A Teacher’s Thoughts

As I read through the edublogger world I am often left to wonder if the world my students live in is different than the world described by many of the edubloggers. Not because I think those describing totally wired students are wrong, but rather because we tend to create situations in our lives where gathering like minded people around us is easier.
So why should I be any different? I am connected. I use technorati, classroom 2.0, Edubloggerworld, and a variety of others on and off. I work with a team of teachers who support technology and with a Principal who also supports my efforts. Why would I be different?

Because I am a newbie!

Prior to last winter, technology in my classroom was limited to an occasional animated web site, looking at the weather, and typing in its various forms (word, powerpoint…). I began using a wiki last year with students. My classes were engaged but in reality we didn’t use it as a web 2.0 tool.

So, are my students connected? Do they already do all the things people write about? Well here are the results of the initial survey.

Clearly this is not a scientific survey, but I did ask all of them and they all responded. I am not terribly surprised by most of the results. All but eight of my students had internet access from home. I didn’t ask about dial-up versus a high speed connection but that would be interesting as I am quite sure many still have dial-up. Fifty-three out of 73 have their own email. Some of the students told me they do not have email but that they use their parents email account. Neither cell phones nor mp3 players were ubiquitous. I thought more students would have mp3 players, but after thinking about it this may be due to students who have not grown interests in popular music yet. Lastly, I will mention the MySpace accounts. Less than half the student claimed to have a MySpace page. For this age group I would say this is substantial and it will be interesting to redo the survey in the spring.

So while access and use is not ubiquitous, it is strong among my students. I didn’t ask about IM and I am sure those numbers would come close to the access numbers.

Has anyone else conducted similar surveys? What were your results for your students? What questions should I add?

Related Post:

Annual Student Tech Use Survey