"How Do [They] Even Do That?": How Today's Technology is Shaping Tomorrow's Students

1. "How Do [They] Even Do That?": How Today's Technology is Shaping Tomorrow's Students Amanda Lenhart | Pew Research Center Dartmouth College April 9, 2013

2. Part of the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan “fact tank” based in Washington, DC PRC’s mission is to provide high quality, objective data to thought leaders and policymakers Pew data included in this talk is from nationally representative telephone surveys of U.S. adults and teens (on landlines and cell phones) Presentation slides and all data are available at pewinternet.org

3. I. What is the Technological Environment of today’s Teens?

4. This is Elizabeth. She will be a first year college student in the Fall of 2013. What kind of technology did she grow up with? What kinds of technology does she use now?

5. What are the disruptions spurred by each of these innovations?

6. Elizabeth – Born 1995 Email is 27 years old PCs are 20 years old Today: 67% of teens use email Today: 93% of teens access a desktop/laptop @ home

7. Today: 78% of teens have a cell phone Elizabeth – Born 1995 Commercial cell phones were 17 years old

8. Elizabeth – Born 1995 First great browser – 1993 Netscape IPO – Aug. 9, 1995 World Wide Web is 5 years old. Today: 95% of teens use the internet

9. Elizabeth – Toddler years Today: 37% of teens own a smartphone Palm Pilot – 1996

10. Elizabeth – Toddler Years & Pre-school 14% of online teens keep blogs (down from 30% at peak Blogs – 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003

11. Elizabeth – First Grade Wikipedia - 2001 Today: 70% of online youth use Wikipedia

12. Elizabeth – Mid-Elementary School MySpace - 2003 Facebook - 2004 Today: 82% of online teens use social network sites

13. Elizabeth – Fourth Grade YouTube – 2005 Today: 27% have recorded and then uploaded videos 13% stream live video to the internet 37% of teens use video chat

14. Elizabeth is in 5th grade | Twitter – 2006 Today: 24% of teens use Twitter

15. Elizabeth is in 6th Grade. Tumblr is founded in 2007. Today, 5% of teens use Tumblr.

16. Elisabeth – 8th Grade – age 14 • T • Foursquare – 2009 • Today, 6% of teens “check-in” with their location

17. Instagram – 2010 Elizabeth is 14 – 9th grade. 11% of teens use Instagram; 3% say they use it “most often” of social network sites.

18. Snapchat- Sept. 2011 Too new to have youth data.

19. Internet Use in the U.S. in 2000 46% of US adults used the internet 5% had home broadband connections 53% owned a cell phone 0% connected to internet wirelessly 0% used social network sites _________________________ Information flowed mainly one way Information consumption was a stationary activity Slow, stationary connections built around a desktop computer

20. The Internet in 2012 82% of US adults use the internet 2/3 have broadband at home 88% have a cell phone; 46% are smartphone users 19% have a tablet computer 19% have an e-reader 2/3 are wireless internet users 65% of online adults use SNS Mobile devices have fundamentally changed the relationship between information, time and space

21. II. Changes to Campus Life and Culture

22. Social Media changes formation of relationships on campus

23. “Although headed off to different schools, they had a similar experience of learning their roommate assignment and immediately turning to Facebook to investigate that person. Some had already begun developing deep, mediated friendships while others had already asked for roommate transfers. Beyond roommates, all had used Facebook to find other newly minted freshman, building relationships long before they set foot on campus.” – danah boyd

24. When pre-frosh turn to Facebook before arriving on campus, they do so to find other people who share their interests, values, and background. As such, they begin a self-segregation process that results in increased “homophily” on campuses. Homophily is a sociological concept that refers to the notion that birds of a feather stick together. In other words, teens inadvertently undermine the collegiate social engineering project of creating diverse connections through common experiences. -danah boyd

25. Social Media Changes investment in Campus Community

26. Easier to maintain connections with home • 82% of teens 12-17 use social media sites • 78% of teens have a cell phone, 37% have a smartphone • 37% of teens use video chat

27. Technology Changes our Relationship to Places

28. Augmented reality changes relationship to physical places Merges data with physical place

29. III. Changes to Expectations around Learning and Learning environments

30. Technology IS the Classroom

31. Technology IS the classroom • MOOCs? • 3% of K-12 students have experience with distance learning • 270,000 youth go to virtual schools (out of 55.2 million K-12 students in US) • Blended learning • Self-directed learning

32. “When we interview young people, they will talk about how the Internet makes it easy for them to look around and surf for information in low risk and unstructured ways. Some kids immerse themselves in online tutorials, forums, and expert communities where they dive deep into topics and areas of interest, whether it is fandom, creative writing, making online videos, or gaming communities.” – Mimi Ito “Young people are desperate for learning that is relevant and part of the fabric of their social lives, where they are making choices about how, when, and what to learn, without it all being mapped for them in advance.”

33. Technology In the classroom

36. Bring Your Own Device Bring Your Own Device

37. What do students do with cell phones in the classroom? • 42% use the phone to look up information in class • 38% take pictures or record a video for a class assignment • 18% upload school related content to the internet • 11% text in class with teacher or other student as a part of a class assignment • 2% use an online cell phone platform like CELLY

38. The “Flipped Classroom”

39. K-12 teachers are not impressed • 87% of AP & NWP teachers say these technologies are creating an “easily distracted generation with short attention spans” • 83% say amount of available information is overwhelming • 76% of teachers “strongly agree” that internet search engines have condition students to expect to find information quickly & easily • 67% say technologies “do more to distract students than help them academically.” • Discourages wide use of resources and makes it harder to find credible materials

40. But teachers also find positives • 99% of AP & NWP teachers say it gives students access to wider range of resources • 77% of teachers say internet & digital search tools have “a mostly positive” impact on HS student research habits • 65% say it makes students more self-sufficient in their research

41. Final thoughts & questions • Technology changes our relationship to place, but the fundamental lure of the elite residential college will remain. • Continue to engage in practices that put people with different experiences together, to counteract the pull of technology of like towards like • The learners walking through your doors will continue to be shaped by an ever-changing technological milieu – how much will you move to meet them and how much will you hold on to the value and efficiencies of the current teaching models? • Are MOOCs the new textbook? Will we flip our classrooms with MOOCs? • How will colleges manage the challenges of distraction while harnessing the promise and opportunities of bringing devices into the classroom?

42. Katherine is 8 months old What will it be like to be a college student when she attends, 17 years from now?

43. Amanda Lenhart Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project http://www.pewinternet.org @amanda_lenhart photo by arcticpenguin