In spring 2002, within the PERINE project, a questionnaire on the use of the web was administered to university teachers, researchers, experts in the field of education and school teachers engaged in educational action-research activity. The concerned countries were: Germany, Hungary, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Lithuania and Denmark. The aim of the survey was to register the educational experts’ and researchers’ perception of the use of web information services as to their work activity. The questionnaire was made up of 13 close questions and 2 open questions on their familiarity with the Internet, on their Internet competence perception, on their opinions about the Internet being an information gateway, on their current successful use of the medium as well as on their perspective about its future use, on Internet use promoting factors, on their use of specific web-sites, on their frequently-used ones, and, possibly, on issues that were not included in the questionnaire.

On the whole, some 1,571 responses were collected and analysed. Graphs, tables and documentation papers – edited by Sam Saunders from the British Education Index of the Leeds University (UK), co-ordinator of the PERINE project and author of the questionnaire – as well as partner reports on PERINE activities and national findings are available in English at:

http://www.dipf.de/perine/surveys/surveys_overview.htm.

The survey will be carried out one more time within 2 years, at the end of the project, in order to detect possible changes occurred in the meanwhile.

Italian findings are commented below, also in comparison with the general findings and with other national ones. Data relating to general findings – the eight PERINE partner findings – are shown in brackets (in blue italics). Further chi-square statistics relating to the Italian data were made on particular variables – such as gender, age group and work environment – and are shown in red. Some comparisons were also made with Austrian and Danish data.

Note: When speaking about European respondents, Europe situation, or findings across Europe, we mean the findings relating to the eighth countries mentioned above.

As for Italy, during the first months of 2002, INDIRE administered - via e-mail or during conferences and meetings - about 260 questionnaires to educational researchers and experts, getting 180 responses back [55% (52.1%) women].

The sample was composed by: 1. university teachers of educational sciences; 2. researchers from the IRREs; 3. ministerial officials involved in educational research activities; 4. school teachers in contact with INDIRE; 5. professional associations referred to as highly concerned with educational research.

Is has to be stressed that, in case single e-mail addresses were not available, the questionnaire was also sent out to Heads of Department (Institute or Association) asking for disseminating it among their colleagues. This occurred in at least 1/3 of the cases, thus multiplying the number of people possibly replying to the survey. The number of sent questionnaires (260) is, thus, indicative. The responses – mainly sent by e-mail – represented about 70% (indicative percentage).

The respondents are mainly concerned with and work within educational research and teaching: 63% (74.8%) work in Universities or Research Institutes, 27% (6.8%) work in schools, while the remaining 10% (18.4) work in government agencies or in further education institutes.

Since the condition sine qua non for responding to the questionnaire was the fact of dealing with educational research, one should draw that in Italy there is a higher number of school professionals dealing with educational research than in the other countries. Furthermore, there are less female respondents employed in universities than male ones, mirroring the actual Italian situation. The respondents declare not to be particularly involved in the management of research nor in administrative tasks, and women even less than men.

The Italian percentage of seniors is higher than the general one [55% senior (46.1%), 61% in Austria, 67% in Denmark], mirroring the actual difficulty in teacher and researcher turnover processes. Furthermore, the most populated age group [50% (43.41%)] is "over 50", while the age group "less than 35" registered only 8% of responses [(15.7%), 13% in Austria an 11% in Denmark].

Furthermore, there was 55 per cent (52.1%) of female respondents versus 45 per cent of male respondents, a trend that is shared in the eight countries.

With 12% (7%) of "novices" and 14% (13.4%) of "experts", 47% (15.7%) defined themselves as normal "users" rather than "capable users" or "experts". In the other countries, instead, the majority answered "capable users" (49.9%), which might indicate that the Italian respondents are actually less capable than their European colleagues or that they are more self-demanding than the others – or maybe a mixture of the two.

Surprisingly, the findings show that 72% (66.3 %) of the respondents currently use the Internet on a daily basis and that, if one takes occasional users into account, the percentage reaches 95% (91.3 %), while only 1% of the respondents answered "non existent use". As for Italy, it is interesting to observe that no significant statistical associations were found between age group/sex/work environment variables and the frequency of Internet use.

