Student Shortcomings – Anything but Masters of Technology
When it comes to today’s kids and their use of technology, a new report sponsored by the British Library and the Joint Information Systems Committee reveals some very interesting results. The biggest shock to many will be one that is actually quite obvious to those who work in education.
Today’s students are anything but masters of the technology universe. In fact the report casts major dispersions on the view that teens are better with technology than are older adults.
The study sought to determine just how good young people were with information technology and thereby determine what schools and libraries should in turn focus on when teaching students. To make their determinations, a log of British Library web sites and search tools was analyzed along with a “virtual” longitudinal study based on literature reviews from the past 30 years.
Higher Order Application Skills
To absolutely no one’s surprise, youngsters prefer interactive systems to passive ones. Therefore they love technology and yes, they do exhibit fairly strong basic technology skills.
However, the report indicated that these users are anything but “expert searchers.” In fact, the report indicates that younger users have real difficulty choosing good search terms.
The report also revealed the weaknesses created by the desire for interactive devices. Students in fact really, really like activity and therefore like to cut-and-paste. The report notes, “There is a lot of anecdotal evidence and plagiarism is a serious issue.”
A major surprise of the study for educators was to render one oft-heard complaint about young people fallacious. The growing belief is that technology has ultimately made students more impatient and added to their need for instant gratification. The report indicates there is no hard evidence that young people are any more impatient than are adults.”
Higher Order Thinking Skills
Another key area of deficiency is the ability to evaluate information that they obtain through electronic media. In fact the study indicates that students often fail to evaluate such information at all.
Notes the study, “There is little evidence that this (information evaluation) has improved over the last 10 to 15 years. Early research suggested nearly fifteen years ago (and pre-dating the Internet) that teenagers did not review information retrieved from online databases for relevance (e.g. from online databases) and, consequently, undertook unnecessary supplementary searches when they had already obtained the information required.”
To make determinations, the researchers examined the speed at which young people web search. They found that “the speed of young people’s web searching indicates that little time is spent in evaluating information, either for relevance, accuracy or authority and children have been observed printing-off and using Internet pages with no more than a perfunctory glance at them. Researchers have similarly found young people give a consistent lack of attention to the issue of authority.”
Students also show a real preference for visual information over text. Multi-media is often the preference but of course text is incredibly important. On the other hand, one real positive, students are indeed able to multi-task. Notes the report, “It is likely that being exposed to online media early in life may help to develop good parallel processing skills.”
Implications for Education
The report offers a rationale and a hint of where education could come into play. The researchers offer:
Students “need not only a broad understanding of how retrieval systems work and how information is represented within bibliographic or full text databases, but also some appreciation of the nature of the information space, and of how spelling, grammar and sentence structure contribute to effective searches.”
The study offers suggestions, that students are in need of “a mental map of how search engines work” as well as greater a vocabulary to give students the ability to move “from natural language” in search queries so as to “consider synonyms or other alternatives.”
In addition, there must be a focus on information skills. “Clearly people are having great difficulties navigating and profiting from the virtual scholarly environment. To facilitate this move, we should “start with effecting the shift from a content-orientation to a user-facing perspective and then on to an outcome focus.”
Perhaps the greatest issue and the one that is the most difficult to correct at the moment is to actually get these youngsters to understand their current shortcomings.
The researchers note: “There is a big gap between their actual performance in information literacy tests and their self-estimates of information skill and library anxiety. The findings of these studies raise questions about the ability of schools and colleges to develop the search capabilities of the Google Generation to a level appropriate to the demands of higher education and research.”
And as with other learning issues, remediation tends to be far more difficult. “The key point is that information skills have to be developed during formative school years and that remedial information literacy programs at university level are likely to be ineffective.”
18 comments
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I appreciate the study very much. After I can tell you from personal experience that kids do not research well at all! There is a lot of debate regarding new “literacies”. Would you describe the findings as an example of “digital literacy”?
I talked with several teachers about your post and they all asked the same question. Where in the curriculum should this be taught? Personally, I think the skills described should be taught across the curriculum.
[...] January 23, 2008 An interesting survey sponsored by the British Library and the Joint Information Systems Committee asserts that the stereotype of teens being drastically superior to older adults in terms of tech savviness may not be so accurate after all. Click here for the link to the actual report, or check out a good summary of it at openeducation.net. [...]
[...] January 24, 2008 by identityandconsulting http://www.openeducation.net/2008/01/19/student-shortcomings-anything-but-masters-of-technology/ [...]
Scott,
I think it the process is likely twofold, technology may now just be important enough to stand alone, like math, science and social studies, yet at the same time it also needs to be taught at times in context. Schools are definitely in need of a well-defined and appropriate curriculum for teaching technology use.
Tom
The perception of tech savviness in youth is usually limited to the basic skills involved.
Critical thinking is important to savviness, but it’s not part of the stereotype.
Therefore, I don’t see a “contrary to popular belief” angle here.
