EMID 6067 Student Technology Survey

Spring 2011

94% of total students at Crosswinds have a computer in their home.97% of Harambee 4th & 5th graders have a computer in their home.

By grade level:

free and reduced lunch percentages

By grade level:

95.5% of total students at Crosswinds have some form of internet access in the home. (mobile and/or broadband) but only 91% of Harambee 4th & 5th graders report having internet at home.

By grade level:

82% of American adults own a cell phone, Blackberry, iPhone or other device that is also a cell phone.

-From 2010 PEW Internet Surveyhttp://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Cell-Phones-and-American-Adults/Overview.aspx

Some 75% of 12-17 year-olds now own cell phones, up from 45% in 2004. Those phones have become indispensable tools in teen communication patterns. Fully 72% of all teens2 -- or 88% of teen cell phone users -- are text-messagers. That is a sharp rise from the 51% of teens who were texters in 2006. More than half of teens (54%) are daily texters.

-From 2010 PEW Internet Surveyhttp://pewresearch.org/pubs/1572/teens-cell-phones-text-messages

Taken together, devices capable of accessing either a 3G, 4G, or wifi network, including cell phones with internet, iPod Touches, Sony PSPs, & laptops, fewer than 3% of EMID families with students 4th grade through 10th grade do not have access to a mobile internet enabled device.

While students report much higher levels of access to the internet or internet-capable devices it appears that laptop ownership is now declining. This may be due to advances in mobile internet access.

Student use of Social Networks(By grade level):

Social-network sites, much to the chagrin of educators, are a pervasive presence in the lives of schools. -S. Craig Watkins

Only about half of the students said that they were given opportunities to use technology at

school for creative purposes.

I find it a little striking that only about a quarter of 9th graders report using technology consistently at school for research purposes but for 10th grade

this use is nearly ubiquitous.

How frequently students were asked to solve a problem using technology.

This data seems to show a disconnect between student school use of technology and personal use since students reported in very high numbers

that they use social media and social networking tools.

Social inequalities still matter in the physical world. And as we are learning, they also matter in the virtual world. Nowhere is this clearer than in the rise and use of social-networking sites. -S. Craig Watkins

Students are clearly using technology to collaborate with others for personal use but rarely if ever are asked to do so at school.

Student personal use of online collaborative & publishing tools.

When I first began teaching, I didn't know how to speak to or with my students. Standing in front of a group of young people is a linguistic challenge. It is not merely a matter of what you say but of how your language is understood and how you understand the language of your students. -Herb Kohl

Without learning to observe children and thereby knowing something of the people one is living with five hours a day, the teacher resorts to routine and structure for protection. -Herb Kohl

I learned that unless you knew and cared about your students outside the classroom, about their strengths, dreams, and aspirations as well as their problems, you could easily limit what they could do as students and miss the opportunity to develop a learning community where they could act as themselves and not according to some image they had developed of how children should or shouldn't behave in school. I came to understand that the ability of children to act naturally and at ease with themselves, their friends, and teachers within a learning environment is the key to effective education. -Herb Kohl

In the age of DIY media, the fact that we are both consumers and creators of content redefines the rules of media engagement by redefining the rules of media production and consumption. -S. Craig Watkins

Think about the class you find most interesting and engaging. Without telling us which class that is, why do you like this class?

(Crosswinds only)

What students say they like about their favorite class

(by grade level)

From the 398 students responding to the survey question, “Think about the class you find most interesting and engaging. Without

telling us which class that is, why do you like this class?” the following ideas/concepts/themes seemed to arise:

• Value of the student-teacher relationship (community building and personal relationship)

• Students liked the classes that were both fun and engaging • Students preferred hands-on projects.• Students liked classes and activities that allowed them to be creative and express

themselves.• Students liked when they were given choices.• Students expressed the value of exercise and moving around.• Most students expressed that they liked learning things and liked classes that

“make me think.”• Only one student mentioned grades or rewards as something they liked about

their favorite class. And only one student said they liked the class because it was easy.

• 12 students openly stated that they did not like any of their classes (7 of these were 8th graders) and 31 students refrained from answering the question (10 of these were 8th graders).

What students said:

“I like that class because the teacher is fun to be around as a person and because we do a lot of projects that give each person the ability to do what they want to, within certain limitations. The opportunity to be creative that that class offers is what I love the most.”

What students said:

“The class that I find most interesting and engaging is the one that I feel challenges me by far the most, and that I feel I can expand upon ideas given to me, to make a deeper connection to the world around me.”

What students said:

“I like the class that Im able to be creative and do coloring or painting. I dont like to write because i dont like my hand writing. Because last year my teacher was really strict with the writing. I like when you can explode things and experiment with things because thats fun.”

What students said: “Because that class have most of my friends and I

like to chat with them and learn at the same time so I get educated. Learning from my friends helps me learn more than from teacher, I don't know the reason for that, but I just learn like that. This class also teach me things I like to know like helping me to understand more about my questions or my homework, the teacher is helpful too and is a very enjoyable class, easy to talk to, you can do what you want sometimes, and a lot of things. That's all.”

What students said:

“I like how it is like a family.”

What students said:

“The teacher respects us. Therefore, we respect her.”