Literature Review #4

Valentine, Barbara. "Teens and Their Technologies in College: Implications for 
     Teaching and Learning." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 34 (2008): 
     502-12. Print.

            This article depicts many different aspects regarding the integration of technology and social media into the classroom. For example, the article gives statistics and studies with results on the usage of the Internet and different devices used by both high school and college students in order to complete their homework or other work revolving around their education. It also gives data observing the daily usage of young adults not only using the internet strictly for research, but also their leisure activities online.

            Barbara Valentine, the main researcher in this piece, is a librarian and researcher at Linfield College. She focuses her studies on how students conduct their behaviors in finding certain elements of research, and by being a librarian at a university, clearly aids and understands first hand how many students do so.

            This article was very focused on the idea of surveys, and Valentine used many different attributes of surveys in order to conduct her research. Therefore, it was a key element to this piece, and in order to collect data for her article it was necessary for students to input their own recordings.

            Another key term was the word device. Valentine compared the use of devices back in 2008 when people needed to have many separate devices because they were all not put together as one like they are in the present. Again, through the use of surveys, Valentine determined many different attributes regarding the use of these devices, by the division of sex, age, and even educational status.

“…Many instructors feel compelled to update traditional pedagogies in order to take advantage of new teaching and learning opportunities” (Valentine 502).

            “99% of college students had access to at least one computer in their room, dorm, or off campus home, but 84% said they also used computers at campus labs and the libraries” (Valentine 504).

            “While engaging in school work, college students searched the web more often while high school students more frequently used Wikipedia and television” (Valentine 510).

            This article had much value because it was interesting to see how although it was only roughly 5 years ago that this article was published much has changed within the element of technology. It was interesting to compare the data collected within this article with the data of other more current articles to see how vast and quickly the world is changing through technology.