Having Our Say:Middle Grade Student Perspectives on School,

Technologies, and Academic Engagement

Hiller A. Spires, Ph.D.John Lee, Ph.D.Kimberly TurnerJanet Johnson, Ph.D.

Friday Institute Mission

Advancing education through innovation in teaching, learning, and leadership.

Background & Rationale

If current generations of students are to be competitive in the twenty-first century, our education system must be transformed to address the needs of a connected global economy.

Dede, C., Korte, S., Nelson, R., Valdez, G., & Ward, D. (2005). Transforming Education for the 21st Century: An Economic Imperative. Chicago, IL: Learning Point Associates.

Background & Rational

• Today’s students learn in different ways than those of previous generations, and much of the change is due to rapid advancements in information technology.

• Digital Immigrants vs. Digital Natives.

Marc Prensky

“ENGAGE ME or ENRAGE ME”What Today’s Learners Demand

“School didn’t teach me to read – I learned to read from my games.” --A Student

“Rather than being empowered to choose what they want and to see what interests them and to create their own personalized identity – as they are in the rest of their lives – in school, they must eat what they are served.”

Pew/Internet: Teens and Technology

• Survey of 1100 parent-child pairs use of the technologies

• American teens live in a world of communications technologies; the internet (87%) and cell phones (45%) have become a central force

• 84% of teens report owning at least one personal media device: a desktop or laptop computer, a cell phone or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)• These technologies enable a variety of methods by which

youth can communicate with one another as well as with adults

Pew Internet & American Life Project (2005). Teens and Technology. Retrieved November 12, 2006: http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Teens_Tech_July2005web.pdf.

North Carolina’s Educational Agenda

Purpose of Study

• North Carolina has actively sought the input from various groups; however, student's perspectives are noticeably absent from the discussion.

• The purpose of this study is to understand what students believe they need in order to be successful and academically engaged in school.

MethodologySurveys and Focus Groups

• Survey development– Literature Review– Preliminary Open-Ended Response Survey– NC Standard Course of Study Objectives

• Reliability– Internal consistency for each subscale– Self-reported competencies correlated with

measures of actual competencies

• Sampling method– Stratified Random Sample: Region, Race,

Gender, Income

Student Surveys - Demographics

• 4000 middle grades students (6th – 8th grade), from every county in North Carolina, who were members in a statewide after school program.

• Sixty-three percent of the students received free or reduced lunches compared to the state average of thirty-nine percent.

• 85% of the students scored at the state average in math and reading.

Results – Activities Liked Best in School (in rank order)

• General computer usage

• Doing research on the Internet

• Working on projects in a group

• Working on projects by myself

• Listening to the teacher explain things

• Doing worksheets

Results – Technologies for Communication & Entertainment

• Students classified themselves as high frequency users of listening to music (83%), playing video games (76%), and playing web-based games (68%).

• Students classified themselves as high frequency users of cell phones (71%), the Internet (68%), and email (56%).

Results

• 86% of students reported that they use the Internet instead of a book to find information.

• Using computers was the one activity that all ethnicities stated as the activity that they liked best in school.

• Students from rural and low income schools reported that they use computers more frequently at home than they do at school.

• Females reported significantly more computer usage at home than males; however, at school there were no differences between females and males.

Focus Groups - Demographics

• Six Focus Groups

• Rural and urban populations from three geographical locations in North Carolina

• Total of 48 Students

Focus Groups - Themes “Do U Know Us?”

• The majority of students use a variety of technologies outside of school that they would like to use in school for learning purposes.

• Students expressed a concern that sometimes it appears that their teachers did not understand that technology is a big part of students’ lives outside of school.

• They believed that if teachers understood they would bring more technologies into the classroom.

Focus Groups - Themes“Engage Us”

• Student’s have clear perspectives about academic engagement through the use of technologies in project based-learning.

• “When you do projects you get to find the information. When you take a test, you already know the information. They gave it to you and you just have to study and have a test on it the next day… I learn better if I look for myself rather than studying something somebody else already gave me.”

Focus Groups - Themes

Student’s expressed a vision for using what they deem as “everyday” technologies, not only in the classroom for academic engagement, but for preparation for future jobs.

“Prepare Us for Future Jobs”

Focus Groups - Themes

“Let’s Not Get Left Behind”

• Students expressed a clear interest in having more technologies in their classrooms - especially laptops.

• They expressed concerns about their schools not being up-to-date in terms of facilities, technologies, and curricula.

What’s the Take Away Message?• Growing trends among students

demonstrate an increased passion for and reliance on technologies for entertainment & communication.

• In many cases, out of school technology use has “lapped” in school technology use.

• How do we harness emerging technologies, including Web 2.0 applications, to create passion centered learning in our K-12 schools?

To View Paper and Video

www.fi.ncsu.edu/projects/havingoursay/