A new report by the Cranford School of Management has found that today's technology is hindering teenagers' progress in school, as it gives them easier opportunities to cheat.
A selection of teenagers in the Midlands were questioned by Cranford, who found that 59.2 per cent of them got the answers for their homework on the internet, while 28.5 per cent of those thought this was good practice, even though they know the implications of plagiarism.
Disrupts classroom learning
Speaking about the study, Andrew Kakabadse, Professor of International Management Development at Cranfield, said: "Our research shows that technology obsession hinders spelling skills, implicitly encourages plagiarism, and disrupts classroom learning.
"Despite school policies restricting mobile phone usage, students use the phone frequently, with the majority making calls from the toilets. The mobile phone continues to be a prime channel of social communication during the school day."
Cranford also found that 60 per cent of 11 to 18 year olds said they were either "very" or "quite" addicted to the web, while 50 per cent admitted they were addicted to their mobile phone.
Via ComputerWeekly
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amcunningham
September 27th
1. I came across this Cranfield University through an article on the BBC Education news website. I actually bought the report from Sigel Press for $24.99. The report contains no references, does not include the survey instrument and does not even include a response rate for the survey. The analysis is entirely descriptive. For example the authors make no effort to see if amount of time spent online is related to the perception of addiction, or to the likelihood to plagiarise. In addition since we do not have access to the actual wording of the questions it is impossible to know what the students were actually saying yes to.
A colleague said that his 15 year old daughter would not have been allowed to hand in work as poor as this for her GCSE course work. So the surprise is that it has received so much coverage in the press.
Any answers?
I've written more in this blog post. http://wishfulthinkinginmedicaleducation.blogspot.com/2009/09/tech-addiction-harms-learning-really.html
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