Big Ideas EDU

“It could be that students with lower grades just happen to do more Facebook and texting,” Junco tells Mashable. “But I think this study in the context of other research does seem to show that it is about what they’re doing while they study and not the other way around.”

On average, students in the study sent 97 text messages and spent 101 minutes on Facebook every day. Junco doesn’t think that they’ll leave either technology behind, but in his own classes at Lock Haven University he encourages students to think about how they use them.

“What I tell them is, ‘look, you’re going to sit down to study anyway,” he says. “You might as well make it the most efficient use of your time.’”

cooperativecatalyst:

We have had a number of recent new student/youth leaders join us at the Cooperative Catalyst, either as guest bloggers or members. Here is a handful of their important posts!

Youth Rights, Dignity, and the Anti-Democratic Values of Public Schooling

Learning Revolution, Are You Ready? (Guest Post by Line Dalile)

It Takes People to Make a Change, Not a Government (Guest post by student Diego Negrón Reichard)

Hey Mr.Knowitall, 2 Weeks Detention…For Talking Seriously About Education 

Not Ready to Listen? (Guest Post by Adora Svitak)

Bring on the Learning Revolution!

(via adventuresinlearning)

infoneer-pulse:

College students appear to have gotten over the creep factor of connecting with their professors on Facebook and would prefer to use the 800-million member social network for formal class assignments and discussions over other platforms, including Twitter.

Those are the preliminary findings of Dr. Rey Junco, a college professor who has been studying social media in the college classroom. Not too long ago, students often bristled at the idea of using Facebook in classes because it meant connecting with their professors. But Junco’s more recent research shows students prefer Facebook because they’re already using it.

“I think [using Facebook] would’ve been easier and a little more comfortable for people because I think pretty much everyone in my class had a Facebook and nobody had either one of these thing,” one student in the study said of a class that gave students the option of using Twitter or Ning, a service that lets people create closed social networks.

» via ReadWriteWeb

(via world-shaker)