We make comparisons between young people’s use of technology within and beyond school, and I present some research in this area, exploring particular the implications for classroom practice. You spend part of the session exploring young people’s work in Scratch, commenting on particular examples within your blog.
I introduce you to Comic Life, which you use this to create a more conventional, linear storyboard for your project.
Key term to describe this gap, or perceived gap between use at school and at home.. US study of 136 students. Five metaphors of Internet use, including, and remember this is seven years ago now, ‘virtual study group’. Schools and teachers generally hadn’t realised the new ways students were communicating and accessing information over the Internet. For the most part, students’ educational use of the Internet occurs outside of the school day, outside of the school building, outside the direction of their teachers.
1200 pupils, 12 primary and secondary schools, summer 2004. 89% with access to computers at home. Educational use at home modelled on use in school. “Children who have more opportunities to access information/educational opportunities outside of school are more likely to be motivated by school work.” “ There is also a risk that increased home-school links and therefore parents’ awareness of, and involvement in, children’s home use of ICT may undermine the qualities of home ICT – freedom to experiment and so on - that children value and which motivates them to use it.” many pupils, particularly girls, were using ICT (including telephones and txt) for communication on homework, although this was informally, rather than through any system supported or monitored by the school.
Looking at technology from the perspective of children, stories about how they use online spaces to build relationships and create original content. Interviews, discussions, conversations, 60 diaries, poll of 600 parents. “ The use of digital technology has been completely normalised by this generation, and it is now fully integrated into their daily lives. The majority of young people simply use new media as tools to make their lives easier… Almost all are now also involved in creative production, from uploading and editing photos to building and maintaining websites. … many children we interviewed had their own hierarchy of digital activities when it came to assessing the potential for learning… they were very conscious that some activities were more worthwhile than others.”
Obviously focussed on e-safety, but much of the evidence gathered by Tanya Byron and her team very relevant, and those interested in the field will find much of value in the research reports commissioned by the Byron Review.
“ Online spaces provide unprecedented opportunities for kids to expand their social worlds and engage in public life, whether that is connecting with peers over MySpace or Facebook, or publishing videos on YouTube,” said Ito. “Kids learn on the Internet in a self-directed way, by looking around for information they are interested in, or connecting with others who can help them. This is a big departure from how they are asked to learn in most schools, where the teacher is the expert and there is a fixed set of content to master.”
This provides an interesting picture of what teens do on line.
Interesting gender differences – boys higher for games, girls for cameras and phones
Notable gender differences Girls leading the boys with music, pictures, chatting and social networks, and blogging and school related learning (16 point difference here!) Boys taking the lead for learning unrelated to school, games and cheats, hobbies, video, ict skills and making websites.
Gender differences again show a similar pattern with games, video editing and programming more popular with boys, writing things, making pictures, presentations and photographs the girls.
This is good news. Our sample actually do quite enjoy IT! Even in school, well over half like it or love it. At home, over 60% say they love IT. I doubt there are many areas of the curriculum, if one sees IT in those terms, that would come out quite so favorably.
There is a perception amongst our sample that their teachers really knew very little about how they were using technology out of school – with over a third claiming their teachers knew nothing about this. Surely one of the ways we can move forward to leverage the benefits of pupils informal learning through technology is to start this conversation.