Canadian post-secondary students and teachers agree: on average, one third of school activities now take place online

 Back-to-School study shows increased technology use is helping students overcome barriers imposed by large class sizes; making any room a classroom and improving collaboration

TORONTO, Aug. 11, 2014 /CNW/ - From research, lectures and quizzes to collaboration, communication and homework, students are spending on average one third of their education time online using new mobile technologies according to a study released today by Intel Canada. Despite potential concerns, the majority of both students and teachers agree that personal mobile technology in the classroom is having a major positive impact on engagement, empowerment and collaboration, and is helping students to overcome barriers imposed by increasingly large class sizes.  

Teachers, too, are embracing mobile personal technologies in order to improve their teaching methods, including offering online audio or video recordings of lectures, communicating with students and sharing course materials online. Newer teachers (those out of school for less than ten years) report incorporating technology such as audio or video lecture recordings more frequently than their counterparts. According to more than two thirds of teachers surveyed (69%); the effect of this rapid adoption of mobile technology is a transformation of the nature of institutional education into a collaboration between students and their educators. 

"In my work and research I see a trend towards building your own classroom -  the inclination of students, powered by the right technology, to control when, how and where they learn," said Thierry Karsenti, Canada Research Chair on Information Technology and Communications (ICT) in Education. "The goal with technology is to teach students how to use their devices to learn rather than socialize – replacing a potential distraction with a powerful and unmatched education tool." 

As part of the study, students enrolled in post-secondary education were questioned about the amount of time spent online vs. offline for a variety of school activities. Results showed that, among other things, research is conducted online 78% of the time and homework is conducted online 52% of the time. The most commonly completed tasks online included collaborating with peers (mentioned by 87% of respondents) and communicating with professors and teaching assistants (mentioned by 86%).  

"In fact, we find most students underestimate the amount of school activities that do take place online," said Karsenti. "Beyond specific tasks, they are constantly multi-tasking, referencing and reading online while writing essays or completing assignments; which makes technology central to their education."

One concern with technology in the classroom (cited by half of the students) is the fact that technology can sometimes be distracting.  However, two thirds of them feel that technology helps them overcome the barriers imposed by large class sizes and still maintain personal contact with professors and teaching assistants. Almost eight in ten students (79%) feel that mobile technology helps to empower them throughout their learning experience.

"People often think that technology means people stop talking to one another, but the opposite is true – it breeds collaboration, particularly in an educational setting," noted Karsenti. 

"As teachers and professors continue to evolve their curricula for mobile devices, technology continues to empower every student to build their own classroom," said Joseph Ellis, Market Development Manager, Intel Canada. "Parents and students no longer have to compromise between choosing either more performance or more battery life – they can have both. New choices like 2 in 1 devices allow them to focus on enriching the learning experience with new capabilities spanning touch, digital pens, and voice-to-text conversion."

Nearly nine in ten students (86%) cited battery life as a key characteristic for their technology and 76% of all respondents rated it very important.  Further, students ranked performance (speed and multitasking capabilities) very high with almost three quarters (74%) indicating performance is very important.  

About the Poll
Between July 21-26, 2014, an in-depth national online survey was conducted with 845 Canadians students and educators. H+K Perspectives, Hill + Knowlton's research practice, partnered with yconic (Uthink.com) for this national study focused exclusively on the opinions of current students and their educators. In total 535 students enrolled in post-secondary education and 310 educators contributed to the study.

About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world's computing devices. As a leader in corporate responsibility and sustainability, Intel also manufactures the world's first commercially available "conflict-free" microprocessors Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com and about Intel's conflict-free efforts at conflictfree.intel.com.

Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.

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SOURCE: Intel

Robin Smith/Ali Wilson, Hill+Knowlton Strategies for Intel Canada, Tel: [phone], [email protected] / [email protected]