Educational Technology Research

As educators it is important to understand our students on a personal level, but also to look at data and research about their generation. This week I enjoyed looking at a variety of statistics about my students' generation and technology use.

Statistics that jumped out at me from the Speak Up "Social Media Use In and Out of School: Students, Parents and Educators Speak Up!" report were regarding communication. I find it interesting that high school students tend to use Instagram and Snapchat rather than Facebook and Twitter. However, social media that most schools use are Facebook and Twitter. In fact, 77% of administrators use Twitter to communicate to parents and students. There seems to be a disconnect between the channels students use and what schools use. I know at my current school we are always struggling with how to communicate information to students. We tend to communicate how we (adults) do...through email and Twitter. Looking at the useful data Speak Up provides, we need to meet students where they currently are and switch communication channels. 

Checkout the complete report here
Source: Speak Up!

I loved seeing that 55% of parents want to receive text messages from their child's school or teacher. Again, we tend to use phone or email blasts to reach parents, why not text message them? It would be great to know a parent's preferred method of contact, so it is easier to connect to discuss their child's education. Having parent contact with every student can only help the student's overall academic experience.

I also found it interesting that 76% of high school students use YouTube, however, only 27% of teacher either use or plan on creating videos to supplement content taught in their courses. YouTube would be a great way to help support students through the learning process. 

This valuable research is important to review every year, as students and technology change so rapidly. I am definitely going to keep these reports in my "toolbox" to ensure I am meeting my students needs.

Interesting read: Do smartphones have a place in the classroom?