Week2readingpres

Middle School Students and Digital

Technology Use: Implications from Research

Courtney, Anderson and Lankshear,

2010

a comprehensive guide to

Ryan Brown 2082535

This presentation will cover:

A brief introduction to the focus of the reading (5 minutes)

Part 1- An outline of technology based attitudes in teaching which affect student learning (8 minutes)

Group discussion (2 minutes)

Part 2- The nature of middle school students in the development of ICT learning (8 minutes)

Group Discussion (2 minutes)

Case Study and Conclusion (5 minutes)

Middle School Students and Digital Technology Use

Ryan Brown 2082535

Ryan Brown 2082535

An introduction: the context

“The effective use of digital technologies in schools has been a major focus… for 25 years.”

“The world has evolved into a ‘knowledge economy’”

“The ‘digital age’ has created an innovative workplace that schools need to prepare students to enter.”

“While schools already employ these technologies in learning, there is a need to increase effectiveness significantly.”


(Courtney, Anderson and Lankshear, 2010, pp. 229)

An introduction: the context (cont.)

The challenge is using ICT to “promote equity, inclusiveness and excellence in educational outcomes and career pathways”


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The key focus:

The Teacher

“Tensions between young people’s digital technology use and teacher confidence.” (Courtney, Anderson and Lankshear, 2010, pp. 230)

The Student

Home-school nexus: Understanding the ‘middle school turn off.’ (Courtney, Anderson and Lankshear, 2010, pp. 232)


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Ryan Brown 2082535

Looking at the Student

“Participate in technology-rich home environments”

“An enthusiastic up taking of multitasking”

“An increasing number of web-connected devices”

“An overwhelming rejection of passive activities in favour of connectivity, interaction and personal contribution.”



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So what about the Teacher?There is a diversity of competence and confidence in ICT

“Teacher confidence in using digital technologies has a significant impact on their students’ uptake”

“Teachers who felt more confident to use digital technologies… reported that their students used ICT more than students of less confident teachers”

“confident teachers also preferred their students to use ICT more for teaching and learning”



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Let’s Talk Community!

“Principals pinpointed teacher confidence and competence as more important factors in the uptake of digital technologies in classrooms than resources.”

“Getting staff to embrace the potentiality of ICT has proved to be more difficult than getting it in.”

“The lack of ICT competence impacts negatively on teacher confidence and creates boundaries against seamless in-school and out-of-school technology use.”


(Courtney, Anderson and Lankshear, 2010, pp. 230-231)

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Table 15.1 Teacher School and system level

boundariesTeacher Level Boundaries

School Level Boundaries

System Level Boundaries

Lack of ICT skill Absence and poor quality of OCT infrastructure

Rigid structure of the schooling system

Lack of Motivation and confidence in using ICT

Lack of high quality hardware and suitable educational software

Inappropriate Training Limited access to ICT equipment

Limited project-based experience and experience in project based learning



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Let’s talk about it

In Small groups, discuss the following questions:

What are the boundaries for ICT in my school?

At what level do these boundaries most prominently apply? (Teacher, School, System)

How could these boundaries be adjusted/removed?


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Guidance that might be helpful in building

a confident and competent mindset

Effective professional development

Teacher laptop ownership programs

Ongoing support in the form of competent peers and ICT coordinators

Access to reliable and wide broadband and overcoming gender issues



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Some advice from my dad!The EATS Model

Exposure

Acquisition

Training

Support


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Ryan Brown 2082535

Part 2: our students

Some Data and Statistics

Research suggests that “it is in the middle school years, or early adolescence, that engagement with learning reportedly declines.”

In contrast to this, it is in “the early adolescent years that young people become more engaged with digital technologies”

“86% of students aged 15 reported using a computer at home.”

“Young people use digital technologies more at home than at school and enjoy home use more.”



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A modern day student

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Is the data equal?

In 2006, 80% of ICT higher education graduates were male, however 53% of all high education graduates were female.

“It was in the middle school years that girls reported they were ‘turned off’ school-based ICT”

“Girls are still under-represented in fields such as Science, Physics and ICT”



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Is the data equal? (cont.)

Despite these early results, the gender gap has changed significantly due to the introduction of the internet and social networking.

The key variable in students’ home computer use is now connectivity, rather than gender/personality.

We describe this difference as ‘information rich’, versus ‘information poor’ families.



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Is it all bad news?

The use of technologies in the home actually promotes life skills:

A wider range of skills and strategies

More problem solving

More developmental thinking skills

More exercises of perseverance, imagination and memory exploration.



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So what do we do?

The challenge of the modern educator is to incorporate home-use and school-use into a dynamic relationship, while still defining the school as a learning-focused environment.

EXAMPLES

Instant messaging promotes ‘virtual’ peer contact in the home, which is modeled on that of a classroom.

Software can be “‘played with’ at home can be fed back into use at school.”



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The Outcomes

“A clear delineation between home and school computer use is becoming more difficult to ascertain, as are the distinctions between formal and informal learning.”

“Young people experience diverse forms of peer reviewing and expert-like feedback that is not typically encountered in school based learning experiences.”

Students enjoy rich ‘tech savvy’ opportunities as they select technologies appropriate for different purposes.”



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Discussion

In small groups, discuss the following questions:

In what ways can we promote effective home-use of computers into our school curriculum?

How can we change student perspectives towards ICT use?

What do we think are the most common barriers for students when it comes to ICT?


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Some ideas…

Give every student their own laptop

Upload subject notes, assessment sheets and documents online

Create engaging technology based activities that are not too prescriptive

Look at our filtering and restrictive systems to allow students a greater feeling of freedom

Match the capabilities of school facilities to meet the home environment



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A case study

Conducted in 2010

Involving 2 schools, 86 males, 76 females and a number of teachers and principles

Asked students and teachers to comment on elements they liked/disliked about ICT use.



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The Results

Students commented that they enjoyed using ICT in school at first (beginning of middle school), but enthusiasm declined each year. There was a notable decline in interest in ICT subjects over time.

Some students, particularly females commented that they would rather interact with people than machines.

In year 8, girls described ICT subjects as ‘boring’. The boys disagreed. By year 10, the gap had closed significantly as the boys sided with the female perspective.



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The Results (cont.)

Common student comments included: ‘It’s too hard to use computers at school,’ and ‘I can’t access anything on them.’

Many students made reference to the fact they are more productive on computers.

Barriers listed included: computer restrictions, computer malfunction, internet filtering, hardware performance, repetition and boredom.



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To Conclude

Our students are becoming increasingly tech savvy.

Teacher confidence and competence are essential! The teachers who are ‘keeping up’, are seeing more effective integration of ICT in the classroom.

Teachers need to be re-thinking the traditional classroom learning structure.

Students enjoy using computers at home more than at school, and they are learning from it.



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To Conclude (cont.)

Our challenge as educators is to harness students’ ICT enthusiasm from home, and bring it into the classroom.

The focus needs to be on preparing our students for the digital workplace. This means keeping up with current technology and information.

Interest in ICT studies at school is declining with age. We need to find a balance, but are so far unsuccessful on the whole.

The answer lies in the utilization of the home-school nexus, and the importance of developing networked learning spaces in which the home-school differences are capitalized upon to turn around the middle school turn off.



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References

Courtney, L., Anderson, N., Lankshear, C. 2010. Middle School students and digital technology: Implications of research (pp.229-240) In Developing a networked school community: a guide to realising the vision. ACER Press. Australia

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