Summary: Nagel’s article describes a study undertaken by researched at the University of Minnesota that was aimed at 600 high school students from low-income families ($25,000 or less a year in income) and their internet/online social networking usage. Many of these students reported having computer access at home (76%), and that 50% of the students went online at least once per day. The study showed that many of the students have social networking web pages, such as a MySpace page, and more than half associated learning about technology with online social networking (those claims will be studied in the fall by the same researchers).
Response: I do not find it surprising that more low-income families own computers, as computer prices have dropped significantly in the past decade. It is not uncommon to see incredibly good deals on computers these days, and while those computers may not be the best, they still allow for word-processing and internet usage, which is all most people will need. In fact, as I type this I see an ad on my Safari browser for a computer for $388.77 dollars. Schools should embrace the fact that more low-income families are buying computers, and try to teach more computer literacy classes, as students who have families that are new to computers will at least have some basic skills that they can pass on to family members, as well as make their internet usage more safe. I was surprised, however, to find that many of the students found social networking to be educational in some way, as I had never thought of it as educational at all. The study being conducted next fall that will look at actual educational purposes of websites such as MySpace should be interesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment