Using Internet Communication Technologies by Low-Income High School Students in Completing Educational Tasks Inside and Outside the School Setting

Abstract

This qualitative research study examines the home use of Information and Communicative Technologies (ICT) by high school students living in economically disadvantaged households. The students' use of ICT was for the purpose of completing assigned and unassigned homework outside of the traditional high school setting. Student participants in the interview phase of the study explained their choice to use ICT as being due both to its ease of use and to their perception that utilizing ICT as a resource results in tasks being accomplished at a quicker rate. The widespread use of ICT as a supplemental resource in the completion of traditional homework assignments was a notable pattern in the findings. However, the multi-tasking capabilities of their selected computer technologies were found to be both facilitating and hindering factors in these students' use of ICT outside of school. Finally, teachers surveyed in the study were found to assign ICT-based homework to students, regardless of the perceived levels of Internet access in the students' households.