Digital Natives and H1N1: How Adversity Can Drive Change

Abstract

This paper examines what happens when young learners in a primary school in Hong Kong start from learning about information and communication technologies (ICTs) to learning with and through ICTs. The authors focus on how students used learning technologies when an H1N1 outbreak closed the school for three weeks and teachers were required to use ICTs to initiate at-home learning. This gave the researchers an opportunity to assess the capacity of young students using Web 2.0 technologies to support learning and the impact that these tools have on teacher views and practice. Data includes interviews with teachers and examples of students’ work. Findings demonstrate how confident and comfortable young learners are with new technologies, raising questions about prevailing assumptions that young students have the capacity to easily use the existing school-based learning management system and Web 2.0 applications. The authors provide evidence that students can effectively engage with ICTs and demonstrate very high levels of skills. However, students did not do so automatically, and required assessment tasks were often key drivers for initiating student engagement and learning.