In a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, daily use of social networking sites by children and teenagers in the United States has risen dramatically in the last five years. In a typical day, eight to 18-yearolds spend an average of seven hours and 38 minutes accessing entertainment media.
Thanks to the increase in the number of social media networks and mobile media devices, like cell phones and MP3 players, usage has risen by an hour and 17 minutes a day since 2004.
And while much of the time is spent listening to music, playing games and watching TV on computers and cell phones, some technology savvy kids are combining these new tools with their love of learning. According to the Kaiser study, about half of the young people surveyed reported using some type of media either "most" or "some" of the time when doing their homework.
Other, more entrepreneurial minded learners are finding ways to fully incorporate technology and social media in order to access a wider scope of resources and to share their ideas with other students.
For instance, Fabian Fernandez-Han, a 12-year-old from Conroe, Texas, was recently named the winner of the National New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Financial Future Challenge. He developed an iPhone® application to help teach his peers about finance, money management and investing in the stock market. The application called "Oink-a-saurus" demonstrates what a stock portfolio would look like if a user had saved and invested in the stock market instead of spending money on immediate wants. "Oink-a-saurus" also includes a social network feature that shares the user's stock selections with users who have similar profiles. It also includes a link to a news service providing teen-friendly stock market and investing information.
In what appears to be support for the idea of using social media to support student learning, a survey conducted on behalf of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), found a significant increase in the usage, frequency and access to digital media in the classroom over the past several years. Survey results indicated that Pre-K and K-12 teachers value many different types of digital media.
The study also cited research that supports how integrating multimedia and technology into instruction can boost student achievement.
Ultimately, for Fabian and other students who have access to interactive media like blogs, YouTubeTM, Facebook® and Twitter® - classroom instruction can take on a whole new dimension when learners have access to new and different information, and the ability to share their findings with not only their teacher and classmates, but with their peers around the world.