Learning, Teaching and ICT

I’ve been contemplating Anne’s feedback on my draft research plan. She commented that it would be: 

‘…………. interesting to keep an eye on gender issues (what is the gender breakdown of your group?), and on the kids’ reported use of social websites, etc at home’

Well … there are 26 pupils in the class - and the gender breakdown is half and half (Stuart F has recently moved to another school).

We had a conversation in class recently because I wanted to know if any of them used social websites. I thought that the answer would be that the the majority were using MSN, and that none were using MySpace or Bebo. I was honestly surprised at the response, and began to scribble down notes because I wanted to record the conversations as accurately as possible. Here’s a breakdown of the conversation ….

MSN users … 16 pupils out of the 26 ( 11 girls and 5 boys) use MSN regularly. 7 girls and 1 boy use MSN daily. The rest use it at least weekly and there was no real difference between the boy / girl ratio.

None of the children use ‘MySpace’, but 11 of them said that they had Bebo accounts (6 girls and 4 boys). None of them used Bebo daily, but they did all use it at least 2 or 3 times a week.

 When I asked them about their preference to using Bebo versus their Individual Blogs, I was really surprised that they thought that the Bebo site was ’safer’. They thought that it was safer because they had all opted to choose the ‘only friends can see my page’ option. They felt that there were no worries about ’strangers’ looking at their site - they were in control? They mentioned that the ‘public’ option on Bebo was for older people (bigger brothers and sisters).

……… so do they feel uncomfortable with their individual blogs?? Too exposed?

 Next term, we’ll have a 4th year B’ed student in class. Miss L visited us last week and was very keen to set up her own blog so that she could become involved in our ‘community’ (???).  

Her blog (set up with the help of P7 pupls) can be visited here

I’ve set up my  own blog , too now …… and the children have been very quick to comment and offer their support on both blogs

I’ve also had an interesting conversation with a pupil who has difficulty with spelling. She is building an online friendship with some new ‘peers’ in Australia and during our discussion she was keen to point out that she now uses various strategies to improve her spelling. She made it clear that she didn’t care about spelling so much when it ‘just appeared in a jotter’ …. using her blog has given her a real audience. 

The members of this new audience are the same age and sex as she is  …….. and they care about the presentation of their work 

…………  peer pressure of the best kind??

Even more questions to answer

I’m on my way now, after having received ‘research design’ feedback from Anne.  Thanks, Anne

Here’s some of Anne’s suggestions:

 ……….. As to methodology, the case study does seem to be the most important method. You are quite right to point out the limitations of surveys in a study such as this. As you rightly observe, you’ll get far more out of informal class discussions and more focussed discussions in small groups.

………It will be interesting to keep an eye on gender issues (what is the gender breakdown of your group?), and on the kids’ reported use of social websites, etc at home.

When it comes to data analysis, presumably you’re interested in breadth (the number of posts and range of interlocutors) as well as depth (the duration of the interaction and the deepening of the topic). It will be interesting to see whether there are any gender differences here, and in the nature of the subject matter.

When it comes to what is being said in posts and comment, you’ll need to devise some kind of coding framework that will help you categorise your data. This will be refined as you progress through the study.

It’s very helpful … and I’ll contemplate all the advice carefully.

Looking at ‘gender’ issues was also mentioned by Jackie Marsh in her email response to my ‘advice plea’. She also put me in touch with Peter W who has offered support  … much  appreciated