Thirteen Things to Know About Teens and Technology

13 Things to Know About Teens and Technology Rainie, L. (2014). 13 things to know about teens and technology. [Powerpoint]. Retrieved from the 29th Annual ACT Enrollment Planners Conference. Web site: http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/07/23/13-things-to-know-about-teens-and-technology/ Dr. Rainie does a great job within his slides to show how digital tools are changing the way teens are communicating. There is no rule book, no magic cure to make students change with the times but stay the same. Because they live in a "tech savvy" world, the way they gather information and present themselves is also changing. According to Dr. Rainie, about 81% of teens use social networking sites. I was also not surprised that 95% of teens have access to the internet. From another assignment that I did for class 54% of teens used Instagram, but in this presentation, it showed that 25% of the teens used Instagram. One thing that was kind of disturbing is the reference to information as a third skin and this idea that teens having a fifth lobe in conjunction with digital tools. It sounds like a sci-fi movie where people are mutating from some strange chemical. As a teacher, I was not that surprised that many of the teachers polled thought that the use of technology was beneficial, especially in researching skills however, teachers agreed that there were drawbacks such as students who were easily distracted with a short attention span. It is hard to walk in a classroom today and talk with teachers, without a reference being made about the attention span of our students. Either way our teens are saturated in digital tools,and the way we are teaching our students will change, and this can only lead to positive things. 55 pages/slides