Always online: Mobile technology and social media usage by modern teenagers at home and at school

Abstract

Students of Moscow schools and other educational institutions between the ages of 16 and 18 years old were surveyed to assess how Russian schools use modern methods of e-learning, mobile technologies, and social media in the learning process. The sample covered 3,194 respondents. The study describes three waves of Russian school informatization and the challenges the system has been facing over the last five years: The extensive use of mobile phones and PDAs with high-speed access to the Internet by students and the active use of social media services forcommunication, search, and the storage of information. The article demonstrates the obvious progress of the schooling system: Present-day teachers communicate with their students via email and social networks and occasionally give homework assignments to be done online or using Internet services. Yet, the school remains an extremely conservative institution. The education system is insensitive to the rapid development of technologies, and the process of modernization is essentially inhibited by sticking to conventional teaching practices and ignoring innovative ones.