Speak Up 2009

I just finished reviewing the Speak Up 2009 report, and I must say that it contained pretty much what I expected. Students want to use all sorts of technology in school, but teachers are afraid of distraction and cheating. Without knowing the context of the survey - how the questions were asked - it's hard to draw too many really definitive conclusions.

Student use of technology, as illustrated by the survey, shows that in one way or another they meet virtually every one of the NETS-S standards 1, 2 and 6. The components of standards 3,4, and 5 were not addressed in enough detail to draw any conclusion at all, and a deeper analysis of some of the results shows that there is still a gap between student expertise and broad school application. For example, one result that stood out for me was that although students use electronic communication methods, they do so primarily to talk to friends through text or IM, updating profiles, or commenting on social network sites (p. 5). Students' primary use of electronic resources outside school consist mostly of posting pictures and videos and playing games. Student ideas for using technology in learning may just be giving the expected answer, thus the need for context.

At the same time, schools in general and teachers in particular do not use electronic resources nearly enough. On an anecdotal level, I have taught in a dozen classrooms, and the printed policies of the teachers and behaviors of the students indicate that teachers all too often are still in the desks-in-a-row, students-silently-working-alone mode of instruction. I see a lot of worksheets, in class essays, and silent reading. Except for discussion groups, there appears to be little student engagement and no classroom technology except a projector and document reader. All in all, I see a huge gap between student desires and abilities on the one hand, and teacher willingness to use technology correctly on the other. Technology is not magic, but teachers certainly need to develop a better understanding of its use.