In the questionnaire, the respondents were asked to indicate their opinion ("strongly agree", "agree", "disagree", "strongly disagree") on a series of statements about the structure, use, nature and functions of the Internet and about its impact on the way they worked.

In comparison with the other seven countries, a large number of Italian respondents - 73 % (86%) considering the categories "strongly agree" and "agree" together, a lower percentage than in the other European countries - disagreed with the statement that "finding information on the web is difficult", which might indicate that, on the whole, the respondents are rather satisfied by the retrieved information on the Internet.

In Italy, along with the eight countries in general, the most striking percentage of "strongly agree" was found as for the statement "a comprehensive collection of web links for education would be useful" [57% (51.3%)]. Adding up the percentage of the category "agree", we have 95% (93.4%).

The second most agreed-upon statement was that the web will be an effective way to disseminate research [40% (26.2%)], then that the web has already transformed the nature of their work [39% (27.6%)] and, finally, that advanced search facilities make their work more effective.

On the contrary, as for the eight countries in general, the second most agreed-upon statement was that advanced search facilities make their work more effective and that the variable quality of the Internet is a problem [(51.3%) vs. 26%].

Furthermore, the findings show that Italian researchers are more worried about search facilities than about the variable quality of the Internet. This is probably due to the fact that they consider the web variable quality as a natural attribute of the medium that is easily overcome provided the users have adequate competencies to reduce the noise and to select the retrieved materials.

Both Italian and non Italian respondents disagree with the statement that the web has too much information to be helpful [12% (12.3%) = strongly disagree; 62% (57.5%)].

Since the majority of the respondents considered themselves as simple "users", who normally use search engines and directories as starting points (see below)–, it is rather surprising that 89% of them agreed or strongly agreed on the fact that advanced search facilities – usually used by experts or capable users - make their work more effective. All the more, given that 68% answered that simple search facilities make their work more effective. These answers show some inconsistencies in the respondents’ attitudes. Did they answer on an experiential basis? Did they answer too quickly? Or did they mean that simple and advances search facilities are equally effective?

The most interesting answers:

The majority [54% (58.5%)] of the researchers – above all non Italians – agreed (rather than strongly agreed, 40% vs. 26.2%) with the statement that the web will be an effective way to disseminate research results, that is the outcome of their work. The interesting thing is that, despite this positive perception, one can discern a slight tacit uncertainty in their answers.

The majority of the researchers agreed with the statement that the web had transformed the way they worked and, among all, the Italians were the most enthusiastic: 39% (27.6%) strongly agreed and 39% (49.6%) agreed. However, 22% (22.9%), still browsing the web, worded the question in a negative way (note that only 5% declared not to use the Internet or to use it rarely).

Possible answers to this section questions were only the following three ones: "with some success", "with little or no success" and "not used at all".

In all the eight countries, the majority [85% (74%)] answered to use the Internet to find material/sources – more for research than for teaching purposes. Surprisingly, in Italy, school teachers use the Internet to find material for teaching less than university teachers.

In addition, the Internet is also generally adopted: to get information on conferences [70% (65.5%)], on current events and policies [68% (64.9%)], on educational institutions [68% (72.7%)], and on researchers/research institutions; to compile and share research results in a partnership [57% (25.7%)]; to find out about courses or study offers [57% (25.7%)].

The adoption of the Internet to arrange for journeys is rather frequent in all countries [63% (64.1%)].

It is interesting to observe that the chart of the most positively-worded questions is more or less the same in all countries, with some slight differences (i.e. in Italy, "getting information on conferences" precedes "getting information on other educational institutions"). The only gap is about "compiling/sharing research results in a partnership", statement that was positively worded in Italy, while in general an opposite trend was registered.

In Italy, the question "publishing research results" was not worded positively by the majority of the respondents (only 42%), confirming a modest 40% that worded the previous section statement in a positive way, saying "the web will be an effective way to disseminate research results". In fact, 54% showed some uncertainty, reporting their disagreement. On the other hand, 57% reported that compiling/sharing research results in a partnership was made with some success.

However, in comparison with the other countries, Italian researchers – due to their positive attitude towards research results management on the Internet – seem to be the most favourable to publishing (25.5% vs. 42%), compiling or sharing (25.7% vs. 57%) research results on the net.

