Double Entry Journal #12

"We need to be careful with terms such as 'Digital Natives' that lead to an understanding of a whole generation as a homogeneous group. There is more variance across individuals than is suggested by broad generalizations such as the 'Digital Native' or the 'Net Generation.'"

Positive outcomes have been reported where young people have been encouraged to transform their understanding of particular topics by designing a multimodal text. "Such studies support the notion that digital transformations and designing can enhance the learning process."

"The study examined the processes undertaken by secondary students in online learning environments and the multimodal products that they generated. The goal in terms of product was to track the development of the participants' multimodal literacies over a two-year period by comparing two multimodal products created at the beginning and end of the period."

"The goal in terms of process was to gain a deeper understanding of how multimodal texts were created, especially when the students were working in pairs at the computer."

"Fourteen secondary schools participated in this study and we were able to track 115 students studying the subject Study of Society and the Environment from Years 8 and 10 to years 10 and 12. The complete dataset consists of survey data, product data, process data, and screen capture data."

Students had to do two tasks including "a comparative examination of two products created by the same student in Year 8 and Year 10;" and they had to "describe qualities and characteristics of the process as two students work together to create a website describing the impact of plastic bags on the environment with their conclusion."

They chose to focus on a small group represented by one school; students who had "worked collaboratively in pairs, they had fully completed the task, and the video screen data recordings were intact and complete."

"As with the dynamic build of the title slide, the student is inventive and playful. Thus, in the Year 8 product, we find headings characterized by five different fonts and five different colors for each heading: the student is clearly experimenting with the shadow settings."

"There are at least three important differences. First, while typed words may appear immediately on screen, there is often a considerable wait time between the keying in of an instruction and a response from the computer. Second, the length of the wait time is unpredictable and may be several minutes. The result the computer provides to an instruction is often unexpected. What follows are some of the process phenomena observed while the students were working together."

"Interactional coordination was frequently observed across modalities, specifically between the two participants through talk and through the keyboard/ mouse to the computer screen."

"Technological infrastructure does play a part in supporting learning either 'on task' and 'off task,' and poor infrastructure leads to a loss of time that students are engaged in learning."

"Environment is necessary, especially in terms of how it differs from technology engagement in the school environment. Specific task design will lead to specific learning outcomes."

In a way, I am not surprised by the conclusions drawn in this study because most of these requirements are needed for other things. Also, I think students are sometimes smarter than adults give them credit for.