Ed Tech Research

Ed Tech Research

This week in Edu 776 I studied some research on educational technology. There was one area of research that I wanted to take a closer look at.

Common Sense Media interested me because my district is starting to use the Common Sense Digital Citizenship curriculum this school year and I piloted a lesson in my kindergarten classroom last year. Embarrassingly, I hadn't actually read the research available, so I figured this was a great opportunity to do so!

GIF via GIPHY

The first document I looked at was the Common Sense Census: Inside the 21st Century Classroom. It was great to read that "teachers who used any type of digital citizenship curriculum in their classrooms, approximately half said it was “extremely” or “very” effective in helping students make smart, safe, and ethical decisions online." My students have 1:1 devices in our classroom. They use their iPads mostly for creating and sharing learning with me and their parents. They don't get to explore the internet on their own and if we do any research, I send them directly to a specific site. However, it's good to know that a lot of teachers are finding digital citizenship curriculum effective. I think that if I can set a foundation for using devices with balance and safety in mind, our students will be better off.

One stat that stood out to me was that "teachers in schools with more diverse student populations were more likely to use digital citizenship curricula or resources than teachers in schools with predominantly white student populations." I found this stat to be a bit alarming because all students in school today should be receiving digital citizenship curriculum. I am wondering why some teachers and administrators in predominately white student populations do not see the need to use these resources. I'd love to explore this stat a bit more to understand what's going on.

Another stat that surprised me was that "four out of 10 teachers have 1-to-1 access for their students in their classrooms." While I currently teach in a district that provides my students with 1:1 devices, I am very familiar with the many districts in the Chicagoland area that either can't afford or choose not to devote resources to this kind of initiative. I was honestly surprised that as many as four out of 10 teachers have 1:1 devices.

Another document from Common Sense Media that I read was Teaching Digital Citizens in Today's World. My biggest takeaway from this research was this: "Kids age 5 to 8 spend an average of nearly three hours per day using screen media, with one hour of that time on mobile devices." This seems like an extraordinary amount of time to be in front of a screen or device. I find this to be a very relevant statistic as an educator of 5 and 6 year olds. Even though we have 1:1 devices in our classroom, my job is to make our use of them meaningful and creative. Also, I have a responsibility to implement a digital citizenship curriculum that teaches them to be responsible and balanced users of this technology.

Additional Resources:

• Common Sense Media Research - More research from Common Sense Media. Browse the topics to find what is relevant to you. 
• Educational Technology Research and Development - This is a scholarly journal that focuses on ed tech research. Browse the articles and abstracts provided.