My Peers Experience with Technology

While I've had my own personal experiences with technology, I'm not the only one. I think that the opinions of my peers are extremely important in determining the impact of technology on education. So to get a few answers, I started working on a miniature research project.

I created a survey to gauge others opinions on the results of growing up with the rapid evolution of tablets, phones, and computers.

Hypothesis: Developments in technology have had a positive impact on 8th-12th grade students' education.

What grade are you in currently?

Since the hypothesis was about students in 9th-12th grade, I filtered out any responses outside of that range. I was able to share this survey over social media and online messaging boards which resulted in rather equal groups of students that responded to this survey.

How helpful has technology been in your education?

For this question, I asked students to rate how helpful technology has been in their education on a scale from 1-10. 1 being not at all, and 10 being extremely helpful. Per the results, I think it's fair to deduct that students feel as though technology has been extremely helpful in the process of learning.

Do you prefer online or paper work?

There were a large number of students who responded with 'it depends'. A common explanation is that they prefer to write notes, research, and essays online, but other work such as math or charts and diagrams on paper. The majority of students found online work as their preference, although it was pretty close.

Do you believe that online learning has helped you to develop a better work ethic?

Overall more students think that online learning did not help them to develop a better work ethic. This is a great example of why I decided to gather my peers opinions, because I found online learning to help me a lot when it came to time management and planning. I think that a lot of people had trouble with online learning because of the circumstances. We went into online learning blind and made the best of a bad situation. That being said, online work isn't for everyone.

Has technology had any negative impacts on your education?

Students that felt as though technology has had a negative impact said that they had headaches from looking at a screen for too long, they were distracted by computers and cellphones, or they had issues with WiFi and connectivity. These are common problems and they aren't too difficult to resolve. All types of learning come with growing pains, and some things are worth the cost.

Has technology allowed you to feel more connected to your peers?

The students' answer to this question was overwhelmingly positive. A strong 74.8% of students, including myself, felt as if they were more connected to their peers due to technology. I feel like since we're able to communicate in new ways, it's much easier to meet new people and keep in touch with them. It's important that students feel connected with their peers so that they have the option to speak with them about classwork, learn how to work together, and learn how to socialize with others.

How would you rate your technological abilities?

Since many students nowadays have grown up using technology, they are able to spend years learning how to use the internet to help them learn. Technology is the future, and students that learn to use technology to assist them in their education, are just one more step ahead.

Do you think that you are more or less technologically capable than your parents or other adults?

Since technology has been evolving so rapidly, the younger generations tend to have stronger technological capabilities than their parents or other adults. The use of technology to aid education has been increasing just as much, and the two factors go hand in hand. Since most students feel as though they know more about tech than adults, they prove this point exactly. As students use more tech to learn, they further improve their tech skills as well.

Has having access to technology had an impact on your choice of college major/career?

A majority of students agree that technology has had an impact on their decisions relating to their future. The most common examples were the access that the internet gave them to information. Many students explained that they were able to conduct much more thorough research through college websites and other information online. Personally, I didn't even know that Forensic Psychology existed until I read about it online. Many students also explained that they were able to contact people who had experience in the field they were looking into. This is including but not limited to, alumni of colleges that they found interesting, or people in the exact career fields that they wanted to go into. This valuable information made it easier for them to decide on what fit them best.

Have you ever had an experience where technology has had a directly positive influence on your education?

As part of the question I listed on the survey, I gave students a few examples of how technology may have assisted their education. Such as, being able to complete more work at home, using Desmos in place of expensive calculators, being able to reach out to teachers, etc. An extremely strong 96.2% of students found technology had a direct positive impact on their education.

Do you think that having access to developments in technology as you’ve grown up has bettered your education overall?

The large majority of students were able to come to the conclusion that technology did in fact help their education overall. Everything has its positives and negatives, but I think that technology has been an overwhelmingly good force on the education of students all across the globe, and most of the students in this survey agreed.

Additional Feedback

At the end of the survey, I left a blank space for students to share any more thoughts they might have about the topic of education and technology and the survey in general. A lot of the students used this space to discuss their thoughts on how this topic impacted them personally, and I found it very interesting to read through each one. Many students provided amazing points and opinions. A few of their answers are listed here.

(Some responses have been edited for clarity or length)

Conclusion

As a reminder, the hypothesis that fueled this study was: developments in technology have had a positive impact on 8th-12th grade students’ education. I think that throughout these responses I can conclusively say that technology has in fact had a positive impact on the large majority of 8th-12th grade students' educations. To create the most accurate results, I've sifted through many responses to make sure that the only ones that are recorded are from 8th-12th grade. Originally, I posted this survey on social media and sent it out to friends, but then my friend offered to post it on a discussion board. The responses sky-rocketed to 169 in total, way more than I ever expected. I'm grateful that so many students took the time out of their days to discuss such an important topic. This survey was a great success, I hope that you enjoyed reading through the results as much as I did.

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