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Social media use has become so pervasive in the lives of American teens that having a presence on a social network site is almost synonymous with being online. Fully 95% of all teens ages 12-17 are now online and 80% of those online teens are users of social media sites. The authors focused their attention in this research on social network sites because they wanted to understand the types of experiences teens are having there and how they are addressing negative behavior when they see it or experience it. As they navigate challenging social interactions online, who is influencing their sense of what it means to be a good or bad "digital citizen"? How often do they intervene to stand up for others? How often do they join in the mean behavior? Many log on daily to their social network pages and these have become spaces where much of the social activity of teen life is echoed and amplified--in both good and bad ways. In their survey, the authors follow teens' experiences of online cruelty--either personally felt or observed--from incident to resolution. The authors asked them about how they reacted to the experience and how they saw others react. They asked them about whether they have received and where they sought advice--both general advice about online safety and responsibility and specific advice on how to handle a witnessed experience of online cruelty on a social network site. They also probed the environment around teens' online experiences by examining their privacy controls and practices, as well as the level of regulation of their online environment by their parents. The authors further sought insight into more serious experiences that teens have in their lives, including bullying both on- and offline and the exchange of sexually charged digital images. (Contains 2 tables and 57 footnotes.)

This report is based on findings from a pair of Pew Research Center surveys conducted in spring 2011. One is a telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,142 adults ages 18 and older. The other is an online survey, done in association with the Chronicle of Higher Education, among the presidents of 1,055 two-year and four-year private, public, and for-profit colleges and universities. Here is a summary of key findings: (1) The Value of Online Learning. The public and college presidents differ over the educational value of online courses. Only 29% of the public says online courses offer an equal value compared with courses taken in a classroom. Half (51%) of the college presidents surveyed say online courses provide the same value; (2) The Prevalence of Online Courses. More than three-quarters of college presidents (77%) report that their institutions now offer online courses. These courses are more prevalent in some sectors of higher education than in others. While 89% of four-year public colleges and universities offer online classes, just 60% of four-year private schools offer them; (3) Online Students. Roughly one-in-four college graduates (23%) report that they have taken a class online. However, the share doubles to 46% among those who have graduated in the past ten years. Among all adults who have taken a class online, 39% say the format's educational value is equal to that of a course taken in a classroom; (4) The Future of Online Learning. College presidents predict substantial growth in online learning: 15% say most of their current undergraduate students have taken a class online, and 50% predict that 10 years from now most of their students will take classes online; (5) Digital Textbooks. Nearly two-thirds of college presidents (62%) anticipate that 10 years from now, more than half of the textbooks used by their undergraduate students will be entirely digital; (6) The Internet and Plagiarism. Most college presidents (55%) say that plagiarism in students' papers has increased over the past 10 years. Among those who have seen an increase in plagiarism, 89% say computers and the internet have played a major role; (7) Do Laptops and Smartphones Belong in the Classroom? More than half of recent college graduates (57%) say when they were in college they used a laptop, smartphone or tablet computer in class at least sometime. Most colleges and universities do not have institutional guidelines in place for the use of these devices in class. Some 41% of college presidents say students are allowed to use laptops or other portable devices during class; at 56% of colleges and universities it is up to the individual instructors. Only 2% of presidents say the use of these devices is prohibited; (8) College Presidents and Technology. The leaders of the nation's colleges and universities are a tech-savvy group. Nearly nine-in-ten (87%) use a smartphone daily, 83% use a desktop computer and 65% use a laptop. And they are ahead of the curve on some of the newer digital technologies: Fully half (49%) use a tablet computer such as an iPad at least occasionally, and 42% use an e-reader such as a Kindle or Nook; and (9) College Presidents and Social Networking. Roughly one-third of college presidents (32%) report that they use Facebook weekly or more often; 18% say they use Twitter at least occasionally. Appended are: (1) Survey Methodology; and (2) Topline Survey Results. (Contains 9 footnotes.)

Teenagers' lives are filled with writing. All teens write for school, and 93% of teens say they write for their own pleasure. Most notably, the vast majority of teens have eagerly embraced written communication with their peers as they share messages on their social network pages, in emails and instant messages online, and through fast-paced thumb choreography on their cell phones. This raises a major question: What, if anything, connects the formal writing teens do and the informal e-communication they exchange on digital screens? A considerable number of educators and children's advocates worry that James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, was right when he recently suggested that young Americans' electronic communication might be damaging "the basic unit of human thought--the sentence." They are concerned that the quality of writing by young Americans is being degraded by their electronic communication, with its carefree spelling, lax punctuation and grammar, and its acronym shortcuts. Others wonder if this return to text-driven communication is instead inspiring new appreciation for writing among teens. While the debate about the relationship between e-communication and formal writing is on-going, few have systematically talked to teens to see what they have to say about the state of writing in their lives. Responding to this information gap, the Pew Internet & American Life Project and National Commission on Writing conducted a national telephone survey and focus groups to see what teens and their parents say about the role and impact of technological writing on both in-school and out-of-school writing. This report looks at teens' basic definition of writing, explores the various kinds of writing they do, seeks their assessment about what impact e-communication has on their writing, and probes for their guidance about how writing instruction might be improved. (Contains 2 tables and 24 footnotes.)

Research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that teenagers use the Internet as an essential study aid outside the classroom and that the Internet increasingly has a place inside the classroom. Findings from a survey of 754 youths ages 12-17 conducted November and December 2000 include: 94% who have Internet access say they use the Internet for school research, and 78% say they believe the Internet helps them with schoolwork; 71% say that they used the Internet as the major source for their most recent major school project or report; 41% say they use e-mail and instant messaging to contact teachers or classmates about schoolwork; 34% have downloaded an online study aid; 18% say they know of someone who has used the Internet to cheat on a paper or test; 58% report using Web sites that have been set up specifically for their school or for a particular class; and 17% have created a Web page for a school project. Findings from a survey of 754 of the parents of those youths are: 87% of parents of online teens believe that the Internet helps students with their schoolwork, and 93% believe the Internet helps students learn new things; 55% say the Internet has been a good thing for their children, 6% say it has been a bad thing, and 38% say the Internet has no effect one way or the other on their children; 55% say that it is essential for today's children to learn how to use the Internet in order to be successful, and another 40% believe it is important; and 28% of these parents have used e-mail to communicate with their children's teachers. Other education-related findings in the survey work of the Pew Internet Project include: 5% of adult Internet users have taken a class online for college credit (more than 5 million people); 53% have gone online to do research for school or job training, and on any given day, 8% are online doing research for school or job training; 52% have done job-related research online, and on a typical day, 16% are online doing job-related research; and about half of Internet users (more than 50 million people) have access to the Internet at work. Following the summary of findings, this report discusses major findings about the Internet in education and examines a sampling of the most popular homework help Web sites. (AEF)