To Investigate the Basic Conditions of the Usage of Twitter in the Universities in Hong Kong

1.The intent and use of survey research:This survey aims to investigate basic conditions of  the application of  Twitter in universities in HK in order to further explore how to apply Twitter to support study.
2.Types of survey designs:cross sectional approach on the attitudes and practices
3.Types of Quantitative Sampling:convenience sampling.
4.Methods for survey implementation:In-person,Internet and Mail methods that require participant to fill in a questionnaire.

Below are the survey questionnaire:

Message to participants
This survey should take you no more that 10 minutes to complete, and we promise that you responses are anonymous.We ask question out your preferences, attitude, experiences towards social media and your basic personal information. Your responses will help to effectively evaluate the utilization of Twitter in Universities in Hong Kong.Please choose the answers base on your actual situation and leave blank any question that does not apply.
You must be a full-time or part-time student in the Universities of Hong Kong.

Section 1:About You
1.What is you age:()-Scaled items
A.less than 20
B.21-30
C.31-40
D.more than 40

2.What is your gender()-Dichotomous questions
A.Female B.Male

3.Which college or university do you attend()-Checklists
A.The University of HongKong
B.The Chinese University of Hong Kong
C.Hong Kong Baptist University
D.Hong Kong Polytechnic University
E.City University of Hong Kong
F.Hong Kong University of Science&Technology
G.Lingnan University
H.Others, (please specify)

4.What is your grade()-Checklists
A.Freshman 
B.Sophomore
C.Junior.
D.Senior
E.Postgraduate
F.PHD
G.Others, (please specify)


Session 2: Device use and communication behavior 
5.Which system are you using now?-Multiple choice 
A.Symbian OS
B.Windows Mobile
C.Linux
D.Mac OS X
E.Google Android
F.BlackBerry
G.Others, (please specify)

6.How do you usually contact others?-Multiple choice 
A.Make a phone call
B.By social software
C.Writing letters
D.Others, (please specify)

7.What types of social software are you using now on mobile phone?()-Multiple choice questions
A.QQ
B.WhatsApp
C.Wechat
D.Twitter
E.Facebook
F.Weibo
G.Others, please specify______________
(If the answers do not include"Twitter" end at 6,otherwise continue from and complete all the questions )


8.Have you heard about Twitter?-Dichotomous questions
A.Yes  B.No



9. Have you used Twitter before?-Dichotomous questions
A.Yes B.No

10.If you used Twitter before,why did you stop using?-Completion
Please specify:___________________.


11.What do you use Twitter for?()-Multiple choice questions

A.Share information

B.Absorb information

C.Follow communities

D.Follow stars

F. Others, please specify_____________

12.How long do you spend on Twitter everyday?-Scaled item
A.Less than 2 hours
B.2-4 hours
C.More than 4 hours

13.Which function of Twitter is the most frequently used?()-Multiple choice questions

A.Share information

B.Absorb information

C.Follow communities

D.Follow stars

E.Others, please specify______________

14.What kinds of topics that you often chat with your friends on Twitter?-Multiple choice

A.Food

B.Study

C.Family

D.Peer relationship

E.Computer games

F.Social issues

G.Others, (please specify)

15.Have you use Twitter for learning activities?
A.Yes             B.No

16.Which aspects of Twitter need to be improved?
A.Interface(please specify)

B.Function(please specify)
C.etc(please specify)

17.Will you continue using Twitter in the future?-Dichotomous questions

A.Yes  
B.No(please specify)

Why ICT can’t be widely used by students in schools?----MA Junna’s own opinion.

Last session, Dr. Lu told us a research that she did in a high school of Hong Kong. In the picture of that research showed that although the teacher had his class in IT lab, the students in his class didn’t login system and didn’t use computers so often. Why? Why don’t schools’ computers often be used by students? -- I think maybe we could solve the questions in a more economic way.

