Thursday, September 11, 2008

ECER 2008 - Students Use of Web2 technologies In and out of School

Live blog from a session at ECER 2008.

Presented by Colin Harrison, Rebecca Graber and Tony Fisher from University of Nottingham, United Kingdom and Kit Logan from the London Knowledge Lab, University of London, United Kingdom

Reports will be available on the Becta website. Currently a couple of the initial reports and a literature review have been published.

What technologies were pupils using outside of school? Access to computer 98.4% and access to Internet 96.6%. Nost using email and instant messaging (89.4% - more girls than boys), 74% using social networking sites (angain girls more than boys) and 59% playing online, multi-user games (includes game console networking.

Schools were using blogs and discussion forums however schools claimed to be using them more than pupils reported using them! Also, no significant difference between ICT active schools and other schools. Most (95%) have watched video online (e.g. YouTube) but don't use online. Very few were uploading video and those who do were uploading videos take on their phone. Students report using Google and Wikipedia most. Wikipedea was twice as popular as the next most popular (BBC Bitesize).

Students said they would like to do more Powerpoint in school (to support learning) than any Web 2.0 technology. However, in Web 2.0 active school, blogs did feature more strongly.

Case study of a Web 2.0 school showed that the Web 2.0 uses were concentrated in the ICT department. Most of the Web 2.0 tools are open to the public - something that was important to the pupils as their school and their work can be found on an Internet search. It is structured, teacher-led activities.

In answering questions, the presenters explored the gap between what the schools reported and what pupils reported. Part of the problem is the way these developments have not spread through the whole school yet. Sometimes pupils are not aware of what is happening in other classes! The spread of Web 2.0 technologies was described as "diffusion" rather than "roll out"!

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