Educational Technology and Research

(Picture from McCrindle.com.au)

This week's assignment was quite fascinating to me.  The info graphics from McCrindle's social research on comparing the different generations really captivated my interest. Not only did I compare my generation to my students', I also looked at the generation that taught me.  I'm from Generation X and my students are at the end of Generation Z with Generation Alpha at their heels.  These kids were born with tech in their blood.  One of the graphs shows how the big tech of my generation was the Walkman.  I remember my first Walkman when I was 12, it changed my world.  Now, technology is moving at such a rapid pace, it's challenging to keep up with it all.  I also was intrigued by the different learning styles.  I wish I was a student during today's times, active learning, collaborating and using different modalities for learning are far more engaging than elementary school instruction in the 70's.  My teachers were from the Builders Generation, it was all about drill and kill. This style of learning was challenging for me because I have always been a visual learner and I could easily remember things put to songs.  

The bit of information from these info graphics that I question is that it stated that 1 out of 2 students from Generation Z will go to college.  Since McCrindle is a research company from Australia, I wondered if that statistic was a global prediction or a prediction just for Australia.  I questioned this because I don't see that being the case for the US.  Especially with the cost of college being so high.  

( From Speak Up Tomorrow Website)

Another research site I found very interesting was the Project Tomorrow Speak Up Report.   Project Tomorrow surveys all stakeholders within a school district on their implementation of technology. Sadly, my school district does not get to participate in this survey.  We do participate in the 5 Essentials Survey which pretty much looks at school climate and community relationships.  (I added a link if you would like to know more about the topic.)  From what I gathered, schools are chosen on whether they have 1:1 tech use in their school.  Data is gathered to view the effectiveness of the tech being used and to predict upcoming trends in technology and education.  

Some of their findings were not that surprising from the last two years.  Pretty much all stakeholders feel that technology is good for the classroom, will keep students more engaged and improve instruction and learning.  Also not surprising was that teachers need to be more comfortable with using technology in the classroom because it's so different from the way many of them were taught. I've seen this topic come up throughout this course.  Our district does a poor job training us in technology.  So much data and research is out there saying how important this is but yet the adequate training is not being done.  Another trend mentioned was the use of social media for educational purposes. Purposes I have found during this class, especially with blogging and Twitter. 

( From Speak Up Tomorrow Website)

The last bit of information that caught my attention was the article (and clip) on Teens, Social Media, and Technology from the Pew Research Center.  This article discusses the use of social media by today's teens.  I guess Facebook is no longer the preferred platform.  Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube have captured the attention of today's teens.  According to the article, 95% of teens have access to a smart phone, with nearly half of them spending a lot of time online.  What I found the most interesting is that there seems to be no conclusive evidence on the effect on teens who spend so much time using social media.  I predict with time, this will change.