Back-to-School study shows increased
technology use is helping students overcome barriers imposed by
large class sizes; making any room a classroom and improving
collaboration
TORONTO, Aug. 11, 2014 /CNW/ - From research,
lectures and quizzes to collaboration, communication and homework,
students are spending on average one third of their education time
online using new mobile technologies according to a study released
today by Intel Canada. Despite potential concerns, the majority of
both students and teachers agree that personal mobile technology in
the classroom is having a major positive impact on engagement,
empowerment and collaboration, and is helping students to overcome
barriers imposed by increasingly large class sizes.
Teachers, too, are embracing mobile personal technologies in
order to improve their teaching methods, including offering online
audio or video recordings of lectures, communicating with students
and sharing course materials online. Newer teachers (those out of
school for less than ten years) report incorporating technology
such as audio or video lecture recordings more frequently than
their counterparts. According to more than two thirds of
teachers surveyed (69%); the effect of this rapid adoption of
mobile technology is a transformation of the nature of
institutional education into a collaboration between students and
their educators.
"In my work and research I see a trend towards building your own
classroom - the inclination of students, powered by the right
technology, to control when, how and where they learn," said
Thierry Karsenti, Canada Research
Chair on Information Technology and Communications (ICT) in
Education. "The goal with technology is to teach students how to
use their devices to learn rather than socialize – replacing a
potential distraction with a powerful and unmatched education
tool."
As part of the study, students enrolled in post-secondary
education were questioned about the amount of time spent online vs.
offline for a variety of school activities. Results showed
that, among other things, research is conducted online 78% of the
time and homework is conducted online 52% of the time. The
most commonly completed tasks online included collaborating with
peers (mentioned by 87% of respondents) and communicating with
professors and teaching assistants (mentioned by
86%).
"In fact, we find most students underestimate the amount of
school activities that do take place online," said
Karsenti. "Beyond specific tasks, they are constantly
multi-tasking, referencing and reading online while writing essays
or completing assignments; which makes technology central to their
education."
One concern with technology in the classroom (cited by half of
the students) is the fact that technology can sometimes be
distracting. However, two thirds of them feel that technology
helps them overcome the barriers imposed by large class sizes and
still maintain personal contact with professors and teaching
assistants. Almost eight in ten students (79%) feel that mobile
technology helps to empower them throughout their learning
experience.
"People often think that technology means people stop talking to
one another, but the opposite is true – it breeds collaboration,
particularly in an educational setting," noted Karsenti.
"As teachers and professors continue to evolve their curricula
for mobile devices, technology continues to empower every student
to build their own classroom," said Joseph
Ellis, Market Development Manager, Intel Canada. "Parents
and students no longer have to compromise between choosing either
more performance or more battery life – they can have both. New
choices like 2 in 1 devices allow them to focus on enriching the
learning experience with new capabilities spanning touch, digital
pens, and voice-to-text conversion."
Nearly nine in ten students (86%) cited battery life as a key
characteristic for their technology and 76% of all respondents
rated it very important. Further, students ranked performance
(speed and multitasking capabilities) very high with almost three
quarters (74%) indicating performance is very
important.
About the Poll
Between July
21-26, 2014, an in-depth national online survey was
conducted with 845 Canadians students and educators. H+K
Perspectives, Hill + Knowlton's
research practice, partnered with yconic (Uthink.com) for this
national study focused exclusively on the opinions of current
students and their educators. In total 535 students enrolled in
post-secondary education and 310 educators contributed to the
study.
About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in
computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential
technologies that serve as the foundation for the world's computing
devices. As a leader in corporate responsibility and
sustainability, Intel also manufactures the world's first
commercially available "conflict-free" microprocessors Additional
information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and
blogs.intel.com and about Intel's conflict-free efforts at
conflictfree.intel.com.
Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in
the United States and other
countries.
*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of
others.
SOURCE Intel