Like many educators I know, I have been researching how to use technology in the classroom in an effort to reach today’s digital student. We are looking at tools like Google Docs, Twitter, cell phones, blogs, wikis, and other tools as possible ways to engage students.
In my research, I came across an article which detailed a study done by a 15-year-old student named Matthew Robson. In it he concludes that students don’t have much use for technology unless is provides a tangible benefit at a very low (read: free) cost to the user. This part of the article reaffirms my belief that we cannot add technology without substance. Without a benefit, students will see through this as just another attempt by an out-of-touch teacher.
The part of the study that really interested me was the fact that students have streamlined their technology consumption. Students are not interested in simply being connected. They don’t use digital media to seek out as much information as they can when they can find a summary of the topic from a single source. In addition, they are not watching TV passivelyor as a way spend down time. They watch TV with a purpose, most often recording specific shows or viewing online, to enable skipping commercials or eliminating other unwanted interruptions.
This makes me believe that students have become better than adults at weeding out the unnecessary or irrelevant. Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, has defined this as the Low-Information Diet. The idea is that we can only use information when it is immediately necessary or relevant to the task at hand.
Let me bring this back around to my point. Integrating tools or gadgets, just for the sake of technology, will not work to engage today’s student any more than worksheets and quizzes. It must have a purpose. It must be seamless. It must relevant.
Please indulge my obsession over Twitter with another poll:
