Educational Tech Research!

A Digital Presence

Hi everyone! This week's focus is about research and statistics regarding educational tech.
As mentioned in prior posts, my classroom has 1:1 iPads that are able to be taken home.
This week, students were able to take home their iPads to review the digital guide book provided by the district to then sign and return their Digital Guide form. Within this book and form students are to understand the responsibility and goals of having an iPad. In addition, students are learning throughout the year about what it means to be a digital citizen. Our student objective for quarter one is "Students understand how to post appropriate comments, pictures, and information online." Thus, students are learning how to think before posting and the importance of creating a digital identity.   

Within reading Teaching Digital Citizens in Today's World:Research and Insights Behind theCommon Sense K–12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum I was surprised by the percentage of teens who believe digital media is important for self-expression. According to the statistics, "Twenty-seven percent of teens say social media is "extremely" or "very" important for expressing themselves creatively" (Project Zero & Common Sense Education, 2019). I would have thought this percentage to be higher considering how often teenagers are on their phones. I remember growing up in the era of Myspace and how diligently I edited my profile so that it can represent who I was. I remember spending hours editing my page, including music I liked, the perfect background, etc. Now, many teenagers use Instagram to blog photos of their life, their likes, dislikes, etc. This social media app is usually used for self expression and to raise awareness of what someone is up to or what they enjoy. 

Because I teach 1st grade this statistic from Teaching Digital Citizens in Today's World:Research and Insights Behind theCommon Sense K–12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum  also shocked me: 
"Kids age 5 to 8 spend an average of nearly three hours per day using screen media, with one hour of that time on mobile devices (Rideout, 2017). Though television still dominates screen time for younger kids, younger kids use mobile devices to play games, engage with apps, read books, and watch videos, TV shows, and movies (Rideout, 2017)." This school year, the first grade team as a whole decided that the iPads will not be taken home Friday afternoon and will remain in the classroom for the weekends. This teaches students that their iPad is to be used a learning tool as opposed to a tool to access games. This also limits screen time on the weekends. 

After reading the PDF, I then proceeded in visiting the website, Common Sense Media. Within this website, you can view different quarterly survey series relating to technology. Interestingly enough, the first one that caught my eye was YouTube and Device Addiction. According to this survey, only 39% of the families are extremely aware of what their child is watching on YouTube. This number shocked me because many parents are not aware of what their child is viewing and perhaps becoming influenced by. Having a digital presence gives children the opportunity to explore their interests, building their personality and influences. Also within this data, it was recorded that only 24% of families were somewhat aware of what their child was watching on YouTube. At various glances, I notice what my niece is watching. Everyday I see a children using a cellphone and having their eyes glued to the screen. Children of all ages enjoy watching YouTube videos. Creating your own youtube channel and vlogging has become incredibly popular in today's society! One channel my niece is subscribed to is Ryan ToysReviews. Ryan is very popular and is only 7 years old with 21 million subscribers!!! He now has his own toy line and show on Nickelodeon. His videos revolve around his life and giving reviews of toys. By viewing his channel, my niece is highly influenced by him and makes connections to his videos when at the store or at home. 

Overall thoughts...

Technology is only getting bigger and better. It is constantly updating and upgrading. I believe the only thing we can do as educators is become informed by researching the benefits of technology and the impact it makes on our students. becoming informed in new tech tools to use and the digital identities our students have creates an ability to include what they enjoy into their daily learning! 
Please visit the Common Sense Media site to view the different surveys and do some of your own research! 🙂
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Enjoy this GIF of the one and only Michael Scott! 

Resources




Comments

  1. NMZumpanoSeptember 27, 2019 at 8:55 AM

    Thanks for such a thoughtful reflection about the research and how it relates to your learning space. I LOVE that the first grade team decided that iPads needed to stay in school for the weekend! Did you have any pushback from the parents about this?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jessica VelezSeptember 29, 2019 at 8:13 AM

    Jennifer,

    I absolutely loved reading your blog post! There were so many times I found myself agreeing with what you said! One thing that I was somewhat surprised by was "24% of families were somewhat aware of what their child was watching on YouTube". I to have a 3 year old niece and her capabilities and awareness of what she wants to watch on YouTube is mind-blowing. She can navigate YouTube with no problem and clicks and watches the most obscure videos sometimes. How does one monitor that all the time! We tend to prejudge those parents who don't know, but I can imagine that is a very laborious task. Thanks for this insightful blog post!

    ReplyDelete

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