The Internet was revolutionary in the 1990s. Reiser (2001) discussed how it helped facilitate distance learning, job opportunities, and knowledge management. In the 2010s, there was a push to utlizie the Internet for learning and content and assumptions that is helped create more effective learning environments (Buchanan et al. 2014). However, the study conducted in 2014 illustrated, "The findings of these two studies do not suggest that ISE is an important influence on use of online technology in the educational field. It does appear to have an impact on (self-reported) online behaviour, at least in terms of the time spent online each week. However, it appears that this time spent online is not reflected in those educational activities whose use it was possible to monitor. It is thus more likely to represent personal rather than academic Internet use, or academic work outwith the bounds of the VLE. Furthermore, ISE does not appear to influence students’ attitudes toward learning technologies" (Buchanan et al., 2014, p.11).
The Internet gave rise to different types of literacy and challenged the idea of what a text was and concepts of intertextuality. A paper published in 2016 revealed that there was a direct connection to strength of formal literacy skills (reading, writing, etc) and its connection to digital and information literacy skills; the stronger the foundational skills, the better the outcome (van Duresen and van Dijk 2016).