I got this in the mail this morning – an interesting set of findings that I think are important for anyone who is dealing with technology and learning.
Basically it finds that kids from Grade 9 to university are wired. Most have at least one device and the number of “smart” devices (offering web access) is also increasing to 10% now. Generally it seems that the students have at least a computer (laptop or desktop that is usually about a year old) and a media player. These students spend about 2h per day dealing with the computer (I don’t know if all of them enjoy it).
An interesting finding was that most students preferred using their institutional accounts for dealing with information from their school over commercial accounts. This struck me as off as the big complaint that instructors often pass on is that kids don’t check their uni email accounts and that there is no record of their external accounts in most situations. Students are also stating that they are adept at using and maintaining online services as well as their computers, going against what many instructors project onto their students – that students find CMSes hard to use and computers difficult to maintain.
Matching what I thought to be the case, students reported that interactive (not active) learning via searches, sims/games and chatting/blogging/wiki-ing was their preferred method of learning with technology. Students also enjoy technology integration when it makes things convenien, but that there is no technology that can replace face to face interactions for learning.
Leave a Reply