New Research: “Tween Online Habits, Revealed”

From School Library Journal:

Most toddlers can swipe an iPad, tap an e-book, and call grandma on mom’s phone, so you’d think that kids in upper elementary school would be seasoned digital users and experts at navigating the web. As it turns out, a new study published in the International Literacy Association’s Reading Research Quarterly has found that we don’t know as much as we thought about the online activities, preferences, and skills of the preadolescent set.
Amy C. Hutchison, an assistant professor at Iowa State University School of Education, surveyed more than 1,200 fourth and fifth graders and was quite surprised to discover how infrequently students engaged with digital tools outside of school, compared with how often they use them in the classroom. “Other research I’ve conducted has shown that students don’t engage with technology very frequently in school, but now it seems classroom tech time is increasing,” she notes. More such use is a positive sign, especially with teacher guidance and a connection to the curriculum.

Read the Complete Article
Read the Full Text Research Article Discussed Above: “What Are Preadolescent Readers Doing Online? An Examination of Upper Elementary Students’ Reading, Writing, and Communication in Digital Spaces” (Reading Research Quarterly via SLJ)

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