Let's face it, half the students my age either had worthless sex ed classes in school or none at all. Apparently scientists have actually figured out what a waste of time it is, as researchers from U of T, Yale and some South American groups did a study on the merits of sex ed... online? Guess age 18 and up doesn't apply here, huh?
The study observed the effects of taking the course using 138 9th Graders from 69 ridings within 21 cities in Colombia as the test sample. The students spent 30 minutes a day on the associated site, performing interactive activities, as well as speak back and forth openly with questions and answers to a Profamilia tutor. The idea is that the anonymity and privacy the internet offers allows people to be more receptive on what is, at that age (and for many, most ages) a delicate subject. After 6 months of the course, there was a 10% increase in condom use and a lowered late of infections in the test batch. This proof of concept now offers the opportunity to implement similar programs in North America, as even with the lower rates of teen pregnancy and STIs, "There's still room for improvement," according to Dr. Gonzales-Navarro.
Of course, this also serves to highlight one of the things information systems do well; increase efficiency and effectiveness of information transfer. Through technology like the internet, information can be made available to anybody as desired, and presented in a meaningful way. The fact it does a better job than a classroom model comes from a combination of this and the privacy offered by this method. My only question is why it took scientists this long to use this method; after all, the internet is where most people my age had to learn about sex because of how bloody useless SexEd is in Canada. Just saying.
Article retrieved here. It's been fun, but it seems my article presentations are at an end. Ta-ra!
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