enrollment, community size, or economic rating.

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