Its not a particularly well kept secret that technology is playing an increasingly prominent role in our lives, and in education. But not only is more advanced technology taking over the classroom, new research has found that it is also having a significant effect on homework, including the reasons for not handing it in.
The School Planner Company has revealed the results of a survey among 1,000 secondary school pupils, aged between 11 and 18, to uncover their homework habits and reveal how technology is affecting them.
When questioned why school children didn’t hand in their homework, 11% were ‘creative’ enough to claim that their computer crashed. A further 10% opted for “my wi-fi was down” and 9% seemingly forgot about their school’s printing provisions and explained that their personal printer had broken.
Technology again takes the blame for students not getting stuck into their homework straight away, as 17% cited Facebook as the main distraction, and 15% would rather watch TV on demand then enjoy an evening of long division. Chatting to friends online is another well-referenced distraction, with 13% of students asked claiming that they would put off doing their homework in order to socialise in this way.
Its not all bad news for the Information Age however, with many students recognising that technology actually helps them to understand and complete homework tasks. Almost half (47%) of respondents use Google to help with homework, 21% use Wikipedia, and 10% champion teamwork by emailing their friends for help.
Nick White, founder of The School Planner Company said, “Students making excuses for not doing their homework is nothing new. However, age old excuses such as ‘my dog ate it’ have been left behind modern day technology.
“Today’s homework excuses range from ‘my computer crashed’, through to ‘my wi-fi was down’ and ‘my printer broke’. Technology is evolving late homework excuses as IT becomes ever more commonplace with pupils and teachers.”
A recurring theme throughout the research has revealed that many students feel they need to better organise their homework and improve their time management with the majority saying they would benefit from an online planner.
The School Planner Company work with schools to help them evolve their student planner into a valuable learning resource.
