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’How do they even do that?’: How Today’s Technology is Shaping Tomorrow’s Students

The document discusses how technology is shaping the experiences and educational environments of today's students, particularly focusing on the impact of social media and mobile devices. It highlights changes in communication, relationship-building on campus, and learning expectations, emphasizing the dual nature of technology as both a distraction and a resource. Additionally, it raises questions about the future of education as new technologies, such as MOOCs, continue to evolve and integrate into academic settings.

Education◦Technology◦
Related topics:
Social Networking•
"How Do [They] Even Do That?": How Today's Technology is Shaping Tomorrow's Students Amanda Lenhart | Pew Research Center Dartmouth College April 9, 2013
• Part of the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan “fact tank” based in Washington, DC • PRC’s mission is to provide high quality, objective data to thought leaders and policymakers • Pew data included in this talk is from nationally representative telephone surveys of U.S. adults and teens (on landlines and cell phones) • Presentation slides and all data are available at pewinternet.org
I. WHAT IS THE TECHNOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT OF TODAY’S TEENS? 6/12/2013 3
6/12/2013 4 This is Elizabeth. She will be a first year college student in the Fall of 2013. What kind of technology did she grow up with? What kinds of technology does she use now?
WHAT ARE THE DISRUPTIONS SPURRED BY EACH OF THESE INNOVATIONS? 6/12/2013 5
January 9, 2009 6 Elizabeth – Born 1995 PCs are 20 years oldEmail is 27 years old Today: 67% of teens use email Today: 93% of teens access a desktop/laptop @ home
January 9, 2009 7 Elizabeth – Born 1995 Commercial cell phones were 17 years old Today: 78% of teens have a cell phone
Elizabeth – Born 1995 January 9, 2009 8 World Wide Web is 5 years old. Today: 95% of teens use the internet First great browser – 1993 Netscape IPO – Aug. 9, 1995
January 9, 2009 9 Elizabeth – Toddler years Palm Pilot – 1996 Today: 37% of teens own a smartphone
January 9, 2009 10 Elizabeth – Toddler Years & Pre-school Blogs – 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003 14% of online teens keep blogs (down from 30% at peak
January 9, 2009 11 Elizabeth – First Grade Wikipedia - 2001 Today: 70% of online youth use Wikipedia
January 9, 2009 12 Elizabeth – Mid-Elementary School MySpace - 2003 Facebook - 2004 Today: 82% of online teens use social network sites
January 9, 2009 13 Elizabeth – Fourth Grade YouTube – 2005 Today: 27% have recorded and then uploaded videos 13% stream live video to the internet 37% of teens use video chat
January 9, 2009 14 Elizabeth is in 5th grade | Twitter – 2006 Today: 24% of teens use Twitter
Title of presentation 6/12/2013 15 Elizabeth is in 6th Grade. Tumblr is founded in 2007. Today, 5% of teens use Tumblr.
• T 6/12/2013 16 Elisabeth – 8th Grade – age 14 Foursquare – 2009 Today, 6% of teens “check-in” with their location
6/12/2013 17 Instagram – 2010 Elizabeth is 14 – 9th grade. 11% of teens use Instagram; 3% say they use it “most often” of social network sites.
Snapchat- Sept. 2011 Too new to have youth data. 6/12/2013 18
46% of US adults used the internet 5% had home broadband connections 53% owned a cell phone 0% connected to internet wirelessly 0% used social network sites _________________________ Information flowed mainly one way Information consumption was a stationary activity Internet Use in the U.S. in 2000 Slow, stationary connections built around a desktop computer
82% of US adults use the internet 2/3 have broadband at home 88% have a cell phone; 46% are smartphone users 19% have a tablet computer 19% have an e-reader 2/3 are wireless internet users 65% of online adults use SNS The Internet in 2012 Mobile devices have fundamentally changed the relationship between information, time and space
II. CHANGES TO CAMPUS LIFE AND CULTURE
SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGES FORMATION OF RELATIONSHIPS ON CAMPUS
“Although headed off to different schools, they had a similar experience of learning their roommate assignment and immediately turning to Facebook to investigate that person. Some had already begun developing deep, mediated friendships while others had already asked for roommate transfers. Beyond roommates, all had used Facebook to find other newly minted freshman, building relationships long before they set foot on campus.” – danah boyd
6/12/2013 24 When pre-frosh turn to Facebook before arriving on campus, they do so to find other people who share their interests, values, and background. As such, they begin a self-segregation process that results in increased “homophily” on campuses. Homophily is a sociological concept that refers to the notion that birds of a feather stick together. In other words, teens inadvertently undermine the collegiate social engineering project of creating diverse connections through common experiences. -danah boyd
SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGES INVESTMENT IN CAMPUS COMMUNITY
Easier to maintain connections with home • 82% of teens 12-17 use social media sites • 78% of teens have a cell phone, 37% have a smartphone • 37% of teens use video chat 26
TECHNOLOGY CHANGES OUR RELATIONSHIP TO PLACES 6/12/2013 27
Augmented reality changes relationship to physical places Merges data with physical place
III. CHANGES TO EXPECTATIONS AROUND LEARNING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
TECHNOLOGY IS THE CLASSROOM 6/12/2013 30
Technology IS the classroom • MOOCs? • 3% of K-12 students have experience with distance learning • 270,000 youth go to virtual schools (out of 55.2 million K-12 students in US) • Blended learning • Self-directed learning
“When we interview young people, they will talk about how the Internet makes it easy for them to look around and surf for information in low risk and unstructured ways. Some kids immerse themselves in online tutorials, forums, and expert communities where they dive deep into topics and areas of interest, whether it is fandom, creative writing, making online videos, or gaming communities.” – Mimi Ito “Young people are desperate for learning that is relevant and part of the fabric of their social lives, where they are making choices about how, when, and what to learn, without it all being mapped for them in advance.”
TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM 6/12/2013 33
Bring Your Own Device Bring Your Own Device
What do students do with cell phones in the classroom? • 42% use the phone to look up information in class • 38% take pictures or record a video for a class assignment • 18% upload school related content to the internet • 11% text in class with teacher or other student as a part of a class assignment • 2% use an online cell phone platform like CELLY 6/12/2013 37
The “Flipped Classroom”
K-12 teachers are not impressed • 87% of AP & NWP teachers say these technologies are creating an “easily distracted generation with short attention spans” • 83% say amount of available information is overwhelming • 76% of teachers “strongly agree” that internet search engines have condition students to expect to find information quickly & easily • 67% say technologies “do more to distract students than help them academically.” • Discourages wide use of resources and makes it harder to find credible materials
But teachers also find positives • 99% of AP & NWP teachers say it gives students access to wider range of resources • 77% of teachers say internet & digital search tools have “a mostly positive” impact on HS student research habits • 65% say it makes students more self- sufficient in their research
Final thoughts & questions • Technology changes our relationship to place, but the fundamental lure of the elite residential college will remain. • Continue to engage in practices that put people with different experiences together, to counteract the pull of technology of like towards like • The learners walking through your doors will continue to be shaped by an ever-changing technological milieu – how much will you move to meet them and how much will you hold on to the value and efficiencies of the current teaching models? • Are MOOCs the new textbook? Will we flip our classrooms with MOOCs? • How will colleges manage the challenges of distraction while harnessing the promise and opportunities of bringing devices into the classroom? 6/12/2013 41
Katherine is 8 months old What will it be like to be a college student when she attends, 17 years from now?
Title of presentation 6/12/2013 43 Amanda Lenhart Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project http://www.pewinternet.org @amanda_lenhart photo by arcticpenguin