Survey: 3rd Grade Secondary School Students (2008)

In 2008 an earlier project looked for answers to the following questions, through participants on a course similar to the Tenegen course:

Is there really a 'net generation' sitting in our classrooms?
What do we know of their learning and Internet use habits?
Is it important for teaching that we get to know these habits?
If we do get to know, can we use make effective use of this in our pedagogical work?

One of the participants a Hungarian IT teacher conducted a survey in his class using the following questions:

What do you use Internet for, and how much time do you spend for using the net?
Would you like to use on-line lessons, and which subjects could be best adapted for on-line study?
In your opinion, are teachers at your school able to develop such on-line course?

Though this was a very informal survey, with children simply writing their answers on slips of paper, there was nevertheless the distinct view that many children become "informal students" through their use of the Internet.

Is there a Net Generation sitting in my classroom?

"I was curious to find out what the students of my school think about the 'net generation'. I teach information technology in two 3rd grade classes (this year they learn programming) so I asked the kids in my own class (30 pers) to volunteer their views. Only five families among the 30 children doesn't have Internet access,. The survey cannot be interpreted a representative one, however I got the following result based on the answers given to my questions."

1st question: What do you use Internet for, and how much time do you spend for using the net?

Chatting: 100% of the student replies. This would not be a problem use if it also resulted in them gaining some knowledge.
Downloading files: 100% ("Primarily at night when I sleep.")
E-mail: All of them without exception have e-mail addresses, but only a few of them (35%) registered for newsletters, for example.
Searching: 7 students use it regularly for collecting data. Interestingly 5 of them for creating their own webpages. The others only do it when they feel like it or when it is absolutely necessary for completing their homework. This means an average 10-20 minutes weekly.

2nd question: Would you like to use on-line lessons, and which subjects could be best adapted for on-line study?

The answers were surprising again. Very few of them would like to learn this way, which can be perhaps be explained by the fact that they have had no such experience of this yet.

In Hugary, schools only use the SDT database for IT lessons (not regularly and for reasons I'd rather not explain right now), but they may find this online method of learning method in languages. (They can get into the computer room once a week if their teacher requests access.) Many of them stated that they need and like explanation from teachers, notes written on a board, and instant answers -- as well as teamwork.
As to subjects theycould imagine being adapted to on-line learning, it was easier to list those for which on-line learning might not be suitable.
They think it is impossible for History, Hungarian language, and physical education. They might, however, like to try it out on occasion for English and IT, but only occasionally!

3rd question: In your opinion, are teachers at your school able to develop such on-line course?

Answers given to this question were not encouraging. Very few of the students think that this is the case. Not one of them actually thought that teachers' technical knowledge is anywhere near high enough, sometimes stopping at the level of using overhead projectors. This is a generalisation and there will obviously be some exceptions to this.

Dombóvár, 2008.

Zoltán Porgányi
Hungarian IT teacher

What do you think of these results? Let's tak about it on the forum!