Students 2.0

“At the core of everything else, all the technology usage, it’s all about creating learners, not just students who are able to interpret these facts that the teachers just preach to them in the classroom. There are 300, 400 teachers in my school district maybe only a handful - I can probably count on one hand - who actually read blogs let alone write them.”

This quote is from Kevin, a 17 year old student from the Chicago area, one of three student participants in the Students 2.0 project interviewed by Steve Hargidan on his EdTech Live podcast. Kevin, along with Lindsea, a 16 year old from Hawaii, and Sean, also 16, from Scotland, provided a student perspective of technology and it’s importance in education. Lindsea believes that the expansion of Web 2.0 technology use is one of the most important trends in education, despite the fact that she has only been using the Internet for only about a year herself. Sean echoed that importance, and also stressed his excitement about the 1:1 initiatives that put a laptop in the hands of each student.

The most vocal advocate of technology’s value, which he contends is almost entirely untapped, was Kevin, the student who provided the quote at the top of this post. Kevin contends that the Web is helping drive a shift in educational methodologies from traditional delivery methods to more technology-based, or technology-enhanced, tools.

While these students all identified technology as a strong value-add in education, they were careful to note that they were not geeks, although Kevin admitted that he does “programming and IT stuff outside of the school day.” They felt that they were “normal” students who happened to recognize the potential of technology and are advocating the expansion of it’s transformational value for education.

The limited current use of this tool is evidenced by comments throughout the podcast. Lindsay reported that, “I know one of my teachers blogs.” Although Sean’s experience shows slightly more integration as he related that when his English teacher introduced WIKIs in a language class, other teachers who saw the value started similar WIKI projects in their math classes, the technology use was still presented as more of the aberration than the norm.

“I think the fact that Sean and Lindsey only have one real example each kind of speaks for itself,” noted Kevin. There may not be much penetration of technology in his school yet, but with the early adopter teachers leading the charge, the revolution has begun.

Sean believes that the learning that is occurring in class is more geared toward passing tests and helping him attain certain qualifications, but what he is doing at home via the web is what he expects to actually be relevant to his future. Kevin agreed, saying that, “There is a huge disconnect between the information we are given in school and the learning that we do on our own. We’re learning on our own. It’s an interesting model, the way school continues to operate as opposed to … the infinitely greater learning we can do outside of the classroom. We’re being given all of these things (in school) so that we can fill in the bubbles on our exams.”