Education and Technology Survey

Wow.  Google Documents has some great features.  After the results of this survey (Millennial Kids Technology Use Survey) were in, Docs had a great way of showing a summary of the data including graphic representations (bar and line graphs, and pie charts) and the data was summarized accurately and easy to read.

However, it was impossible to print, copy and paste, or link to using any reasonably simple process.   It is good to be reminded that neither computers, nor the teachers using computers, are perfect, and we should not expect the students using them to be either.

I was also surprised how honest the students who took the survey were.  Almost no one claimed they spent most of their time on the computer for schoolwork!  I was surprised, since I’m certain at least one student thought I could see the results by who took the summary. 

Now, data analysis is not my profession, but I do know that looking at data in seclusion is not often the best choice.  Knowing this, I looked at the survey responses to two questions side-by-side: “What do you use your computer for?” And “On a scale of 1-5, how productive do you feel on the computer?”

There was one response to each question that was chosen by over 50% of those surveyed.

What do you use your computer for? Games. (60%)

On a scale of 1-5, how productive do you feel on the computer? 3 (50%)

Only 20% of respondents chose 1 (Wasting time) or 2 to grade their productivity on the computer.   The rest all seemed to think that Social Networking, Gaming, and Other Entertainment are at least marginally productive.  This is something that educators should keep in mind, that time spent on the computer could be seen as productive even when it is not spent doing work.  Perhaps this is because it is interactive and not passive like the television.  This is a trap that everyone has to avoid, whether we’re at the office, in the classroom, or at home on the computer.  Just because you have some work open on the computer, doesn’t mean you’re being productive.  How we teach that is something I will think about and post about in the future.

Millennial Kids with Webspiration!

What are Millennial Kids?  Can we really define them with one statement?  Probably not, and that is why we have graphic tools like Webspiration to help us look at complex, undefined concepts.

Here is a look at how three current and future educators structured our ideas  about Millennial Kids: Webspiration Graphic Organizer

Only one of the terms in the first row seems any dfiferent than students a decade ago.  Multitasking, Social, and Phones, as terms defining Millennial Kids, also seem to define students who grew up in the 90's.  The term that is different, and the term in the first row that really defines Millennial Kids, is Broadcaster.

Broadcast - To transmit for public or general use.  To make known over a wide area.

Wow.  What could we use to broadcast these days?  Television and radio were the old methods of broadcasting, and those were not available for public use.  Even in the 90’s, with the Internet starting to hit full swing, the methods of broadcasting were dispersed and very cliquey.   Facebook though, now there is a place where any message you share can be seen by hundreds or thousands of people!  Middle and high school students have hundreds or thousands of “friends” who are updated when they post that they are in a relationship, that they’re doing their homework, or that they’re just feeling bored.  Now that’s broadcasting!

Broadcasting must fulfill some need.  Perhaps they fulfill a need to be connected and accepted by your community.   What better way to find a community willing to accept you then by posting your opinions and thoughts online?  Millennial kids can cast a wide net over hundreds of friends to find who connects with their latest post.  This does sound much more efficient than meeting people one at a time to discuss ideas with.

Building on the broadcasting students can do with Facebook, twitter, and blogs, students stay connected in increasingly more ways – texts, blackberry messenger, instant messaging, Skype, etc.  This second row of concepts in the Webspiration offer a second look at the connections that Millennial kids make.  While not broadcasting, they are small, constant communications.  Do they make up for fewer opportunities for face-to-face interactions?  Many people from older generations would say no, but can we judge?  We’ll have to wait for further information to find out.

You were born WHEN?!

I currently work in a classroom with third and fourth grade students.  While I am considered young by many of my colleagues, I still often find myself amazed by when the students in my classroom were born.  It's not their ages, as third and fourth grade students are always roughly the same age, between eight and ten, but the fact that not one of them was born in the twentieth century!

When I was born, the internet was already in its most infant stages - an idea of connecting more and more computers over a network.  However, I still grew up without regular access to the internet.  Students in today's schools have never known a world without the internet, and many have not known a world without Facebook.

This means that students are not used to the restrictions of 20th century media mainstays such as television and books.  The buzz word now is interactive! This is supported in all three articles.  In one article, Opening Up Education, the authors claim that "Web 2.0 has blurred the line between producers and consumers of content and has shifted attention from access to information toward access to other people." (p 14) and I agree with this and would go one step forward.  It's no longer about access to information, but the ability to broadcast your own information.  Growing Up Digital uses the term broadcast as well, and I think that this term, as well as interactive, hit right at the heart of where technology meets education.

Good teachers find a way to plan around the idea that their students are not all the same and have different learning strengths according to Gardner's multiple intelligences.  In the same way that in 1990, teachers were trying to get me to use my hands in lessons, sing songs to remember facts, and discuss in small groups to reinforce concepts through interpersonal communication, the internet allows students in 2011 to manipulate objects, listen to and create podcasts and music, and communicate with millions of people.  If accessing these multiple learning styles is the right way to do teach in a classroom, then mirroring that experience outside of the classroom through creating class activities, networks, and broadcasting projects should be strong reinforcement of information learned in the classroom.

That brings me to my last two reactions to these articles.  Both reference visuals in Growing Up Digital.
The first is the "Knowledge as Iceberg" visual.

This image really hit home for me.  Working in an urban special education environment, I interact with students every day who have not had exposure to the books, stories, world ideas, etc that I would have considered standard for their age.  What I do find though, is that many of my students have built a knowledge base that allows them to access that information.  If they do not know where Egypt is, as it is in the news right now, they know how to go find information on Egypt using a computer.  These skills will serve them well not only in their classroom, but as life-long learners.  Weeding through information to find what is relevant to your query is a skill that this new wired generation will have to learn to excel.

The last point is reacting to the visual of "Web+ as a Transformative Learning Tool".

The authors describe the usefulness of the internet for education as an S curve.  That implies that their will be a leveling out of the quality and accessibility of programs and information on the web.  This will just not be the case.  As new platforms arrive on the scene, we as educators, and "digital immigrants" (Digital Native) must quickly find the best way to incorporate them into our teaching, before they become old news for students