Tech Savvy?

Technological change is advancing at warp speed and quite a few universities have been monitoring whether incoming students are keeping up with the pace, and finding that indeed they are. One survey suggests the following:

• 100% of students have access to high speed internet at their homes
• 99% of students own laptops, and 27% own both a laptop and a desktop computer
• 91% of students use Facebook and 80% of those students would like to see school events and activities published on Facebook and their online faculty calendar of events
• 87% of students own MP3 players capable of listening to recorded lectures
• 72% of students were able say how many words per minute they could type, the average was 60
• 71% of students bring their laptops to school almost every day
• 67% of students picked MS Word as their favorite tool for collaborative document editing
• 50% of incoming students own “Smart Phones” that can browse the internet
• 49% of students use Gmail as their primary email account, 6% use university email and 26% use Hotmail
• 44% of student laptops are Macs
• 14% of students type less than 40 words per minute

These statistics suggest that students are indeed savvy and all are taking advantage of broadband high speed connectivity as well as free email accounts. Student preference for Macs would suggest that most are not so financially encumbered that they cannot afford the higher price of a Mac and its peripherals. Cell phone ownership would suggest the same thing due to the higher cost of internet capable smart phones, over the older versions. Laptops are clearly the tool of choice over PCs.

Typing speeds suggest that most students’ use their computers often and these results in general imply that students adapt easily to new technology as it is introduced. This isn’t surprising, but it is interesting.