Yesterday was our first Information Processing class. After we had finished going over routines, procedures, and course outlines; I had the students answer a few survey like questions on the board. Here is the response I got:
How many hours do you use a computer in a day?
0-0.5 - 0 students
0.5-1 - 9 students
2 hours - 13 students
3 hours - 1 students
How many of you have a cellular phone?
22 out of 23 students raised their hand... The one student was somewhat embarrassed that he did not raise his hand, however, I was quick to inform him that I was 21 before getting a cell phone
How many times per day do you use your cell phone?
Every student in the class responded that they constently use their phone for texting friends... We estimated that the average amount of time spent on their cellular device on a weekday would be approximently 4-5 hours
How many students use social networking (ie. facebook, twitter, myspace, etc.)
22 out of 23 students have a Facebook account, a handful had myspace, zero had a blog, and they all came to a consensus that Twitter was "stupid"... I do not know how it works
How many students still use encyclopedias?
ZERO - Does anyone use them anymore?
Conclusions
I was very interested in the response I was going to get. I wasn't shocked with the results that came out of the group. This generation of students have many technological capabilities. As a teacher, I believe it is important to use technology as a "tool" to achieve learning outcomes in subject specific areas.
One of the biggest issues with technology is ensuring it is used properly. We need to educate students how to choose resources wisely. How do we evaluate the validity of the information that we have found? This is vital question teachers need to address, because despite the abundance of information that is out there, not all of it is reliable.
The use of technology is going to continue to grow rapidly. We need to embrace it and use it to our advantage.
Thoughts??
Have a great day!
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9 comments:
Your informal survey is pretty much supported by lots of formalized surveys as well. I really appreciate the Twitter characterization as "stupid"; I don't know ANY kids that use it yet the media continues to focus on it as a "big thing" that "everyone" is using.
KDI
You have the cell phone tally wrong. its really 21 out of 23 students.
Sorry for the tally mistake! Those 2 students still don't need to feel bad because like I said; I was 21 when I got my first cell phone.
As far as the twitter stuff goes... It is "the thing" with celebs and even just the media in general. I am not at all familiar with it though.
you should have used surveymonkey to create a survey...and then you could encourage students to create their own surveys re: technology. just a thought, since i am the best IP teacher in the land.
Dont give him any ideas and no ur not the best IP teacher
Doesn't look like you're the best speller in the land, Anonymous
fine then your
Quit arguing already Mr. Harding rocks no one is better then him ;)
it's than
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