INTERNET FOR CAMBODIAN STUDENTS: USES, ATTITUDES AND ACADEMIC UTILIZATION PI: Chivoin Peou Mentor: May O. Lwin 1

Cambodian Internet ( )  Internet users: <1% (pop. 14 million)  Broadband subscription: 0.2 per 100 inhabitants  Number of ISPs: 34  Home access: 0.43% (urban households) & 0.11% (households countrywide)  Outside-home access: 3.64% (urban households) & 0.85% (households countrywide)  Internet cafés: 320  PC ownership: 15.7% (urban households) & 3.7% (countrywide) 2

Internet and Education  Digital divide: Benefits vs. Exclusion  Learning resources  More positive perceptions of learning and job prospects (Cheung & Huang, 2005)  Access, uses and academic utilization  Perceptions: toy, technology, tool & tour (Taiwan, Tsai & Line, 2004)  Communicative more than academic usage (U.K., Marriott et al., 2004; Selwyn, 2008; Walmsley et al., 2003)  Chatting > games > information > pornography (China, Hong & Huang, 2005)  Online plagiarism (Selwyn, 2008; Underwood & Szabo, 2004) 3

Objective  Exploratory – among university and high school students in the capital city  Research questions: 1. How do the students access and use the Internet? 2. What do they use the Internet for? 3. What are their attitudes toward the Internet? 4. How much of the Internet is utilized for academic purpose? 4

The Study  Survey in mid-2009 (end of academic year) at two high schools and four universities (overall typical of the several dozens in Phnom Penh in terms of resources, qualities, specializations and tuition)  Participants:  2,074 students (uni.=75% & high sch.=25%)  Male=54% & Female=46%  Grades (high sch.): G10=32%; G11=37%; G12=31%  Year levels (uni.): 1=33%; 2=27%; 3=22%; 4=18%  Specialism areas (uni.): Arts & humanities=39%; Social sciences=22%; Business & related=21%; Sciences=13%; Law=5% 5

Access & Usage  Internet use experience = 85% (uni.=90% vs. high sch.=70%)  Male = 91% vs. female = 79%  Regular access points (≥1 per week)  Internet caf é = 46%  Mobile phone = 32%  On-campus = 25%  Home = 19%  Length of Internet experience:  <1 year = 36%  1-2 years = 32%  3-4 years = 21%  >4 years = 11% 6

Internet Uses  3 main types of common uses (from most to least common): (1) Information seeking, (2) entertainment, and (3) socialization  Longer usage experience  more information seeking, entertainment and socialization uses  Information seeking: (1) more uni. students than high sch. students; (2) more males than females  Entertainment: (1) more high sch. students than uni. students; (2) more males than females 7

Attitude toward the Internet  Overall positive attitude toward the Internet:  Comfort: absence of anxiety about, or feeling at ease with, the Internet  Optimism: belief that the Internet has positive impacts on humans and society  Enthusiasm: feeling of excitement with the development of the Internet  Longer usage experience  more positive attitude toward the Internet  More usage for information seeking  most positive attitude toward the Internet 8

Academic Utilization  Little academic use of the Internet:  More academic use among males, uni. students, longtime users, and café and home users 9

Conclusions  Growing access and integration, but lack of academic utilization  Common dividers: gender, educational level and resources  The importance of public access venues (e.g. Internet café) 10

Implications for Stakeholders 11  Educational Institutions: curriculum improvement and teaching staff training  Royal Government of Cambodia and Ministry of Education: Infrastructural improvement and policy support for educational institutions  Funding agencies and NGOs: Policy and expertise support for educational institutions and governmental agencies

Thanks for the attention! 12