In an effort to understand how students in my classroom are changing with their access to digital media, I conducted a survey of thirty, seventh graders. These students all have a school issued MacBook laptop so the questionnaire evolved around how they use their laptop and other digital devices outside of school.
The students were asked to circle digital items they have access to outside of school, and the results were that 27 of the 30 had cellphones. 22 of the 30 students had iPods, 16 had digital cameras and 12 had access to a desktop computer at home.
Ten students said they had XBoxes with an additional 10 having other game devices.
Seven students circled MP3 players, five had an iPad and 5 more had an iTouch.
Two students had Kindles, but no other electronic reading devices were mentioned.
From these 30 students, it was noted that cellphones, iPods and digital cameras were the most popular devices.
How much time they spent with their MacBooks, cellphones, video games and TV per day was the second part of the questionnaire.
It seems that fifteen of the thirty or 1/2 of the students use their cellphones 3+ hours a day!
These students are texting and talking constantly. How do they find the time for this? It seems watching TV is much less popular with today’s 7th graders than it was with my generation. 17 of the 7th graders said they watched 30-60 minutes of TV a day. Only 5 students thought they watched 3 hours of TV a day.
The students all used their laptops outside of school with the most popular use being to surf the Internet. Several students asked what spending time on FaceBook counted as. We decided this social networking would be included in surfing, so it was no wonder that 10 or 1/3 of the students said they surfed 3+ hours a day.
Another category asked students how much total time outside of school they spent on their laptops and the majority said 2-3+ hours a day. When asked how much of this time was spent doing homework half of them (15) said 30 minutes. So it seems our school incentive for 1-1 computers is not producing homework inspired usage of the laptop.
The last category on the questionnaire involved playing video games. In this area, it seemed only a few students were gamers since only 3 admitting to 3+ hours of video games per day. Thirteen students said they play games 30 minutes or less per day. Five students, or 1/6th of the 7th graders, play games one hour a day.
In reviewing the results of this survey, and leaving margin for error, I conclude that today’s 7th graders are very attached to their cellphones, computers and iPods.
These students are spending time with devices that were not available during my youth. Watching TV has given way to texting, talking, FaceBooking and surfing.
Now that I am aware of the statistics concerning 7th graders digital pastime, I am aware of how important it is to be electronically savvy myself if I wish to relate to them in the classroom.
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