6th Blog – Educause Reading – Technology Survey

Week 6

The findings stated in this week’s Educause reading were not that surprising to me.  One study found that most schools (99%) and a vast majority of classrooms (87%) have Internet access yet these resources are rarely used effectively.  There is a lot of great technology available for education with a great deal of it being free, but the challenge comes in using the technology effectively in the classroom. 

One study found that only 38% of college students used the Internet for work in classes.  The college students are using the Internet mostly to communicate instead of using it for classroom work.  To me, this finding is in line with my thinking of Net Geners.  They are comfortable using the Internet to communicate with others and to quickly lookup information.  It still takes the instructor to find ways to incorporate technology into the classroom so that it adds value to the course.

Some questions I would incorporate into a survey of students regarding technology are:

How would you incorporate technology in a class and what kind of technology would you use?

What kind of technology used in a class did you find most helpful and effective to learning?

What kind of technology used in a class was least effective to learning?

There was one statement in the reading I found most interesting.  “The real impact of new technologies only becomes manifest when the ‘machine as a separate box needing elaborate maintenance and full attention’ fades into the background”.  This is so true for all technology – in the classroom, work place, and home.  Technology needs to be easy and simple to use or else it will just get pushed aside.