Firstly, if that school allows students use schools’ computers freely or more frequently than now, school needs to find at least one teacher to take care of the labs. Let’s assume that school will hire an equipments manager to take charge of these computers and school’s internet. Then if we give this equipments manager 20,000 HKD per month, we need to pay him at least 240,000 HKD per year. At the same time, if students use computers more frequently, the speed of depreciation will become much faster than before. So school needs to pay even much more money than now. Maybe at least more than 300,000 HKD a year. However, they can’t see “income” or “benefit” directly. How to evaluate a school? (I mean schools before college.)-----Enrollment Rate! And which kind of exams measure students’ IT ability?----I don’t know any now. Maybe there are some, but few. So will you do something without any “income”? It’s in the violation of the economic person assumption.

You may say that we can see long-term incomes. But how to evaluate these long-term incomes? Hard to say. And if schools won’t let students use these IT equipments so often, why they bought these equipments?

It’s like a “Game Theory”, all about school’s rating, reputation, student resource, and enrollment. Schools without IT labs won’t be a good school. Do you agree with that? Nearly all good schools must have more than one IT lab, and some ICT courses. It is not only a outcome for students, but also a sign of modern and high quality education. Parents won’t choose a school without any modern educational equipment. So a IT lab is also a survival condition for schools. We can evaluate schools by these IT equipments. However it’s hard to evaluate schools’ IT education. If it’s hard to evaluate, and they have already reached their aims. Maybe they won’t use time and energy to do something which they can’t get benefit directly. People all tend to choose the optimal choice for themselves.

Above all, I believe that maybe we’d better find a way which can balance schools’ interest requirement and students’ high quality IT education, and which can instead of “We should”, “We would”, and “We could” in the conclusions.

Anyway, it’s my own opinion. Thanks for reading!



MA Junna, Riley

Primary pupils’ use of information and communication technologies at school and home by Neil Selwyn, John Potter and Sue Cranmer

This article aimed to investigates children’s engagement with information and communication technologies (ICTs) inside and outside the school context based on the Quantitative Research from 612 pupils in five English primary schools.

The status quo:
1.Students engages in more expensive digital media outside of the classroom led to gap between schools and teachers.
2.The use of ICT in primary schools continues to be inconsistent despite the increased funding and improved resourcing.

Identify the research problems:

• What is the background of primary pupils in terms of ICT access?
• How do primary pupils use computers and the Internet in school and out-of-school
settings?
• What ICT applications do primary pupils favour in schools and at home?
• How do primary pupils think ICTs influence the way they learn?
• What changes do primary pupils want made to school ICT provision?

Methods:
Survey design was adopted by a four-page questionnaire was developed
to investigate primary pupils’engagement with ICT inside and outside of the school setting.Adopted Probability Sampling as Stratified Sampling to select samples including two inner city schools and two suburban schools in London and one school in a medium/small town located in the West Midlands.

Descriptive Statistics were collected and shown by both tables and figures to reflect the central tendency towards the below aspects:
1.Pupils’ access to ICTs inside and outside the school
2.Pupils’ Internet use
3.Pupils’ computer use
4.Pupils’ favoured and least favoured ICT applications
5.Perceived influence of ICTs on learning
6.Pupils’ views of desirable changes to school ICT provision

Discussion:
The results show that primary school pupils' engagement with ICT are dominated by learning-related activities and picture retrieval at school while are dominated by online games at home.And then exert the implications by the research into practical use.

I think this article provided a good foundation to align ICTs in school with students' own favour in ICTS in education.However my research topic as "How to align ICTs in school with students' own favour in ICTS in education" may replicate this article with different participants and different research sites.I  have initially decided to focus my topic towards a specific ICT or a specific environment in school.

