Technology ownership, use patterns, and expectations in the student experience

Something I missed in June was the report with results from the 2017 ECAR study, which surveys use/expectations of technology in universities. "This research explores technology ownership, use patterns, and expectations as they relate to the student experience." There were 13,451 faculty respondents from 157 institutions in 7 countries, and 43,559 undergraduate students from 124 institutions in 10 countries. A few items scooped out from the highlights:
- "Laptops are king, smartphones are queen, and tablets are on the way out. At least 19 of 20 students own a laptop or a smartphone, and 3 in 10 students own a laptop, a smartphone, and a tablet. Students view their laptop as critical to their academic success, and three-quarters of students said their smartphone is at least moderately important. Tablets appear to be in decline in terms of ownership, utility, and importance, in part because their functionality is duplicated by a combination of laptops and smartphones."
- "Students are choosing sides in the online versus face-to-face debate. For the fourth year in a row, the number of students preferring a blended learning environment that includes some to mostly online components has increased. The number of students preferring completely face-to-face or completely online courses continues to dwindle. The number of students expressing no preference has been cut by more than half since 2014.
- "Students would like their instructors to use more technology in their classes. Technologies that provide students with something (e.g., lecture capture, early-alert systems, LMS, search tools) are more desired than those that require students to give something (e.g., social media, use of their own devices, in-class polling tools). We speculate that sound pedagogy and technology use tied to specific learning outcomes and goals may improve the desirability of the latter."
- "Students reported that faculty are banning or discouraging the use of laptops, tablets, and (especially) smartphones more often than in previous years."
 https://library.educause.edu/resources/2017/6/2017-student-and-faculty-technology-research-studies?
Photo by Sheila Webber: Christmas puddings that I made a few weeks ago, before they were steamed and put away to mature before Christmas. A bit late for anyone to make them now, but I used my mother's recipe