Quick survey on ICT at Les Compagnons-de-Cartier high school

Quebec - More than 90 % students say that the blog is a technological tool that helps them learn, according to a survey conducted by Martin Bélanger, teacher at Les Compagnons-de-Cartier high school.

Martin Bélanger decided to have his 56 students, aged 14 or 15, complete a small survey to find out what they thought of new technologies. He shared the results of the survey carried out using Google Documents in order to initiate a collective reflection on teaching practices. He published an outline of the responses of the students and some suggestions made by them.

Blogs
According to the survey results, 93 % of students believe that blogging is a great way to practice writing better. Even 64 % of these admit to making extra efforts in their school work because they know that they will be able to blog them eventually. Even more, 100 % of respondents admit to making an effort to write better in the posts they blog than in their school work.

The use of blogs in the classroom is almost unanimous among the students of Martin Bélanger. Almost 90 % consider blogging an interesting school activity. Moreover, more than half of respondents (59 %) appreciate being able to post their work online on their blog.

The technical side of a blog doesn't seem to stop them. More than nine in ten respondents say that managing a blog technically is easy.

At secondary school The Compagnons-de-Cartier, it's not just young people who blog, teachers too. One of the students commented on the subject: “I want the teachers' blog to stay on, because it's a good way to know what to do and it's also a very good way for our parents know what we are doing ”.

Is the blog a good support for metacognition? In other words, does it keep track of learning and help students identify their strengths and weaknesses in order to improve? More than 75 % of Mr. Bélanger's students believe so.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
Facebook finds takers among 81 % of respondents while only 14 % have a Twitter account.

Many respondents commented on the opportunities offered by Facebook and YouTube in the world of education. In general, young people find that YouTube can be very useful for watching instructional videos or recording explanations of a lesson. As for Facebook, the young people propose to create a group linked to a project to share ideas.

Here are some examples of suggestions that have not been reworded to preserve the authenticity of the responses.

“It would be interesting to watch videos more often that could be useful to us in our future work. "

“For YouTube, I would record important lessons or tips capsules. Also, I would ask the students to take turns recording mini-capsules. For Facebook, maybe from debates, questionnaires / polls? "

"Reminders for students, explanatory summaries, Web courses ..."

By Marie-Christine Leblanc