By Cheng Miaoting,Cat

Articles written by Marc Prensky (who gave the definitions of Digital Native and Digital Immigrant)---MaJunna

Articles written by Marc Prensky (who gave the definitions of Digital Native and Digital Immigrant)

1.  Teaching the Right Stuff–Not Yesterday's Stuff or Today's, but Tomorrow's(In Educational Technology, May-June 2012)

2. Time Travel as Punishment: What our kids REALLY hate (in Educational Technology, Jan-Feb 2013)

3. Trivia vs. Power: Let's be clear on exactly how we are using technology in education (in Educational Technology, Jul-Aug 2012)

4. What ISN’T Technology Good At? Part I–Empathy! (in Educational Technology, Sept-Oct 2012)

5. What ISN’T Technology Good At? Part II–Passion! (in Educational Technology, Nov-Dec 2012)


The first three articles give us a similar idea--it’s a digital world, and we must understand what are digital natives’ needs and wants. Technology is a part of our lives. We can’t ignore it, or resist it. Maybe we are digital immigrants, but in the future, this will be digital natives’ world. It’s a trend which will never be back.

In the article--”Teaching the Right Stuff -- Not Yesterday’s Stuff or Today’s, but Tomorrow’s “, I really like three steps of Literate Person:

1. Yesterday’s Literate Person, Write a letter, Write a report, Write an essay;
2. Today’s Literate Person, Write an e-mail, Make a PowerPoint, Write a blog post;
3. Tomorrow’s Literate Person, Work in a Virtual community, Make a video, Write a program.

This is a trend in Marc Prensky’s mind. He is trying to forecast future and show his exceptions. However, in the last two articles, he also mentioned that IT is a part of education, but not the whole of education. He gives us two parts which technology is not good at -- Empathy and Passion.

I agree with Part Two-- Passion. We are human beings, and we need communicate with each others in the real world. Kids always lack of self-control, and that is one important reason why we need schools and teachers. Teachers can be tutors, supervisors, advisers, and mentors, and play an very important role in students’ lives.

Passion—the intense interest and a desire to know and do more (an intensely biological trait)—is the most important element to promote and encourage in our students. Passion is the students’ true motivator. (What ISN'T Technology Good At? Part II–Passion!, Educational Technology, Nov-Dec 2012)

Although IT is becoming more and more non-ignore in education, we still can’t educate without schools and teachers. There are always something that technology can’t take place.


By Ma Junna (Riley)

The differences between the ICT teaching method and traditional teaching method in HK education

There are a large number of ICT equipments appearing in the schools recent years due to the rapid development of economy and policy planning, the key policy of Hong Kong is "to make Hong Kong 'a leader, not a follower, in the information world of tomorrow'".( Yuen, H.K., Law, N, Lee, M.W., & Lee, Y. 2010). Therefore, teachers have to learn to use the ICT which refers to the convergence of audio-visual and telephone networks with computer networks through a single cabling or link system, into their teaching process in order to adapt to this change and boost ICT teaching method according to the guidelines and policies on the reform and development for education undertakings.

 However, transforming the traditional teaching which considered as explanation from teacher and interactive classroom activity among students (Koah, Ming-chu, Pearl.,2000) to ICT teaching method in HK educational context is a complex process without knowing the final results, promoting the ICT in education has never been interrupted because of the increasingly influenced by the use of ICT in all aspects of everyday life including how students learn and how teachers teach(Resta,2002).It is necessary to think about what benefits the ICT teaching method bring us that cannot be achieved by traditional method and in this way, will the traditional method disappear gradually in our classes?

 

 

 

References:

 

Koah, Ming-chu, Pearl.(2000).A comparison of the effectiveness of traditional teaching and CD-ROM based presentation of business.

Yuen, H.K., Law, N, Lee, M.W., & Lee, Y. (2010). The Changing Face of Education in Hong Kong: Transition into the 21st Century, Hong Kong: Centre for Information Technology in Education, The University of Hong Kong.
 
Resta.p (2002),Information and Communication Technologies in Teacher Education :A Planning Guide.UNESCO: Division of Higher Education

 

Candice (Hu Yonglang)

 

 

How to align ICTs in school with students' own favour in ICTs in Education.

