Adolescent Interview

Week 10 Journal
Adolescent Interview

For this interview, I spoke to a 16 year old girl, who I will call Mary. Mary was more than happy to assist me in this journal entry and was very excited to be interviewed. The purpose of the interview was for me to understand how new technology effects her day to day life as well as her surrounding peers. I wanted to get an adolescent perspective into how much of a role technology plays in school and at home.

The following is part of the interview:

Q: What do you do when you're online?

A: I use social media, I watch videos on YouTube, school work, Instagram, snap chat, twitter...

Q: Why do you enjoy using technology? What do you get out of it?

A: Well, I like to see what's going on in my friends lives. It's nice to be able to talk with people who aren't with you. I also like listening to music and it's easier to hand in homework.

Q: How many times a day do you think you see your classmates texting on their phone during classes?

A: A lot, even in my advanced classes. Lunch is definitely crazy when it comes to people texting on their phones.

Q: Do you think students are addicted to being online? Why?

A: YES! Very addicted. I'm not sure why though.

Q: How would you feel without your cell phone and online access for 1 month?

A: Well, I used up all my data this month so I am basically away from my phone right now. It's hard because I sometimes feel away from friends and I feel worried in some way. I don't know, it's hard.


While interviewing Mary, the one answer that surprised me the most was when I asked her if she thought that students are addicted to being online. She just about yelled the answer "yes!" I suppose I thought that because she was a young student herself, she wouldn't fully understand or agree with the notion that many young people are becoming more and more addicted to technology, their phones and being online.

I also found her answer to being without her cell phone and online access for 1 month to be very interesting. She stated that she felt away from her friends and worried in some way, even though she sees her friends everyday in school.

I believe that the internet and being online is where many students now come together to communicate socially. If you are not online and a part of that communication, it is easy to feel left out and vulnerable.

It was an overall good interview and conversation as I learned details into how adolescents view the internet and being online.

Week 8 Journal Post: Final Project Topic

While inquiring about what I wanted to research for my final project, I thought about what intrigued me the most while being enrolled in this course. The one topic that I enjoyed learning about was the idea of technology refusal. While reading my classmate’s journal posts about this topic, I learned that this was a controversial issue, with my fellow students having a variety of opinions about if technology was either being overused, or if educators didn’t have the qualifications to properly incorporate it into the classroom setting.

For my final project, I would like to research the effects of technology in our classrooms and the effect it has on our students learning as well as their daily lives. Does technology ever have a negative effect on our students? Does the abundance of technology in our schools effect how our students communicate or how they develop socially? Or, is technology always a benefit to our students and to our growing new age society if it is incorporated and used correctly? I am curious to research this topic and see statistics and evidence that will create a project that will formally analyze this issue.

As an educator, and by completing this project, I hope to develop in-depth knowledge of this topic as well as gather reliable information that can assist me in developing my classrooms in the future. By researching how technology effects our students, both mentally and socially, I will be able to be aware of future classroom settings and the incorporation of technology in order to benefit my students in a positive way.

** Please forgive some of the citations listed below. When I copy them over from Microsoft Word, the formatting will not stay the same. It creates spaces that should not be there. Thank you for understanding! **

Annotated Bibliography

Costley K. (2014). The Positive Effects of Technology on Teaching and Student Learning. Online

Submission [serial online]. Available from: ERIC, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 3, 2015.

The author creates evidence of how technology benefits and has positive effects on our
students in the classroom. He presents different classroom situations in which technology contributes to the overall learning environment and how integrating technology creates positive results in our student’s behavior and in their willingness to learn. This is a helpful source in providing information on the positive effects of incorporating technology into classrooms.

Rabah, J. (2015). Benefits and Challenges of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Integration in Québec English Schools. Turkish Online Journal Of Educational Technology - TOJET,

14(2), 24-31.

The author presents not only the benefits of incorporating technology into schools, but also the challenges that have been found to occur that may hinder the student’s abilities to properly understand and use the technology to their advantages. The author’s research includes challenges found by teachers and their desire for more training and support for incorporating these technologies into their classrooms. This source is beneficial to the research of the negative effects of technology in our schools.

Turel, V. (2014). Teachers' Computer Self-Efficacy and Their Use of Educational Technology. Turkish Online Journal Of Distance Education, 15(4), 130-149.

This study examines teacher’s computer self-efficacy perceptions, their technology preferences in their classrooms as well as their frequency of computer use. It lists different studies on how proficient teachers feel about using a variety of technologies, such as Word Processor, the internet and their proficiency in using technology to create classroom lesson plans. This is a good source for finding statistics on how confident teachers feel in their technology use.

Kuyatt, A., Holland, G., & Jones, D. (2015). An Analysis of Teacher Effectiveness Related to Technology Implementation in Texas Secondary Schools. Contemporary Issues In Education Research, 8(1), 63-70.

The authors present an investigation of how teachers use technology that is given to them and how these technologies determine the effectiveness of the lessons. This source shows statistics of test scores when teachers implement technologies as well as when they do not. It also shows how the implementation of technology in the classroom may change student involvement and engagement. This source will give insight to different classroom scenarios in terms of the use of technology and how it effects students test scores as well as their engagement in the classroom.

DeWeese, K. L. (2014, May 1). Screen Time, How Much Is Too Much? The Social and Emotional Costs of Technology on the Adolescent Brain. Online Submission

               
The author researches how technology effects students, not only in the classroom, but in their day to day lives. It discusses how different types of media has effects on students, emotionally and socially.  This source is beneficial because it discusses in depth if technology is becoming too much in our society and in our young student’s lives.