The new ECAR study is here! The new ECAR study is here!

I feel like Steve Martin in “The Jerk” when he was so excited that the new phonebooks had arrived! It is just as exciting, let me tell you. The EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) releases this study of undergraduates and their use of technology in higher education each year (well, as far back as 2004) with slight variations for newly emerging technologies. The 2009 study was just released yesterday. Here is the blurb straight from ECAR’s mouth:

Since 2004, the annual ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology has sought to shed light on how information technology affects the college experience. We ask students about the technology they own and how they use it in and out of their academic world. We gather information about how skilled students believe they are with technologies; how they perceive technology is affecting their learning experience; and their preferences for IT in courses. The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2009 is a longitudinal extension of the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 studies. It is based on quantitative data from a spring 2009 survey of 30,616 freshmen and seniors at 103 four-year institutions and students at 12 two-year institutions; student focus groups that included input from 62 students at 4 institutions; and review of qualitative data from written responses to open-ended questions. In addition to studying student ownership, experience, behaviors, preferences, and skills with respect to information technologies, the 2009 study also includes a special focus on student ownership and use of Internet-capable handheld devices.

I know what I’ll be doing this weekend! Yippee!

New Nielsen Study Debunks Myths

In June, Nielsen released the study How Teens Use Media: A Nielsen Report on the Myths and Realities of Teen Media Trends. The study debunks the digital native/digital immigrant argument that teens use technology much differently than their parents. One interesting point the report makes is that teens are not abandoning old school media like TV, newspapers and radio – in fact, teens in the U.S. are watching more TV than ever, it states.  This is contrary to what Taspscott asserts in his book Grown Up Digital. Tapscott talks about Net Gens compared to their parents at their age though:  “The Net Generation watches a lot less TV than their parents did at their age – only 14.4 hours per week.” (P. 42). Then again, if you look at the footnote to that statement, Tapscott’s U.S. data totally negates that claim. Anyhoo – an interesting report from Nielsen that we’re looking forward to exploring further!

Another Interesting JISC Study

JISC, out of the UK, who brought us the Google Generation study of a few years ago has just released another relevant study for us who work with Millennial students entering college: Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World was released in May. Many interesting findings, including this one:

“Information literacies, including searching, retrieving, critically evaluating information from a range of appropriate sources and also attributing it – represent a significant and growing deficit area”

Thank you, JISC!

Important Article for LibraryLand

What Today’s Student Says About Conducting Research in the Digital Age by A. Head and M. Eisenberg is an important article for us library folk.

From the abstract:

Qualitative data from discussions with higher education students across the country suggest that conducting research is particularly challenging. Students’ greatest challenges are related to their perceived inability to find desired materials.

On the one hand we’re told that students are techno-gurus who can figure out things (esp things that are online, where most library tools now reside) “without a manual”, without instruction and without help from the old folks.* On the other hand, we’re told to fix our online library tools because students can’t figure them out. Which is the reality? It’s all very confusing for an old fogey librarian like myself!

*For examples, see D. Tapscott, on page 188 of Grown Up Digital: “Many of the Net Geners are using technology to become smarter than their parents ever could be.”  Or see D.  Oblinger, “Is it Age or IT?: First Steps Toward Understanding the ‘Net Generation’ where she states “Having grown up with widespread access to technology, the Net Gen is able to intuitively….navigate the Internet.”

OCUFA report – students less prepared

This week the Ontario Conferedation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) released a report stating that students are less prepared for university education than in 2005,  according to university faculty. Are the kids alright? (Thanks, Peg!)

Accenture Report: Boomer Use of Social Tools on the Rise

A recent report from Accenture notes that the use of social tools by the Boomer set is increasing while use by the Gen Y’s is on the decrease. One of the key findings was that Baby Boomers ar embracing popular consumer technology applications nearly 20 times faster than generation Y. Interesting trends!

NetGens 2.0 and Cloud Watching

Great article in the EDUCAUSE review of Jan./Feb. 2009, written by Malcolm Brown (The NetGens 2.0: Clouds on the Horizon). The article differentiates between NetGen 1.0 and NetGen 2.0 with NetGen 2.0’s being more at home “in the cloud”. But my favourite quote from the article is this:

“Although the NetGens 2.0 are at home in the clouds, it would be a mistake to assume that they are more likely to be all-around IT whiz kids than are their NetGen 1.0 forebears. Despite being cloud natives, many may lack the skills they need to successfully accomplish academic work at the higher education level.”

There are more great nuggets in the article – go read it!

Great Site – A Collection of Social Network Stats for 2009

This is nice – a big compilation of social networking stats - and it’s kept up-to-date and organized by social networking site (a librarian’s dream, really!) Thank you to Jeremiah, who according to the site, pulls all of this together!

Popular title

“The Kids are Alright/All Right” is a popular title! Two interesting articles that friends & colleagues have just let us know about (thanks Kathy & Dave!):

The Kids Are All Right from the March 2009 issue of T.H.E. Journal and an older one: The kids are alright from the Nov. 13/08 Economist – both start with the premise that the kids are using the technologies and using them well  – and both provide lots of good fodder for thought!

New Pew Study – Adults and Video Games

Pew has a new report – Adults and Video Games – apparently more than half of American adults play videogames! Interesting!