Moreover, in general, they seem to be more inclined to publishing on the Internet - despite the little or missing copyrights legislation - than their European peers. In fact, 51% of Italian respondents reported to currently publish other materials than research results on the Internet, while only 31.3% do the same across Europe.

A similar negative trend in all countries was registered, instead, as for finding new partners for research [17% (14.7%)] or special expertise [29% (29%)]. The ways adopted for those purposes are clearly other ones than using the Internet – presumingly personal contacts or previous experiences.

According to all the PERINE’s researchers, obtaining information on research projects and networks is more successful [47% (46.8%)] than obtaining information on project application and management [36% (33.48%)].

Sixty-six per cent (58.4%) of the respondents had never used the Internet for administrative purposes, which might indicate that – in Italy and mainly abroad – researchers seldom carry out administrative tasks, as mentioned above.

In all countries, Italy included, the respondents envisaged an increasing web use for those purposes that were previously worded positively in terms of retrieval success.

Since the above findings are rather obvious, it is worth commenting the findings referring to those purposes that were worded negatively. In this case, one can appreciate which items - whose retrieval was considered as unsuccessful – were still disregarded or neglected.

For instance, finding material/sources for administration registered a weak increase [63% (41.5%)], thus representing a sort of Cinderella in the researchers’ objectives – above all in Italy. Similarly, even though expectations are generally more optimistic, finding new partners for research [63% (54.9%)] was still disregarded, along with finding special expertise [72% (66.4%)]. However, Italian researchers seemed to be more positive in their expectations than their European colleagues.

Considering all items in this section, as for Italian findings, a major confidence in expectations of the Internet use could be discerned, as shown below:

• + 53% à finding special expertise;
• + 50% (54.9%) à obtaining information on project application and management;
• + 46% à publishing research results;
• + 46% à finding new partners for research;

On the contrary, as for all PERINE findings, one can observe that there is a lower rate of increment, still showing a trend similar to the Italian one:

• + 44.2% à finding special expertise;
• + 40.2% à obtaining information on project application and management;
• + 37.6% à publishing research results;
• + 37% à finding new partners for research.

In the questionnaire, respondents could choose among many factors ranging from functional factors (such as courses/training in how to use the web; an information gateway dedicated to the study of education) to non-structural factors (such as more time in the day), to structural/content ones (better organised information on the Internet; availability of more of the right kind of information).

Obviously, structural factors were the most positively worded both in Italy and across Europe, with no differences between women and men. In particular, more structured information was considered as the most convenient factor [87% (81.6%)].

An information gateway dedicated to the study of education reached 79% (72.8%) of positive answers, though it is worth stressing that 21% (27.2%) of the experts - mainly men – think this is actually an irrelevant factor.

Finally, more than half of the experts do not think that courses/training in how to use the web [67% (65.9%), considering negative and quasi-negative answers] or the availability of personal help [52% (64.1%)] might represent promoting factors. Probably, the tendency to think that self-instruction is enough for using the web is widespread in this sample. Apparently, in Italy, a major confidence in getting some personal help was expressed, to the credit of Italian librarians and documentalists. Anyway, within the Italian context, chi-square statistics showed that men were less willing to rely on personal help or training courses than women were (50 women vs. 33 men answered "a big difference" when referring to personal help; 9 women vs. 18 men answered "no difference at all").

Having more time in the day was judged as a convenient factor more by Italians (66%) than by foreigners (60.1%).

Search engines, both in Italy and abroad, take the lion’s share, since 83% (83.7%) use them as starting points for their search on the Internet.

With a less impressive 61% (57.1%), the second starting point considered as most convenient was a own set of bookmark, while, in decreasing order of priority, there were web pages with links provided by others, recommendations from colleagues, references in print or broadcast media, email lists and subject gateways – all below 50%. It is interesting to observe that the availability of a own set of bookmark was more crucial for Europeans (55%) than for Italians, and that references in print or broadcast media were preferred to recommendations from colleagues, to subject gateways and to email lists - all below 50%.

Within the Italian context, subject gateways were found at the bottom of the chart [30% (39.1%)], 10% less than the last-but-one item. Subject gateways turned out to be mainly used by school teachers (+ 10% compared to university teachers and researchers). Thus, subject gateways were disregarded by higher educational professionals, mainly in Italy but also across Europe – where few use them.

