ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology

"ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2010 |

                EDUCAUSE." What Is EDUCAUSE? | EDUCAUSE. Web. 22

                Sept. 2011. <http://www.educause.edu/Resources/ECARStudyof

                UndergraduateStuden/217333>.

In this piece, the author talks about Gmail, and the way Google adding email changed things. He also talks about the cloud, and how it caught on quickly for undergrads. It then goes into a study of undergraduate students. The findings conclude that 80% of undergrads consider themselves very skilled at using technology, but their usage of popular technological mediums haven't changed much in recent years. The use of laptops in on the rise in favor of desktops, more in the 50+ demographic are using social networking, and a large percentage of all students are using wikis, blogs, and Google Docs in their classrooms. The article sums up with the point that there is no stereotypical student anymore-- technology is on the rise, and students and people of all ages are using it in different ways.

I liked this article, because it brought up a lot of points I know to be true. For example, the stats about the 50+ demographic being highly prevalent on social networking sites. This is so true, because I can't tell you how many parents and grandparents I've noticed popping up everywhere on Facebook.

I am still confused about the fact that social networking has not increased at all in 18-24 year olds. Even though this makes sense, as those who were interested in participating in such mediums probably always were on some level, I'm still surprised at the lack of increase.

I would like to learn more about the cloud-- how many people use this in the classroom, as opposed to emailing info to oneself, or using a flash drive?