This week, I took a look at some more Educational Technology Research. I wanted to look at data representing a different area of education, so I decided to focus on a different part of the Project Tomorrow Speak Up report. This report shares views on technology and education by speaking to teachers, students, librarians, administrators, parents, and community members. They survey members of private and public schools, as well as rural, urban, and suburban areas.
While digging through the report, I found an infographic about digital learning in K through 12 students. This data represented approximately 340,000 students from around the world. It listed "Ten Things Everyone Should Know about K-12 Students' Digital Learning". Below is the infographic I studied.
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| Project Speak Up Infographic (Source) |
There were pieces of information on this survey that caught my attention. The first one that I was surprised by was #3. This states that 77% of high school students prefer to read a printed book or article, and that 66% of K-2 students prefer reading on a screen. I was shocked to learn that higher schoolers don't prefer to read digitally. I thought by this point high schoolers would have preferred digital reading, because digital books have been around for quite a while. I completely agree with their opinion, but I'm ten years out of college. The data on the younger kids doesn't surprise me as much because texts are becoming more and more digital by the year.
One piece of information that I was happy to see was #8. This data says that students are learning how to be safe online. It states that students learn most of this from their parents and then they learn from teaching themselves. I think it is awesome that parents are getting involved in their children's online safety. I do think that is important that we talk about it in school too because there might be a student or two that don't have parents teaching them at home.
Finally, I thought #6 was kind of shocking but not surprising. It states that 77% of middle schoolers and 90% of high schoolers use online videos to learn and that 1/3 say they can learn more from a video than from text. Those numbers seem so high which was shocking to me. However, I am a huge user of videos in my classroom because I know the students learn really well from them. This data reassured me that showing videos is a good instructional strategy.
After going through this activity, I realized it's very important for teachers to take a look at data like this occasionally. It really opens your eyes to what is going on in the world of education and technology.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post about research. When it comes to reading printed text vs. online text, my 6th grades students have commented that they like to have a real book. Now, if the text also came with audio my students have different views. The reading series at my school is available in print and online. The online version of stories are visual and audio. I have witnessed students who will use their reading book, and the online version at the same time. Why? When reading a story for a second time or for those who have learning challenges, they want to follow along with printed material, but use the online audio that is available with the online book.
I have also noticed a difference in test scores when my students take an online test vs. a printed test. Because of that, I make sure that my students have opportunities to complete both formats of a test. We might live in a digital world, but as the infographic you shared shows, students still prefer print over digital pixels.
Elizabeth, I too found this infographic pretty interesting, especially the fact that 77% of high school students prefer reading a printed article or book. I think a big part of that preference is that high school students often need to annotate or take notes on the articles/books and having a physical copy may be easier for them to manage in class. Depending on how technology is set up in schools, they might not have their own computer to pull up saved annotated notes so it's easier to have a printed copy. This is only a guess, but from my experience, I remember more of what I read when I have a printed copy and can take notes, vs. an article on my screen.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the link to your previous reflection. Like you, I was also surprised about the high school students liking print! My daughter, a high school senior, agreed. I also second your parting thought about taking a look at research every now and then. What's so powerful about this is the staggering amount of voices that contributed to the survey. Hard to discount the findings then.
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