Hi All,
Just some notes I made whilst reading.
Salaway et al. (2008)
ECAR Research
Methodology: multiple research ( literature review, quantitative web based survey, student focus group, analysis of qualitative data and a comparison of longitudinal data)
A quick overview of what I thought was important:
Mobility: Laptops and Internet-capable cell phones
Laptops is the computer platform of choice. One can divide these users in 3 groups:
* The ones with up to date devices
* The ones with slightly older devices (likely to encounter problems)
* Now computer owners (1.5%): digital divide or digital dissidents??
Investigation is going on to the maturation of mobile handheld devices. Still 66.1% is not using these mobile devices because of:
* difficult to use
* high costs
* slow response
25.9% is using them, this group is called the early adopters of technology.
Computer and Internet activities
Almost all respondents report using high-speed access to the internet, only 1.9% is using dial up.
Technology is for:
* Communication: email, social networking (facebook), text messaging and Instant Messaging
* Interactivity: wikis, blogging, sharing video’s and photo’s
* audio/video creation: Flash, Photoshop
* Online Gaming: Everquest, World of Warcraft. An increasing use of online virtual worlds like “Second Life”.
IT Skills and Internet Literacy
General perception of IT skills: “fairly skilled” to “very skilled” in core applications like Office tools and Course Management Systems (CMSs)
General perception of Internet Literacy: Consider themselves as Internet savvy; very skilled to experts.
An interesting comment however: “many educators believe that their skills are questionable, characterizing their approach to information literacy as do-it-yourself and often relying too heavily on peers rather than library staff or faculty”.
They may have this confidence because either they grew up with technology or are unaware of the complexities involved.
The author continues and says: “This potential gap between actual and perceived skills and literacy is important to understand and factor into strategies for teaching and learning at the institution.
In other words: define the gap and you solve the divide between practitioners and students?
IT in Course
An interesting chapter with surprising results.
Although interested in IT, 59.3% prefer only a moderate amount of IT in their courses. It suggests that IT resources are best situated in a variety of other learning environments!
Technology should not eclipse valued face-to-face interaction with instructors.
ECAR speculates a trend away from age as a differentiator: technology is becoming increasingly integrated into the lives of students of all ages.
Surprise: 50.8% likes to learn through programs they can control such as video games or simulations: game based learning in higher education.....now as a teacher I would like to see a research about that. The current software I use in my class is mainly based upon games: shooting the right balloons with the right answer, finding your way through a maze with an online map etc...and this is primary level.
Participating in online courses: negative feedback, four main complaints (comments made by traditional students):
* lack of face-to-face interaction
* online courses facilitates cheating
* technical problems still exist
* it requires “self study” therefore more demanding
Use if CMS by 82.3% and is experienced as positive and very positive.
Instructor use of IT in courses
In general three groups:
* 44% respond that instructors use IT effectively in courses
* 34.1% respond that most of their instructors provide students with adequate training for the IT used in courses
* 35.2% reports that their instructors understand the IT Skill levels of their students
The Impact of IT in courses
This research provides an opportunity to learn about how students perceive the impact of IT on their academic course work; is IT in higher education bringing students success? Convenience is the most valued benefit of IT in courses.
Digital Divide
Surprisingly IT preference tend to differ when it comes to gender: 52.8% males consider themselves to be early adopters of technology compared with only 25.2% females.
Two groups: the ones that are technology orientated and the ones that aren’t. The latter prefer less IT in course and claim not to be IT skilled.
“The divide between those groups highlights the reality that a one-size-fits-all technology strategy for teaching and learning may not as be as effective....”
Social Networking Sites (SNS’s)
85.2% is using SNS’S which makes researchers take this seriously. SNS usage has increased, mainly to do the following:
* stay in touch with friends
* Share photo’s, video’s, music and other work
* Meet people, invite new people, to know more about people
* Communicate with class mates about course related topics.
Kennedy et al. (2006)
‘Questioning the net generation: a collaborative project in Australian higher education’.
Methodology: This project will particularly focus on students’ use of new and emerging technology-based tools in three areas: communicating, publishing and file sharing. It will be then conducted in three stages: Investigation, Implementation and Dissemination by questionnaire.
Communicating:
* Traditional digital communications technologies (mobile phones and email)
* Other web- and phone-based communications tools, including instant messaging software (e.g. Messenger), social networking software (e.g. Friendster), and discussion forums.
* SMS or Text messaging has become an integral communication activity for young people; a recent study at The University of Melbourne found that 96% of first year students have unlimited access to a mobile phone with 80% using it on a daily basis to ‘text’ others (Kennedy, Krause, Churchward, Judd & Gray, 2006).
Publishing:
Web pages,blogs and wikis. The Melbourne University study referred to above found that 35% of first year students had contributed to their own blog in the last year with 21% contributing to it on a weekly basis (Kennedy,et al., 2006).
Sharing:
Web syndication and RSS feeds have facilitated the distribution of material published on the
web. It has particularly facilitated the distribution of audio or video files (podcasting) and allows people
to download and play audio and video clips on their own computers, mobile phones or MP3 players.
Individuals are also using the web to share material such as photographs or images (e.g. linklist).
Kennedy makes some interesting comments and quotes various researchers about their findings of the Net Generation (Digital Natives or Y-Generation).
However, he also writes: “little empirical evidence has been provided to support claims made about the Net Generation and its implications for higher education (for a rare exception, see Kvavik (2005). Furthermore, a number of fundamental assumptions made by commentators on the Net Generation warrant critical examination”.
Kennedy examines the following assumptions: how well we know our students and how we can ensure we meet their real needs and not what we imagine they might need.
1. First, it is assumed that all commencing first year University
students are part of the ‘Net Generation’. However, this group is not homogenous – Jonas-Dwyer and Pospisil (2004) predict that on the basis of age, 40% of students enrolling in undergraduate studies in 2006 will not be part of the Net Generation.
2. A second assumption is that all first year University students have a sophisticated knowledge and understanding of ICTs while teachers in higher education are largely technologically illiterate and need to improve their ICT understanding and practice. Such broad generalisations risk overlooking a more complex mix of ICT skills and knowledge among
student and teacher populations.
3. Finally, there is an inherent assumption that because students are using particular technologies in their everyday lives this warrants their use in teaching and learning. However, it is not clear that students want their ‘everyday technologies’ to be adopted or appropriated as ‘learning technologies’. Moreover, it is not clear that emerging technologies and students’ everyday skills with them will easily translate into beneficial technology-based learning.
Interesting conclusion: “very little empirical research has actually questioned the Net Generation about their experiences with technology and worked with educational practitioners to determine the implications this has for Higher Education.”
…… overreacting to the ‘techno-hype’ voiced by Prensky and others”.