The responses to this section of the questionnaire – where three answers were possible: "more than once", "once" and "never" – were rather inconsistent with the findings commented above.

As to all countries [(60.3%) (67%)], the most used site turned out to be the one by the Ministry of Education.

If one considers "more-than-once" answers, one discovers that the most used sites were not specifically oriented to educational research or to sciences of education - in Italy, however, the percentage of respondents did not reached 50%. On-line library catalogues [47% (65.3%)] and on-line newspapers were the most accessed ones.

Teacher training Agency web-sites were found as second preferred sources [46% (55.7%)], followed by on-line scholarly journals [41% (54.2%)], education on-line conference listings, education on-line conference programme search, and education on-line main collections.

As to Italy, the only education database registering 36% of more-than-once accesses is the BIBL bibliographic database – a selective database managed by INDIRE and provided with indexes/ abstracts that are edited by qualified research centres and institutes. Nevertheless, 24% of the respondents completely ignore it. Even though the database is addressed to school teachers, university teachers are paradoxically the main users of the service, which could be somehow interpreted as an indicator of its quality.

Other INDIRE subject databases are even less used than BIBL. "Risorse Internet per le discipline" - a selective database of Internet resources for schools, provided with indexes and abstracts – registered a modest 27% of regular users, while 44% never used it. The survey finds that only 13.8% regularly access GOLD – a database on best practises in schools – and that just 7.7% of the sample use RIVI – a database on periodical articles - more than once. More than half of the respondents answered to have never used the RIVI or GOLD databases.

A comparative analysis of national subject databases is rather difficult, since each country took their national services into account, which are different in content and importance.

Generally speaking, a similar trend to the Italian one could be observed in the other countries too, though with some exceptions: the Danish national educational library registered a regular use by 49.6% of the respondents, while the Bildungsserver educational database registered 53.8% of regular German users. In Hungary, 72% of the sample reported to regularly access the site of the National Educational Research Institute. However, educational databases and services are not among the most used information sources across Europe.

International subject web-sites seem to be even less used by the sample. The massive ERIC database, for instance, registered only 14% of regular users in Italy, and a modest 30.9% in Europe; 61% (49.6%) reported to have never used it.

With 64% (67.9%) of respondents reporting no use, the EURYBASE database – which is well-structured and provides updated information - was found to have few regular users across Europe (11.2%), and only 8% in Italy.

It is, instead, understandable the low access percentage [66% (81%)] to the European database EUDISED on educational research, since the latest updates were made in 1998-99.

The responses given to the open question on the most used web-sites providing professional information show that in Italy, for example, the ministerial web-site on education is the most accessed one (36.1%), followed by the INDIRE site (25.7%), by university or research institute web-sites (22.7%), and, finally, by IRRE web-sites (7.7%) and the INVALSI web-site (4.4%).

Subjects gateways and professional web-sites – the CIDI web-site in particular -, local institute web-sites, trade union web-sites, publisher web-sites, and museum web-sites showed to be visited by 15% of respondents. A sound 23.8% (forty-three people) of experts did not answer to this open question, thus reducing the relevance of some of the previous responses.

On the whole, it is blatantly obvious that, at present, the educational science experts are not particularly interested in specialised educational web-sites and that the international dimension is still underestimated. Then, it would be well worth discovering the reasons for their attitudes.

As a last question, respondents were asked to indicate the aspects that, according to them, the questionnaire had left out. Only one fifth of them provided some feed-back, which is summed-up below:

• Opportuneness of information networks on the state of the art of educational research;

• On-line specialised forums on educational research;
• Creation of a community of interest for educational researchers;
• E-learning;
• Co-operative work;

• Knowledge management on the Internet;

• Web-site accessibility;
• User friendliness;
• Web-page design suitable for the new medium;

• Material selection and quality certification;
• Analysis of user satisfaction about the educational retrieval on the Internet.

