Sixth Graders’ Use of Technologies in Learning, Technology Attitudes and School Well-Being

Abstract

Using digital technologies (DT) in learning is expected to foster students' school engagement. International surveys, however, show that using of technologies for learning in Finnish schools is still far from optimal. This study was conducted as a part of Mind the Gap project. The aim was to examine how frequently students use technologies for learning, what kinds of attitudes they hold towards using technologies, and how these, compared to the students' overall school experiences, explain academic well-being. Gender differences were also examined. The data was collected with a questionnaire in 2013 from 36 schools in Helsinki (n=735, 56% female, ~12-13 years) which assessed the students' use of and attitudes to digital technologies in learning, perceptions of school, school value, school engagement and burnout. Gender differences were analysed with ttests. Relationships between technology, school-perception measures and academic well-being were analysed with linear regression. DTs were reportedly used in school mostly for knowledge acquisition and mechanical tasks. However, most students reported wanting to use technology more and experienced it to foster school engagement. Regarding technology-related indicators, fear-of-failing and digital learning engagement were related to lower school value and also burnout symptoms. As DTs were used in learning infrequently, their contribution to school well-being was expectedly low. However, students' attitudes for DTs were related to problems in school well-being. Thus, we propose a need for novel pedagogical practices for using DTs, while * Corresponding author. Tel.: +0-000-000-0000 ; fax: +0-000-000-0000 . maintaining good student-teacher relationships and conditions. To conclude, how technologies are used, instead of how much, should be the key question.

Are Schools Alienating Digitally Engaged Students? Longitudinal Relations between Digital Engagement and School Engagement

“…We acknowledge that this can make all the difference and thus future studies should include multi-level data of students' informal and formal learning activity. Moreover, future studies should better approach the qualitative differences in adolescents' digital learning engagement, for instance, by mixed methods data on their interestdriven pursuits, and why and how they engage with digital technologies to support them (for this kind of initial efforts, see Hietajärvi et al, 2016;Li et al, 2017). Further, school engagement is but a one indicator of academic functioning, and we should look into different ways of conceptualizing the emergence of connected learning or the gap, future studies should also take into account academic achievement, as well as indicators other than school engagement regarding motivation and well-being.…”

Adolescent students’ digital engagement and achievement goal orientation profiles

“…The current study was conducted in Finland, where students generally have good access to digital technologies (OECD, 2015); however, the educational system still struggles to provide specific and efficient technology-mediated learning programs (Hakkarainen, 2009;Halonen et al, 2016). Moreover, several students engage in out-of-school educational activities via digital media and some want their schoolwork to include more technologymediated learning opportunities (Hietajärvi et al, 2020).…”

“…Moreover, several students engage in out-of-school educational activities via digital media and some want their schoolwork to include more technologymediated learning opportunities (Hietajärvi et al, 2020). Thus, a gap might exist between students' out-of-school digital learning preferences and traditional schooling (Halonen et al, 2016), possibly leading to lower engagement in school (Hietajärvi et al, 2020). Yet adolescents primarily use digital media for socializing with peers (Li et al, 2017), and digital tools can distract them from learning.…”

Lessons learned on student engagement from the nature of pervasive socio‐digital interests and related network participation of adolescents

“…Recent research suggests a gap between the digital learning preference of pupils in their general socio‐digital ecologies and the digital affordances of the schools, on average (Hietajärvi, 2019). Pupils have also reported rather negative experiences of their teachers' readiness to support their digital engagement (Halonen, Hietajärvi, Lonka, & Salmela‐Aro, 2016). The emergence of clearly more socio‐politically oriented interests among upper secondary school students in this study (comparative to the categories of knowledge‐ and blogging‐orientation of Hietajärvi, Tuominen‐Soini, Hakkarainen, Salmela‐Aro, & Lonka, 2015; Hietajärvi, Seppä, & Hakkarainen, 2016) might indicate the role of high school education in the emergence of some pupils' personal interests.…”