FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - October 27, 1998
For more information contact:
Bob Reap (breap@teachers.net; 619-272-3274)
Teachers.Net http://teachers.net/
SAN DIEGO, CA -- Teachers.Net today announced results from their Fall 1998 On-Line Teachers Survey. The survey shows some startling new trends among teachers using the Internet, such as a high percentage of female teachers of all ages are using the Internet to improve their teaching skills and network with their teacher colleagues around the globe, and the average teacher connecting is married, college educated, and living in North America.
TEACHERS.NET VISITED BY TEACHERS NEARLY 200,000 TIMES EACH MONTH
Teachers.Net - http://teachers.net/ - is the premier resource for educators on-line, providing teachers over two dozen unique teacher chatboards and mail lists, live chatrooms, lesson plans, job listings, reference tools, and much more. Every month, Teachers.Net hosts nearly 200,000 unique user sessions, pulling a total of about 2,000,000 pages each month. According to a recent survey, over 95% of those connecting to Teachers.Net are teachers, either full-time, part-time, or student teachers. This teacher-dominated audience on Teachers.Net doubles every hundred days, roughly approximating the explosive growth of the Internet as a whole. Teachers.Net integrates new members into its rapidly expanding communities by providing dozens of friendly teacher forums where new members are instantly welcomed and invited to participate on a regular basis.
FEMALE TEACHERS OUTNUMBER MALES 9 TO 1 ON TEACHERS.NET!
One of the most surprising findings from the survey is that women are predominantly utilizing Internet teacher resources. Of 1200 teachers surveyed on Teachers.Net, over 90% were females, a complete reversal of gender trends common to other websites. On the Internet in general, men outnumber women by 2 to 1.
One reason that women are so prevalent among Teachers.Net audience members is because women outnumber men by 3 to 1 or more in the classroom. According to Bob Reap, Teachers.Net Resource Development Director, there is another reason why women are so common on Teachers.Net. "Teachers.Net is a integrated community of networking resources. Women seem to be better at integrating into these virtual communities, and appear more willing to participate in the communications that cement these networks. In other words, women seem more willing to interact and collaborate with other women of their peer group."
Family is another theme common to Teachers.Net. Over 75% of the Teachers.Net community listed themselves as married. Most have children as well, with the average number of persons in respondents' households 2.96 (including self). These results seem to indicate that married teachers with families are able to make time to network with their colleagues on-line.
AVERAGE ON-LINE TEACHER NORTH AMERICAN, COLLEGE EDUCATED, AND WHITE
On-line teachers are also a highly educated lot, over 95% of the Teachers.Net audience reports having at least a bachelors degree, and nearly half (44%) hold a masters degree or a doctorate as well. Over 93% of the Teachers.Net users surveyed have a teaching credential.
Teachers on Teachers.Net are a homogeneous grouping in many ways. When asked ethnicity, over 90% responded "caucasian," with just over 2% "African American," and under 2% "Hispanic." This gap between racial groups seems common to the Internet, though not so pronounced as the findings from the Teachers.Net survey. Teachers.Net has pledged to help study and remedy this racial gap. "We are actively soliciting research partners in government and the educational sector," says Reap. "We're hoping to do much more to get these great new Internet tools into the hands of all teachers everywhere."
Teachers visiting Teachers.Net were largely from North America, with over 92% reporting to be from the United States, and another 5% from Canada. Of teachers connecting from the U.S., both California and Texas each represented over 8%. Survey respondents came from all over the U.S., with every state, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands all represented. Outside of North America, only Australia made a significant showing, with 1.25% connecting from down under.
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS FINDING VALUE IN ON-LINE TEACHER RESOURCES
According to the Teachers.Net study, elementary and early childhood teachers seem most drawn to Internet teacher tools. Over 50% of all teachers surveyed were elementary school teachers, and less than 30% taught middle school, high school, or college. "It seems that elementary teachers have the most to gain from on-line teacher networking," says Kathleen Carpenter, Director of Professional Development at Teachers.Net. "These teachers have little chance in their elementary schools to network and share ideas with other teachers at their grade level. The Teachers.Net community provides these teachers a chance to network with other teachers across the planet. Elementary teachers can now brainstorm and problem-solve with over 100,000 of their elementary teacher peers!"
OTHER FINDINGS FROM THE TEACHERS.NET SURVEY
The survey also found that educators of all ages are accessing the Internet, with the average age for teachers connecting 40.6 years. Two thirds of teachers responding were in their 40's, with less than 20% below 30. Internet technology is being used by older teachers as well, with over 20% of those connecting in their 50's or older! "Our support network makes Teachers.Net a friendly place for both tech-savvy teachers as well as teachers who find Internet technologies alien and foreboding," says Reap. "Teachers who are new to the Net can quickly locate supportive mentors to help them with the new Internet tools, and before long the newbies are helping out the next set of newbies!"
Teachers connecting to the Internet are financially comfortable, with the average combined household income $67,041. According to the survey, most teachers spend over 1% of their household income on their class. The average teacher spends over $650 of personal funds on their classrooms. This year, the teachers who visit Teachers.Net alone will spend over a million dollars out of their own pockets on supplies for their classroom.