The Internet use of a Finnish upper secondary school

teacher

MEDU 3105 Internet Use and Psychosocial Well-being

Spring 2014

Ulla Hynönen

The Case: Anna from Finland

Anna is a Finnish language teacher in her fifties

She lives in a small town in the north of Finland

She is married, has two grown up children and one grandchild

Image courtesy of Sicha Pongjivanich/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Work history

She has worked as a language teacher for 26 years in different schools, she started to work while she was studying

For the past ten years she has worked in local upper secondary school

Ordinary work day

She starts her working day at 8 am by checking her work email and wilma messages, which may take even an hour

After that she gives lessons, then she marks essays and test papers and prepares next day’s lessons

She usually finishes her work by 4 pm

Digital tools

When she starts her teaching day she first switches on the laptop and the data projector in her classroom

There are a cd player and wireless headsets in the classroom too

Sometimes she takes her students to the computer classroom where she can use the smartboard

Sometimes uses ipads with students

She has a work phone for making phone calls and for safety reasons (not a smartphone)

Internet use at work

Email, wilma

In teaching: videos from youtube eg. models of speeches, grammar videos pedanet YLE news in English online grammar exercises

Searching for information Additional information Up-to-date information

Online dictionaries together with print dictionaries

“Could use it more at work”.

Communication at work

face to face: colleaguesStudents

online (email, wilma): colleagues studentsParents

online (email): International connections foreign partner schools

Digital devices at home

She has her own laptop and smartphone

The family has a digital television, two handheld touchscreen tablet devices

Image courtesy of MR LIGHTMAN/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Internet use in free time

The social networking site Facebook personal contacts, maintaining relationships

Facebook groupshobbies (dance club)administrator of the facebook site and webpage of

the dance club

Email (first at work, later private use)

Spotify (music for dancing)

Youtube (dance videos for learning new dances)

Background for the Internet use

Suomi tietoyhteiskunnaksi (Suoti)- programme in the mid 1990’s, she participated in a national teacher training programme. This good experience encouraged and prepared her for the distant learning

She completed her master’s degree at the beginning of 2000 when the university finally agreed to offer students the possibility to attend master’s thesis seminars in the Internet

The positive transfer from the previous e-learning experience (Suoti) made the new learning process easier.

Positive aspects of the Internet use

Work: Internet is a source of information and teaching materials Contacts to foreign partner schools, running international

projects easier The use of wilma has increased the communication between

teachers and parents.

Free time: The number of people whose lives she follows would be

considerately smaller without Internet. Life would be much narrower.

To stay in touch with people is easier in Facebook and it doesn’t take much time.

She can choose the time when she wants to be social.

Negative aspects of the Internet use

The use of the Internet is very time consuming, the Internet is a time thief. Instead of watching tv she uses the Internet.

Conclusions

She uses the Internet as a source of information and communication, brieviously has used it for learning too.

Instrumental user: Goal-oriented activities (searching information, utilizing services).

Participating in Suoti-programme was an empowering experience which encouraged her to use the Internet in university studies. → Improved the IT skills. Basic IT literacy increases the likelihood of greater extent of the Internet use.

The level of formal education enables the person to understand the possibilities of the Internet → helps to use it meaningfully.

Communication in the Internet is characterized by the control over the time and pace of interaction.

The Internet offers her the chance to find similar others who have the same interests (dance), fulfills the need to belong to a larger, significant group.

She is aware of the positive aspects of the Internet, positive attitude towards the use of the Internet

She is interested in adopting new skills, new digital tools and device

It’s important to study different user groups. The population is aging and technologies are developing, therefore it’s crucial to understand how to design systems that support the needs and preferences of older adults too.

→ Technology use → more independent life → increase the quality of life

The professional aspect:

Teacher training of the future teachers: How is the Internet use and media education included in their studies? Do the future teachers acquire the necessary skills?

In-service-training is needed for the present teachers, no nationwide strategy or policy in Finland → inequality? Will the new national curriculum save us?

References

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