It might be of some help comparing the above data with the Austrian ones – for the moment the only ones available:

• Among the mentioned web-sites in the questionnaire, the indicated Internet addresses were no relevant in the field of psychology and psychotherapy;
• Needs for platform with public invitation to apply for commissioned research;
• Increase in the number of pay services on the Internet;
• Importance of the access to scientific magazines;

• Reliability of the data on the Internet;
• Updating of hypertextual links and Internet instability;

• Information organisation on the Internet;

• Accessibility on different computer systems;
• Need for standardisation on the Internet;
• Quality of search functions;
• Quality of web design;
• Noise in the information retrieval;

• Geographical and social variables in the use of the Internet in each country;
• Enforced vs. voluntary use and private vs. professional use;
• Copyrights and quotations issues on the Internet;

• Since there is not an absolute usefulness value of Internet sites or of Internet tools, it is impossible to give an absolute answer.

However, it is to be noted that the issues mentioned as missed-out aspects were partly investigated in the questionnaire. The above remarks were aimed at stressing weak points rather than at pointing out missed-out items.

Having said this, Austrian respondents denote a more articulated and detailed analysis of Internet aspects. Anyway, some issues are recurring elements in both the Italian and the Austrian contexts -such as the accessibility, the friendliness and the knowledge management on the Internet. Other aspects, instead, were differently perceived by Austrian and Italian respondents. Italians, for instance, were more interested in interactive communication on the Internet, while Austrians insisted on technical problems and on social and usage variables.

The sample was identified within researchers in sciences of education – that is university teachers, researchers, and teachers dealing with pure research or with action-research. The Italian sample was found to be composed of middle age people with senior/intermediate professional status. Women numbered more than men – though the difference was not striking.

gender differences

Italian female respondents seemed to feel less confident about their skills but proved to be more willing to answer the questions, to learn and to get some personal help.

The use of the Internet turned out to be mainly on a daily basis, with no differences due to age, sex or workplace variables. The percentage of people not accessing the web is very low.

The majority defined themselves as average users, differently form the other countries were the respondents reported to be capable users. Since there is the tendency to prefer self-instruction to specific courses or training in the use of the Internet, information skills are implicitly perceived as easily acquirable through the direct use of the medium. Even though crucial aspects were reported to be web accessibility and interface friendliness, on the average people did not expressed particular unease about the use of the Internet. On the whole, the respondents reported a certain confidence in their ability to manage heterogeneous information as for quality and quantity variables.

impact of the internet on research activities

Less than half of them were convinced that the Internet had changed the nature of their work - with no significant associations with sex, age group or workplace variables – and that the world wide web would be an effective way to disseminate educational research results. Thus, a widespread feeling of uncertainty was detected as a common attitude across Europe, though in Italy it was more rooted.

At present, in Europe, finding new partners for research or special expertise via the Internet is not as common either, and even in future is not expected to be as such. On the contrary, in Italy, those questions were generally worded positively. Finding information on research projects and networks was generally disregarded too.

The majority of Italian researchers turned out to be more interested in and enthusiastic about future expectations of use of the Internet, even more than their European peers. A better organised information and an information gateway dedicated to the study of education are the most attractive elements, though, at present, subject gateways are still disregarded. As a general trend, however, some uncertainty was registered as for using the Internet to find partnership for research, though Italian researchers are more less sceptical than their foreigner colleagues.

Both in Italy and in Europe, the most common starting points for retrieving information are search engines while subject gateways are very seldom used – in Italy they are the least used. Surprisingly, in Italy as well as abroad, an information gateway dedicated to the study of education was considered as a promoting factor for the use of the Internet. These inconsistent attitudes are probably explained by the fact that subject gateways as they are now are not attractive enough for educational experts, who nevertheless showed to be hopeful in future developments.

The majority of the sample mainly use the Internet to find bibliographic information and material/sources for research. When asked about the sites they most used, also in their professional life (it is to be noted that this was an open question requiring free answers), the respondents indicated government web-sites - such as the MIUR one in Italy – and professional association web-sites much more than those providing scientific information. University and research institute sites proved to be widely accessed, also with the objective of obtaining information on teachers and on researchers. On the contrary, the Internet is rarely used to get information on administrative issues.

further observations

Finally, it is worth observing the interest of Italian researchers both in the co-operative and interactive potential of the Internet and in the e-learning, potential that was little investigate in the questionnaire.