Teen Culture, Technology and Literacy Instruction: Urban Adolescent Students'

Perspectives
Li, J.; Snow, C.; White, C.
Abstract
Modern teens have pervasively integrated new technologies into their lives, and technology has
become an important component of teen popular culture. Educators have pointed out the promise
of exploiting technology to enhance students language and literacy skills and general academic
success. However, there is no consensus on the effect of technology on teens, and scant literature
is available that incorporates the perspectives of urban and linguistically diverse students on the
feasibility of applying new technologies in teaching and learning literacy in intact classrooms.
This paper reports urban adolescents perspectives on the use of technology within teen culture,
for learning in general and for literacy instruction in particular. Focus group interviews were
conducted among linguistically diverse urban students in grades 6, 7 and 8 in a lower income
neighborhood in the Northeastern region of the United States. The major findings of the study
were that 1) urban teens primarily and almost exclusively used social media and technology
devices for peer socializing, 2) they were interested in using technology to improve their literacy
skills, but did not appear to voluntarily or independently integrate technology into learning, and
3) 8th graders were considerably more sophisticated in their use of technology and their
suggestions for application of technology to literacy learning than 6th and 7th graders. These
findings lead to suggestions for developing effective literacy instruction using new technologies.
I.
Reference Information
Li, J., Snow, C., & White, C. (2015). Teen Culture, Technology, and Literacy instruction:
Urban Adolescent Students Perspectives. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology,
41(3).
II.
Summary of the Literature Review/Background
This research study is based off the fact that there is an increasingly large number of
urban teenagers who own, use, and have access to mobile devices, internet, social media, and
technology. The study found that in 2001, there were seventeen million teens aged twelve to
seventeen using the internet. Of those seventeen million, 48% found the internet improved their
relationships with friends, 32% thought the internet helped them make new friends, and 93%
used the internet primarily for social interaction. In a survey of 802 teens aged twelve to
seventeen, 78% owned a phone and 47% of those mobile devices were smartphones. In a study
of 852 teens in low-income households, 82.9% still owned desktop computers, 35.5% owned
laptops, and 63.9% owned cell phones. Research also shows that there is a higher percentage of
teens ages twelve to fifteen using the internet than of teenagers aged eighteen to nineteen years
and nine to eleven years.

With this data on the number of teenagers with access to technology, there is promising
potential for integrating technology into literacy instruction to improve students vocabulary,
reading, and writing skills. Research showed that the impact of 259 middle school students using
laptops showed significant achievement after just one year, in comparison to students
achievement levels not using laptops.
III. Research Question(s)/Purpose of the Research
The study is primarily focused on the specific technology usage of urban and
linguistically diverse students (read: students who speak two or more languages semi-fluently)
and their interest in utilizing technology to improve literacy, specifically in reading and writing
literacy. What are urban teen students' perspectives on their use of technology and on 2.
technology-infused group culture? What are their perspectives about the applications of
technology for school related learning, particularly for language and literacy instruction?
IV. Research Design/Independent Variables
This study conducted three focus groups in an urban public school in Boston, MA. This
was part of a larger study that included 531 students. Five students were randomly selected from
sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. There were three males and two females from sixth grade, two
males and three females from seventh grade, and three males and two females from eighth grade.
There were three English-only and two ELL students in sixth and seventh grade. There were
three English-only and two ELL students from the eighth grade group. The students were all
selected from in tact classrooms and were interviewed for a total of 4.5 hours. The participants
completed a six-page self-reported survey following the interview.
V. Performance Measurement
Participants in five separate groups, each from an intact class, were asked the same
following questions as a means for data collection by the researchers: 1) What does technology
mean to you? 2) What kinds of technology do you use, and what do you use it for? 3) Do you use
social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc., and what for? 4) Do you believe that
students could use technology to learn language and literacy skills, and how? 5) Do you believe
that teachers could use technology to teach language and literacy skills, and how?
Researches facilitated the workshop for 4 hours, guiding questions and keeping students
on the topic at hand.
VI. Research Results
The results of this study concluded that participants equated technology to computers,
cell phones, and social media. The study also found that most participants see technologys main
purpose as socializing and entertaining. Research showed, ...urban teens, mostly from lower
income homes, were well informed about new technologies and seem to participate in the same
technology-infused teen culture as their counterparts in the general teen population (Lenhart,
2012; Lenhart, et al., 2010; Li, Snow, & White, 2014). Participants said they would connect

with other teenagers they have not met before, but would not connect with adults they do not
know over social media. The findings also showed an age difference in the participants
perspectives on technology usage. Eighth graders had a more pragmatic approach. The results
showed, During the focus group interviews, they [eighth grade students] offered more
sophisticated ideas about technology applications to learning-taking the school's perspective,
considering the affordability of integrating technologies for students from different income
levels, and demonstrating agency and critical thinking skills in their search for learning
autonomy using technology- than 6th and 7th graders, whose interests primarily included using
computers to look for word definitions and other information online, taking notes, and printing
out information.
VII. Implications of the Research
Virtually all students, regardless of economic status or living situation, are up-to-date and
fluent in social media and other communication technologies. Of the students interviewed in the
focus groups, they came to unanimous agreement that technology is crucial in the classroom and
for the assistance of cultivating literacy. This means that students are actually willing to
participate in experimental activities, such as class blogs and other educational-social media
websites, in order to develop a best fit for each individual classroom. They are aware of the
technological information gap that exists among teenagers and adults, but their interest in
classroom technologies indicates their willingness to educate their teachers, in turn becoming
experts themselves.
Educational technology, especially social media, could create a positive, safe classroom
environment where individuals are allowed to subtly and almost anonymously speak up, through
the veil of a computer screen, while still actively participating as much as they would in a verbal
discussion. Technology does not at all inhibit a students social skills, but instead provides
scaffolding for greater communication that could permeate into the verbal classroom
environment. Furthermore, students could utilize educational technology to communicate with
teachers and administrators, again creating a thin barrier of anonymity that creates an
environment where students feel comfortable expressing their opinions.
VIII. Questions or Concerns Regarding the Reading
How would results change if the same research study was conducted in a rural area? How
would answers vary if study was conducted among high school students? How can teachers
move students into a direction of seeing the benefit of technology for literacy purposes rather
than socializing and entertainment?