students

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Technology Usage up With K-12 Students

techFrom staff reports, e-School News, February 25, 2013 — More than half of students in grades 6-8 now have access to a tablet computer—a percentage that has doubled since last year. And Twitter use has grown three-fold among high school students in the last year, with a third of high schoolers now using the popular micro-blogging service.

These are a few of the results that the nonprofit Project Tomorrow has released from its annual Speak Up survey of students’ and parents’ technology use, as well as their attitudes and opinions about ed tech.  The findings come from Project Tomorrow’s survey of more than 364,000 students last fall.

Here are those 10 facts…

1. Students say they use the internet to help with homework at home.

2. Students want to learn any time, any place—and at their own pace.

3. A majority of students support the “flipped classroom” model.

4. A growing number of students are asking for digital texts—but print is still the preferred method of reading.

5. More students are learning via YouTube.

6. Students would like to be able to text their teachers for help.

7. Students are experiencing gaming at a younger age.

8. Use of Twitter is exploding among young people.

9. Facebook is now a regular destination for group projects.

10. Students’ use of mobile devices continues to rise.

Read the entire story by clicking here.

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Five Common Misconceptions About Today’s Students

hapy-teensBy Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor, eSchool News, December 11, 2012 — It seems that every generation has a few gripes about the younger ones. But are there misconceptions specific to today’s students? We asked our readers what they thought were the “common misconceptions about today’s students.” Their responses fell into five broad categories, and are collated and expressed below, edited for brevity.

1 – Today’s students are all tech savvy – Just because they have technology doesn’t mean they know how to use it well.

2 – Students are disengaged. Sure, some don’t care. But that is apparently not the prevailing attitude.

3 – They’re not good communicators – Some write poorly and can’t express themselves, but that’s a challenge to the teacher.

4 – Students from poor families can’t succeed – There are certainly many examples that disprove that old idea.

5 – They’re never outdoors – If you think kids stay indoors all their free time, playing video games, think again.

Read the entire post by clicking here.

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Teachers concerned about students’ online research skills

By eSchool News staff, eSchool News, November 5, 2012 — Teachers are concerned that students are a little too quick to turn to Google and other internet search engines for answers: That’s one finding of a Pew Research Center survey of more than 2,000 teachers nationwide queried about students’ digital research habits.

“Now, by default, they go online and they search,” said Lee Rainie, director of Pew’s Internet and American Life Project. “In some respects, that simplifies things.” On the other hand, Rainie said, it means that students are prioritizing that information in a way that might not give them access to all the high-quality and relevant stuff that would be useful.

Read the entire story by clicking here.