YOU might not know it, but every click on every web page you visit can be recorded. Millions of such “hits” are logged each day. But can much sense be made of the volumes of data that are generated?
Chris Gaine has been analysing moves and choices made by visitors to his anti-racist website Britkids since it was launched with Comic Relief funding in October 1998.
He suggests that the records offer the chance to watch learners thinking. One of Gaine’s interesting findings is that the Chinese girl character Tzu Le was a universally popular choice to follow. Boys and girls of all racial identities spent time with her. My 10-year-old spent half an hour poring over the Britkids pages and thought they were “well good ... there’s all this stuff you can do”.
Britkids is at http:www.britkids.org.uk and Chris Gaine’s report can be found at the European Educational Research Conference site http:www.leeds.ac.ukeducoldocuments00001225.htm
Readers can email suggestions to Sam Saunders at J.P.Saunders@leeds.ac.uk