Predicting Middle School Students’ Use of Web 2.0 Technologies

Joan E. Hughes, Michelle Fulks Read, and Sara Jolly Jones

The University of Texas at Austin

TechEdges.org

Key Literature:

Survey reports show that 92-93% of 12-13 year olds are on the web (Madden et al., 2013; Purcell, 2012)

Access to this participatory culture requires digital media tools and particularly the use of Web 2.0 technologies

(Jenkins, 2006)

Exclusion from these activities may contribute to and even widen the education gap between youth (Jenkins,

2006; DiMaggio and Hargittai, 2001)

Research Questions: 1. To what degree do middle school students, by ethnicity, gender and school:

engage in Web 2.0 activities out of school?

engage in Web 2.0 activities in-school?

engage in traditional technology activities in-

school?

are assigned required computer-based homework?

have access to technology gadgets at home?

have limits on home computer use set by a

parent/guardian?

2. What relationship(s) exist between middle school students’ out of school Web 2.0 use and their school, gender,

ethnicity, grade level, parent limits on computer use, required computer-based homework, home-based technology

gadgets, in-school Web 2.0 use, and in-school traditional technology use?

3. Does gender, school, or ethnicity each moderate the relationship between total home gadgets, in-school Web 2.0

activities, and in-school traditional technology activities with Web 2.0 activities out of school?

Table 1

Characteristics of Participating Middle Schools

School

Porter Walnut Verona

Year built 1953 1995 1996

School type Metropolitan Suburban Rural

Students (#) in School (6-8 grade) 973 1,317 812

School Per Pupil Instructional Expenditure ($) 4,215 4,065 5,365

Economically Disadvantaged (%) 40 12 53

Students (#) in District 82,000 32,034 32,034

Accountability Rating Academically//Acceptable Recognized Recognized

Table 2

Counts and Percentages of Ethnicity breakdown within School for Participating Students

School

Ethnicity Porter Verona Walnut Total

Caucasian 116 (54.95%) 113 (57.65%) 385 (74.04%) 614 (66.24%)

African American 16 (7.58%) 12 (6.12%) 9 (1.73%) 37(3.99%)

Hispanic 66 (31.28%) 53 (27.04%) 53 (10.19%) 172 (18.55%)

Asian 2 (.95%) 4 (2.04%) 42 (8.08%) 48 (5.18%)

Other 11 (5.21%) 14 (7.14%) 31(5.96%) 56 (6.04%)

Total 211 196 520 927

Data collected: student, teacher, and leader surveys, student focus groups, teacher and leader interviews

Results:

Technology use differs across the schools, with Walnut students reporting the most (92%) and Verona students

reporting the least (71%)

About 30% of these students reported their parents limited their home computer use

The model showed a significant overall prediction of Web 2.0 activities out of school and accounted for 25.09%

for the variance. F(34, 892) = 8.79, p = 0.000, R2 = 0.251, Adj R2 = 0.222

o School (F(2, 892) = 7.42, p = 0.001)

o Ethnicity (F(4, 892) = 3.05, p = 0.016)

o Grade (b = 0.448, t(892) = 2.08, p = 0.037)

o Homework (b = 0.783, t(892) = 2.74, p = 0.006)

o Total Gadgets (b = 0.785, t(892) = 4.77, p = 0.000)

Students of Hispanic ethnicity reported statistically less use Web 2.0 activities out of school) than their peers of

Caucasian, African American, or Other ethnicities.

Figure 1: Interaction Graph Between School and In-school Web 2.0 activities. Bands represent 95% confidence