How Teens Do Research in the Digital World (Pew Article)

Purcell, K., Rainie, L., Heaps, A., Buchanan, J., Friedrich, L., Jacklin, A., . . . Zickuhr, K. (2012, November 1). How teens do research in the digital world. Retrieved September 11, 2015, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/11/01/how-teens-do-research-in-the-digital-world/

The Pew Research Center has many interesting articles about the Internet, science, and technology. This time I found a great article about teens and research while living in a digital world. I was very surprised at the survey results conducted on teachers and their perceptions of teens conducting research. While the Internet has done wonders for the world not all teachers feel that researching on the Internet by teens has yielded the best results academically. For today’s blog I will be using the article called, “How Teens Do Research in the Digital World.”

For this article more than 2,000 middle and high school teachers from Advanced Placement (AP) and the National Writing Project (NWP) were surveyed about how teens conduct research in today’s digital world. Although the majority of teachers surveyed indicated that the Internet has mostly had a positive impact on student’s research habits they also say that there are some definite drawbacks. The research conducted for this article showed that teachers are using a wide variety of digital tools in their classrooms and that the assignments they give are encouraging students go beyond just using a desktop or laptop computer. According to the article 72% of teachers said students use their cell phones, 66% of the students use digital cameras, and 55% said students use video recorders in the classroom or at home in order to complete assignments. Although teachers are making an effort to incorporate various digital tools in their classrooms the survey revealed a variety of challenges teachers face which could hinder the way students are taught to do online research. The survey results exposed that 97% of teachers who participated in the survey worked in a school that uses Internet filters, 97% of the schools have formal cell phone use policies, and 97% of the schools have acceptable use policies (AUP). Normally Internet filters, cell phone policies, and AUPs are considered necessary, but the teachers surveyed feel that sometimes these measures hinder the ability of students to conduct effect online research while they are at school.

The research survey did indicate that not all teens are gaining the appropriate skills they need when conducting online research in the digital world. According to the article, “87% [of teachers] say these technologies are creating an easily distracted generation with short attention spans and 64% say today’s digital technologies do more to distract students than to help them academically. Some of the concerns raised by the teachers surveyed were students’ over dependence on search engines, poor time management skills, the ease in which today’s students borrow from the work of others, the students’ inability to judge the quality of online information, etc. Teachers are reporting that students are relying on search engines for research instead of using databases, books, reference librarians, or reputable news websites. Teachers stated that for today’s students research means turning to Google for answers. The teachers who participated in the survey related that students use the following methods to conduct research:

·       *  Google or other online search engine (94%)

·       *  Wikipedia or other online encyclopedia (75%)

·        * YouTube or other social media sites (52%)

·       *  Their peers (42%)

·       *  Spark Notes, Cliff Notes, or other study guides (41%)

·      *  News sites of major news organizations (25%)

·         *Print or electronic textbooks (18%)

·        * Online databases such as EBSCO, JSTOR, or Grolier (17%)

·        * A research librarian at their school or public library (16%)

·        * Printed books other than textbooks (12%)

·         *Student-oriented search engines such as Sweet Search (10%)

Due to their students’ over dependence of search engines for research teachers in the survey study reported that they had to change the way they created research assignments. The authors of the article found that, nine in ten (90%) of the teachers had to direct their students to specific online resources for a particular assignment and 83% developed research questions or assignments that require students to use a wider variety of online and print resources.

To be completely honest I am not surprised by the information revealed of the over 2,000 teachers that were surveyed. Although the Internet is supposed to be a useful tool that is supposed to be used wisely it is not. As a current classroom teacher I have seen firsthand how students do not want to use any other resources other than the Internet for their research projects. Students today do not want to take the time necessary to actually search their topic and thanks to the rapid speed of the Internet have become conditioned to expect rapid results. I love the Internet and I do find it helpful, but at the same time I resent the effects it has had on the younger generations who have grown up with it. As teachers and librarians I feel that we have a tough task at hand, but we must take the time to teach students that so much information can be found in other places other than the Internet. I commend those teachers and librarians who are working smarter and requiring students to use sources other than online sources for their research assignments.

Pew Reading Total For This Article: 9 pages

Current Total Pew Readings: 15 pages