5. TEST DRIVE OF THE LEARNING SPACE

5.2 NETRO PASSENGERS AND WEB LITERACY

We want to emphasise that the forms used in the test drive of Netro (Form A and Form B) should not be taken as devices for gathering research data that gives us valid and generalisable information about the Netro passengers' awareness. Instead, we used the forms as teachers of the course to familiarise ourselves with the passengers' preconceptions of web literacy, as well as to invite the passengers to reflect on the topic. In other words, the aim of the two forms was partly on the teachers gaining insight into the passengers' conceptions of web literacy both before and after the course, and partly on the passengers themselves expressing both their prior knowledge of the concept, as well as their conceptions of web literacy after the course reflected through their prior knowledge.

We will next introduce the forms and report the answers of the Netro passengers by dividing the content of the answers into three areas: (i) conceptions of web literacy, (ii) me as a web reader, and (iii) the need for web literacy.

We will begin with the conceptions of web literacy. The passengers were asked in the beginning of the course to define web literacy and list the areas and aspects they connect to the concept. At the end of the course, the concept was again addressed by asking the passengers if and how their conceptions of web literacy had changed, and how they understood the concept at that point.

In the pre-Netro forms (Form A), the most present area connected to web literacy was the skill of searching the web and finding relevant information. What was often attached to this was a critical and evaluative attitude towards the web. In addition, aspects such as etiquette, scanning, reading, communication, use of time, the visual mode on the web and web text types and genres were mentioned. However, in general, web literacy was perceived as a somewhat vague concept. For example, the question of the aim of the course and the definition of web literacy was answered in the following ways (translated from Finnish): "general issues related to the web", "conceptualisation of the web", "to familiarise the passengers with the possibilities the web has to offer". It seemed difficult for the passengers to articulate what kind of aspects the concept of web literacy contains.

In the post-Netro form (From B), in turn, the conceptions of web literacy seemed more detailed, and all of the passengers wrote that their conceptions of the topic had broadened or at least changed to some extent during the course. In this form, areas that were related to web literacy were such as images, texts and styles and their interpretation and meaning, finding and evaluating information, reading and writing, as well as influencing and understanding the backgrounds of possible authors. What is interesting to notice when comparing these answers to the pre-Netro answers is that in addition to the reading related topics several passengers attached also writing and producing related topics, for instance, how to take into account the diversity of the audience when creating a web site.

As to the passengers' conceptions of themselves as web readers, the form in the beginning of the test drive revealed that most of the passengers regarded themselves as "average" or "quite proficient" web users. There were a few exceptions of "very proficient" or "not so proficient". After the course, many of the passengers saw themselves as more web literate than before the course, and they stated that their conceptions of web literacy had changed or broadened to some extent. However, what is most interesting to notice when examining the passengers' comments on their level of proficiency is the tendency that many of them regarded themselves not as web literate as they had perceived themselves before the course. It seems that as the passengers had gained more insight in the concept of web literacy, they began to feel the need to still improve in various aspects of web literacy. These new challenges might be interpreted as a call for web literacy education.

The passengers were further asked to state their views on the need for web literacy both in the beginning and after the course. In the pre-Netro form, a common view was that web literacy is needed in managing everyday life. Web literacy seemed to be considered as an important part of functioning in the different areas of the society. After the course the passengers still agreed that web literacy is needed in all areas of life: in work, in studies and in leisure. Aspects such as finding relevant and reliable information, critical orientation to the web and getting to know different cultures through the web were mentioned as significant parts of web literacy. The overall impression is that web literacy was considered very important among the Netro passengers. One of the passengers wanted, in fact, "web literacy to be taught already in basic level education".

To sum up, through this brief overlook of the passengers' answers the two most significant insights are as follows. First, after Netro the passengers seemed to be more able to verbalise web literacy related issues than prior Netro. Secondly, there seemed to be a tendency of regarding oneself less web literate after Netro than before it. The forms give us valuable information on how web literacy can be understood, and what kinds of tendencies at least this particular group has. This kind of information is, of course, important for any teacher. However, it would be interesting to focus on the passengers' conceptions through a more strict research method through which we could gain more reliable data. For example, it might be interesting to learn more about whether the passengers really developed their metacognitive knowledge and content knowledge of web literacy during the Netro journey. However, this was not meaningful for the scope of this study.