Learning outside the walls of the classroom: Engaging the digital natives

Abstract

This study investigated the response of students and teachers to the use of ICTs to promote teaching and learning outside of the classroom and regular school hours in a Caribbean secondary school. Following an action research design, Grades 10 and 11 Biology students were given access to subject content and learning support through online discussion groups (Google and Facebook), a website that hosted information and an accompanying blog. Data were collected by questionnaire, interviews, and observation. Initially, the students were reluctant to use the discussion groups, though they eventually reported that these facilities provided useful learning support outside of the classroom. They however rejected the Google group in favour of the more familiar Facebook group. Students were so enthusiastic about these resources that they requested that more subject areas be added. Teachers were somewhat reluctant to answer this call, citing the lack of access to equipment and time as deterrents. One year later, the initiative had expanded to the point where the school had acquired additional equipment, had devised a policy for ICT use, additional resources were added to the website and increasingly, students were using their portable devices for academic purposes both in and out of school.

Factors Influencing Student Engagement and the Role of Technology in Student Engagement in Higher Education: Campus-Class-Technology Theory

“…It was seen that students do sharings with the help of social groups formed especially in these environments and that student engagement increases thanks to active participation of the faculty member. Also, as reported in related literature, similar findings revealed that use of social networks as part of classes contributes to student engagement (Cole, 2009;Junco, 2012;Junco, Heiberger and Loken, 2011;Heiberger and Harper, 2008;Veira et al 2014). However, it should be remembered that all these results require effective integration of technology, thanks to which student engagement will considerably increase (Hancock and Betts, 2002;Hede, 2002;Mcgrath, 1998).…”

“…When the related literature is examined, it is seen that there is not much detailed research on the role and influence of technology on student engagement. However, it is reported in related literature that effective integration of technology into such in-class and out-of-class situations such as campus activities (Ericson, 2011), online discussions (Reynard, 2007;Veira et al 2014), 3D virtual environments (Bouta et al 2012), web-based learning (Chen, Lambert and Guidry, 2010), interactive whiteboard (Berque, 2004;Morgan, 2008) and providing feedback (Hepplestone, Holden, Irwin, Parkin and Thorpe, 2011;Xu, 2010) contributes to student engagement. In addition, Nelson Laird and Kuh (2005) found a strong positive relationship between student engagement and use of information technologies for educational purposes.…”

“…In addition, it is also important to investigate the factors influencing their campus engagement and class engagement as well as the relationship of these factors. When the related literature is examined, it is seen that there are some studies conducted to examine the relationship between technology and student engagement (Bouta, Retalis and Paraskeva, 2012;Gebre, Saroyan and Bracewell, 2014;Gurung and Rutledge, 2014;Veira, Leacock and Warrican, 2014); however, there is still a need for further research to investigate in detail the role and influence of technology on student engagement. Therefore, the present study is important as it aimed at determining the views of students about student engagement and examining in detail the research data to be collected with two different data collection techniques.…”

Developing Student Critical Consciousness: Twitter as a Tool to Apply Critical Literacy in the English Classroom

“…Additionally, the increased student-student and student-teacher communication that was a part of the engagement experience in this study strengthened classroom relationships and increased the sense of classroom community. Similar results were found by Veira, Leacock, and Warrican (2014), who found information and communications technology to facilitate interaction of high school students among peers and with their teacher, and Rohr and Costello (2015), who found Twitter to increase students' feeling of connectedness in a large online college course. Notably, the current study's findings were not a simple consequence of bringing technology into the classroom.…”

Is Facebook still a suitable technology‐enhanced learning environment? An updated critical review of the literature from 2012 to 2015

“…Finally, for some authors, Facebook was a better option when students were required to carry out the activity on Facebook or in an LMS (Birkeland et al, ; Veira, Leacock, & Warrican, ), or complemented other LMSs as a cheaper and more accessible option in disadvantaged countries (Magogwe et al, ). Another benefit was directly related to increasing familiarity with several devices or to evaluating mobile‐based learning environments (Brewer et al, ; Ioannou et al, ).…”