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Ben,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I think that most educators would agree with your thought as they see the lack of critical thinking. However, my experience has been that adults outside education mistakenly think that our youth are more computer savvy than just those basic tech skills. Many seem to think that not only are these youngsters familiar with the fundamentals, they possess extensive skills in using those fundamentals. You are correct, that is simply not true.
Tom Hanson
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I think with regards to using technology/computers, experience plays a big role in learning and adapting. Ten years ago, the Internet and computers were less advanced and thus easier to pick up and learn. As they progressed, we now have so many more options, features, and complexity that it takes a lot more energy and initiative to learn about the Internet and computers.
With regards to experience, I see a lot of people who don’t apply thought to use online resources for solving a problem or enhancing a situation. Perhaps for many people, it’s about knowing what is possible. Once you think something should be possible on a computer or on the Internet, then you start to explore and learn.
I’m not sure that the authors are identifying anything overly profound here. I think the idea that fails to be made and should be is that the lack of judgment/critical thinking/analytical skills is much broader than any given ‘literacy’ or ‘media’ and really exists in students and the greater population in general. Even if they do have such tools at their disposal in their mental toolbox, the speed of society often precludes their implementation.
[...] Martin points us to this announcement from the UK that documents robust problems in youth use of computers. The study shows that [...]
[...] 18, 2008 by Peter Evans A number of people have been interested in the new report from JISC – see here – on the lack of digital literacies among the digital natives/ gen y. I’m less concerned [...]
Tom, an interesting insight. Your comments about the perceptions of adults hint at a kind of carnival of misperception mirrors:
Except for those heavily tied into social software, it’s my hunch that most adults aren’t especially skilled technologically either. It’s more like the commuter’s dumbbell-shaped knowledge of the world between home and a new job: you know around your house, you know a little around the new workplace, and everything else is just the skinny handle of the dumbbell.
So, most working adults (again, my hunch) may use some software — browsers, email, a few other applications — but aren’t blogging, aren’t creating wikis, certainly aren’t programming. So they’re not at high strength at seeing what young people are really doing.
Similarly, those of us familiar with skilled young people have a tendency to mis-extrapolate… but, in my case, a visit to the nearest branch of a county library shows kids using the public-access computers for ordinary purposes. (That’s an observation, not a critique.)
[...] hard research before deciding that fundamental changes in education are warranted. We also shared with readers the results of a major study from across the pond that totally contradicted the notion that the net [...]
In order to determine whether today’s students are masters of technology we must first define what it means to master something. According to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, the term master reforms to someone who,: “a: becomes skilled or proficient in the use of b: gains a thorough understanding of .” Therefore, I believe that students suit the second definition better whereas adults may suite the first and second definition. This leads me to consider what the difference is.
The focus of technology for most students that I teach is to gain an understanding of every aspect of technology and to work towards a master of these understandings. What I mean by this is that most of the students I teach are happy knowing a little about a lot and thus most do not seek to become skilled or proficient in the use of the technology and as a result never reach the mastery of it.
By the time these students reach adulthood they are no longer fulfilled with knowing a little about a lot and instead tend to focus on becoming skilled and proficient in the use of technology. Part of this is due in course to a new level in maturity; well, at least for some.
I agree that students are by no means “expert searchers.” I think that this is because research is a skill that is developed as one goes through school and completes more research. The reason students have difficulty choosing good search terms is because of the amount of information that is available to them. Students can enter very generic terms and still come up with a wealth of information that rivals anything “adults” were able to come up with when they were students by looking in printed text resources. Adults were forced to be selective in what they were looking for and how they would gather the information or else they would not find any information at all. No w, as long as students select terms that loosely fit what they are looking for they will find more information than they will ever need.
The issue that arises for students is with their higher order thinking skills. They are now able to find information easily but they are often unable to determine the relevancy and value in the information they do find. The study found that students are “more impatient,” and require more instant self-gratification which results in the desire to have things now. Therefore, instead of students taking the time to select resources and information carefully they rush to find things promptly to fulfill their need for self-gratification.
The research notes that the analysis of information retrieved from online databases has not “improved over the last 10 to 15 years.” This leads me to believe that the use of technology has resulted in a decrease in the ability for students to evaluate, properly and carefully, the information that they gather. This is obvious to any teacher working with students. However, this inability to evaluate information now stems to printed resources also because the necessary research skills are lacking. The internet and technology is being used as a quick fix to engage students in research and as a result, it is being used incorrectly.
I disagree wit the idea that the shortcomings of students with regards to technology is well known to teachers because if it was then we would be doing something to improve the situation. As such, I think that the most important thing to help student with research is to teach students how to go about research by removing the access they have to technology allowing them to work on their critical thinking skills. I feel that technology, in this case, is simply an added distraction for the students.
This is hard for me to say because I am great supporter for the use of technology as a tool to assist students in learning as well as means to improve student engagement; however, I see the immediate need for this to occur in everyday teaching so that we can improve the information literacy and critical thinking skills of our students so that they can be more successful as adults.
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