This article reviews the author's work as an evaluator for Internet-related school improvement initiatives in the USA. One of the latest research areas has to do with the processes associated with reading online. Because online information is fundamentally hypertextual, reading online is different from reading printed books. Evidence suggests reading via the Internet requires new metacognitive monitoring abilities, awareness of choice-making among hyperlinks on a web page, and internal narration to synthesize hypertextual information. These points contrast with the more familiar processes associated with reading print. The article explores the current understanding about the nature of read online and poses questions for further investigation.
">This article reviews the author's work as an evaluator for Internet-related school improvement initiatives in the USA. One of the latest research areas has to do with the processes associated with reading online. Because online information is fundamentally hypertextual, reading online is different from reading printed books. Evidence suggests reading via the Internet requires new metacognitive monitoring abilities, awareness of choice-making among hyperlinks on a web page, and internal narration to synthesize hypertextual information. These points contrast with the more familiar processes associated with reading print. The article explores the current understanding about the nature of read online and poses questions for further investigation.