New global study: thoughts and reactions, anyone?

MTV, Nickelodeon, and Microsoft commissioned an international study of youth and technology, and with 18,000 surveyed, it is being heralded as the largest study of its kind.

I haven't seen or read the actual study. I learned about it through a United Business Media wire story posted at CNNMoney.com. Judging by the companies involved with the study and the general tenor of the wire article (big emphasis on data's marketing value), I am surprised more folks in the edtech arena haven't picked it up.

The statistics and cultural insights generated by the study are really interesting, but it's a little discomforting when big business and media giants are the ones generating the data for their own use.

There is one quote by an MTV veep that I keep turning over and over in my head: "For kids and young people, 'tech' isn't a separate entity now, it's organic to their lives," said Fahey Rush. "They are completely focused on functionality."

Is this just a carefully crafted way of commercializing "web 2.0"? Does that diminish the value of the study's findings?

Tags: culture, global study, research, technology, youth

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Permalink Reply by pete whitfield on August 2, 2007 at 12:26pm

That quote sounds like another way of saying 'digital natives' which is a term we're using aren't we? I've not seen the report but I watched Bill Gates interviewed about Microsoft involvement with schools and it felt very much like 'this is how I want educators to purchase Microsoft products', though I accept his charitable work is awesome and I may have mis-interpreted his remarks! Looking forward to reading that report - will it tell us anything new I wonder.

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Permalink Reply by Edwin Wargo on August 7, 2007 at 11:36am

Reports like this sometimes make me scratch my head. It don't know if it's telling us of any thing new. I think we all know that students' lives today are really integrated with technology. I remember a couple of Time articles that talked about this in detail. The take way for us educators could be that our students' ways of knowing and learning are changing...and that we should maybe look at our instructional practices?

To answer your question - I don't know if the study's findings are diminished by the commercial nature of it. I think the study is out to help these companies better market to kids to generate more revenue. Maybe it marks an interesting intersection between marketing/business and education/learning?

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Koch Lubke on August 8, 2007 at 4:43am

I think that intersection is called "media education." I can definitely see the educational value in presenting this study to youth and letting them draw their own conclusions about who commissioned it and what are their aims, objectives, methods, points of view, etc.

I am new to the edtech circle, was drawn to it because of my own positive experiences with the many new open, web-based tools. But I don't hear a lot of conversation about how to engage kids in the critical/evaluative aspects of technology consumption.

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Permalink Reply by Edwin Wargo on August 8, 2007 at 11:11am

Jennifer - Interesting point. It's something that we maybe don't do enough of in edtech? Many of the tools we offer to students are teacher-sanctioned or curriculum-sanctioned leaving little room for students to evaluate the tools for themselves. Collectively, it seems like we can go full steam ahead based on our own academic and educational inspirations rather than letting students be the guides of the tools in which they use. I'm really interested in hearing others' thoughts about this...Does our focus of the latest apps (web.x) sometimes proclude the importance of students knowing which ones to use?

I try to picture a student outside of my class with a problem to solve and thinking of what tool is the best to solve the problem...whether it be a personal budget, idea to map out, place to live, or ways to improve poverty...no matter how large or small, they have a good basis to select a tool and get to work...if we buy into Friedmann's (The World is Flat) idea that imagination is key for our country's success - knowing which tool to use to unleash imagination could be a good thing...

I do try to spend a great deal of time throughout the year talking about tool selection with my students in my K-8 Technology Literacy Classes. I've mainted for a while now that one of my jobs is to teach students what tools are available, reasons for selecting them, and ways in which they can create and present knowledge.

My thought is this - the tools that we teach students now will likely be forgotten about when they get to higher ed or their jobs - I'd rather give them a framework of selection and applicable areas of knowledge in which to use rather than drilling them on where to go to insert a picture. Yes, fundamentals are important but unlike static knowledge, edtech changes....Maybe our approach should recognize these changes?

Yikes, long post - sorry.

Welcome to the edtech field. I personally couldn't think of a better career to have...

Edwin