Research: Harvard Study Examines Youth View on Technology Use in Schools

From Karyn Peterson at School Library Journal:

A new study from Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society examines how US tweens and teens are using technology in schools, and how they feel about those experiences.
Although 78 percent of students own cell phones—47 percent of which are smartphones—students still face a wide variety of policies restricting mobile usage in schools, which students report as frustrating. Students also express frustration with schools’ limited WiFi access, problems with Internet filtering, privacy concerns as more and more schools aim to monitor students’ online activity, and some schools’ push to embrace tablet computers.
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Some students are allowed to bring their phones to school, although access on these devices to popular websites and phone apps on the school’s WiFi connection may be restricted. Other students report that their schools’ Acceptable Use Policies require phones to be out of sight during the day, or that teachers collect phones at the beginning of the day. And some participants are “particularly frustrated” by their teachers’ reactions to what they perceived to be minor infractions of school mobile device policies.
Students also express frustration will schools’ wireless access and phone reception overall, even when such access was required for academic purposes.

Read the Complete Article
Read the Full Text Report: Youth Perspectives on Tech in Schools: From Mobile Devices to Restrictions and Monitoring (via SSRN)

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