Hey girls,I am Cheng Miaoting,Cat.Here I would like to present the initial research problem I am interested in Education.

During the four years' undergraduate study,I participated in various pedagogical practices.What influenced me most was the expericence as an intership in a primary school.Not to mentioned the teachers' actual skills in ICTs,they were mostly reluctant to integrate those tech into their daily teaching,or just utilized some simple tools like lecture slide in Powerpoint format and put it through the projector.Even I have been very familiar with those knowledge,I could not help distracting from the Chalk and Talk.I would like to apply an innovative pedagogics to teaching,but was quite constrained by my experience and school policy. Being confused by the messy reality,I come here to figure out how to align ICTs with various pedogogies to led to more gains while also present a vivid but remain valuable class.

Nowadays children grow up in a technology-savvy
environment,students' prior knowledge towards information and communication technologies vary considerably.Whilst it indicates that children in elementary and secondary education are likely to  have acquired a basic level of  ICT use from their out-of-school digital practices.Notably,their engagement in high-tech devices or software like ipad,game console or social networking tools also seem to last longer and more concentrative.

By Candice---What’s differences between the ICT teaching method andtraditional teaching method?

There are a large number of ICT equipments appearing in the schools recent years with the development of our country’s economy. Therefore, teachers have to learn to use the high-tech and media into their teaching process in order to adapt to this change and boost modern teaching method according to the guidelines and policies on the reform and development for education undertakings.

Why is the ICT teaching so popular once available in school? what’s the advantages ICT teaching bringing us when compared with traditional teaching method? Some people think ICT teaching will replace traditional teaching.However,I think it is so hard to decide which is the better one because of the different function they both played on education.

The convenience and flexibility the ICT teaching offers would be apparent .I want to give you a example about on-line courses,once an individual sign up for a course through the Internet,they can study independently just with widespread Internet access.they can study whatever they want anytime,anywhere.Also,they are able to adjust the pace suited them best which means if they understand the knowledge well,they can speed up the process,otherwise,choose to slow down will be fine.

Speaking of traditional teaching method,the most fundamental merit,I believe,is the face to face communication which cannot be achieved by on-line courses.I don't think students can always live in the virtual world,they are supposed to practice their communication skills,cooperative ability as well as how to behave oneself properly which cannot be found in the on-line courses I suppose.

Above all,I should state it is just a primary thinking of myself.with the in-depth guide of this module, I will continue to do more research and thinking more.Welcome to give me some suggestions,thank you.

By Hu Yonglang(Candice)

Whether too many IT Equipments Influence Students' Studies?----ByMaJunna

Hey girls, I’m MaJunna, Riley. It’s so nice to have group discussions with you!

To be honest, I have a plant of questions to ask. I will find them one by one. Let me start with a small question which I keep on thinking about it for a long time.---How to evaluate or estimate whether a student is spacing out or distracted?

You may say it is nothing about IT Education. But I want to say: do you remember we talked whether video games influence students’ studies? Dr. Jingyan said some research reports showed that the students who always play video games are bad at academics. But why they are bad at academics? In my experience, these students who use electronic equipments (including TV, ipad, smart phone, video games,etc.) all day and can’t live without these equipments, are always distracted in my classes. So, if they can’t pay close attention to my words, they must miss a lot knowledge of this academics. The more they miss, the worse academic results they get.

Do you get my logic?

My thinking way is this: play too much video games----can’t concentrate on classes----miss too much academic knowledge----can’t catch up with other students----be bad at academics.

So today I want to focus on the first link. And concerning about the first link, I think we should give a definition----what is “can’t concentrate on classes” ?

“Be distracted” is opposite to “concentrate on”. How can we estimate when a student is spacing out? Is there any scientific measurement? Except doing some special tests on students.

Girls

Hey, girls! Please remember to upload report here.