This paper presents the results of an empirical study aimed at analyzing the use of educational opportunities of the Internet by Russian secondary school pupils. The study involved 582 participants (aged 11-16 years), all of them were pupils of 5th-9th school grades. The research questions were focused on the prevalent forms of online educational activity and the sources of information about educational online resources among secondary school pupils, as well as on correlations between the use of the Internet for educational purposes and the academic achievement. The results show that Russian secondary school pupils consider the Internet primarily as a tool for communication, entertainment and recreation. In educational context, they apply the Internet mainly to search for additional information using common engines such as Google and Yandex. Pupils do not get enough information about online educational resources from teachers and parents, so they prefer those educational online resources that they have found on their own. Higher academic achievements are associated with using wide variety of educational opportunities of the Internet and high degree of pupils’ independence in choosing educational online recourses. According to empirical results the authors suppose that the main goals related to developing the educational potential of the Internet use in secondary school are both developing the subjectness of pupils as Internet users and strengthening the authority of teachers and parents as agents of adolescents’ digital socialization.

educational online activity, adolescents, secondary school, academic achievement, online resources, e-learning