Educational Technology Research

Why Does Research Matter?

Research gives us insights into certain areas of interest that increase knowledge of that area which can lead to facts and conclusions. This increase in knowledge can help people use and apply it to advance understanding and grow even more knowledge.

Our area of interest right now is Educational Technology Research! There has been an increase in technology in society as well as an increased emergence of technology in our classrooms. It is important to know if and how technology is impacting our students. Educational technology research allows us to dig deep through multiple audiences and methodology to uncover more knowledge of how technology is impacting our students. We need to understand our students in order to find specific ways to reach them and research and statistics are part of that process. 

Research

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"Numbers, facts and trends shaping your world."

Pew research center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and non advocacy organization. The center is like a "fact tank" that aims to inform the public about the issues, attitudes, and trends that are shaping our world today. They report on a wide variety of topics, but they also have many reports in the category of Internet & Technology. 

I took some time to explore this category and came across some interesting statistics that surprised me! I looked at an article with survey results called "Teens, Social Media & Technology 2018". This article was analyzing social media platforms among teens today. 

Teen View on Social Media Impacts 

Social media has definitely had an increase in the lives of high school students. According to the survey, 95% of teens have access to a smartphone and 45% of teens say they are online almost constantly. These numbers are not surprising to me given the rise of social media. At the same time those numbers do worry me because I think that's is way to much social media time that can really interfere with and impact a student's mood. 

What does surprise me is the amount of teens who say that the internet has neither a positive nor negative effect on their lives. 45% of teens say social media has neither a positive nor negative effect on them, while 31% say that it has a positive effect and 24% say it has a negative effect. Because there is so much involvement, focus, and breaking new stories surrounding social media, I thought majority would be on either the positive or negative side. I did not think that about half of teens would feel there is no positive or negative impact on their lives. If some students feel indifferent about how social media is impacting their lives, I feel like it is just a waste of valuable time for them. They are taking up time just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling and feel like social media has absolutely no effect on them.  

These statistics give us insights on ways we can try to reach our students. It is important for educators to know the statistics of how many teens use social media, which platforms they prefer, and how the feel about it so we can properly address and incorporate tech into the classroom. We want to students to build positive relationships with social media and technology, so conversations about their feelings toward social media need to take place openly. We can try to repurpose their constant online activity for all positive things like connecting, exploring, learning, and expanding their knowledge! 

Popular Online Platforms Among Teen

This same article also gave statistics on which social media platforms are the most popular among teenagers. 85% of teens say they use youtube the most, and 35% say they use snapchat most often! Given this information, I thought of some future ideas I can utilize in my classroom. I would maybe create some active learning assignments involving creating informative youtube channels and creative videos instead of assignments involving twitter. I would maybe also create a professional snapchat page for my class where I can post reminders, facts, questions, and updates because I know they check that the most! 

I would use these statistics to help make informed decisions about what would most interest my students and get them as active and involved as I can!