How Do Our Students Use Technology?
Feb. 22, 2008 by ravishan
How Do Our Students Use Technology? – This was the topic of the ATR on Feb 14th that Jolee had put together. There were four students (one frosh, one sophomore and two seniors) who shed light on how and what are the different types of technologies that they use. I found it really interesting and some of what they said was fascinating.
What was obvious was that everyone uses a fair amount of technology – iPods, laptops, cell phones, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. However, they also use Blackboard, Electronic Reserves and had a lot of positive things to say about them. There was also mention of E-Portfolio, and WesFiles – positive…
On the question of email vs text messaging, the conclusion was that all of them use both and realize that each has its own place in communication. The students felt that text messaging or instant messaging a faculty member or a prospective employer is something that they would rather not do, but they feel very comfortable doing that with their friends and family. In other words, students still use Email…
This seems to be somewhat different than what is discussed in the article “Email is for Old People” . Or is it consistent? That when communicating with older people they tend to use Email because it is a bit more formal?
Obviously generalization of any kind on this topic is dangerous. However, what we hear from other administrative offices and our own experiences tend to indicate something very different – the students don’t respond to emails.
With tools like GMail, I think the instant messaging, text messaging and email are all beginning to converg. In addition, Unified Messaging is going to be the next big thing. It is quite possible that in the future someone can compose a message (either via voice or on the cell phone/PDA or on a computer) and then choose how it should be transmitted. it is also quite possible to indicate in the contacts or address book a preference setting – for all my friends, try to send the message as instant message first but for the faculty it should go as an email… Possibilities are endless, as always.
Another topic that consumed a significant time was the use of laptops in the classroom. This has come up before and the general conclusion was that the faculty member should set the expectation rather than a technology solution. In other words, rather than looking for wireless jammers, have the faculty explain clearly at the beginning of the semester what his/her expectations are (”You cannot use laptop in the class” or “You can use the laptop, but you are agreeing not to surf the net”). There was also a suggestion that this language should become part of the honor code.
The point that the students made was that they are so used to taking notes on the computer that it would be too bad to ban laptops in the classrooms altogether. What is bothersome is the fact that students do not concentrate on what is going on in the classroom, instead they are surfing the net or IMing.
There is a new technology that is being talked about a fair amount recently, called Livescribe. I strongly encourage you to go to the site and read about it. Briefly, it is an audio recorder, a pen and special paper combination. You write as you listen to someone speak and an association between the audio recording and the note taking is done. You can then upload these to your computer and either listen to the whole recording, or use the written text as a key to locate the audio.
Not only that… there is a community portal that allows sharing of these. If you want to share your notes and recording with others in the class (assuming it is appropriate), this is a wonderful technology and it eliminates the need for carrying the laptop into the classroom…
Technorati Tags: Electronic portfolio, lightscribe, student technolgoy
Ravi:
Nice post! There were five students though, not four.
Danial
Silverio
Bennett
Dan
Micah
Also, regarding the audio recording synchronized with written text–you can do that with MS OneNote on a tablet. It’s pretty cool. You can also do the same thing with embedded video. I saw a talk on that once where students in an ethnography course were recording interviews and taking notes. But writing on a tablet does take some getting used to. It’s not exactly like writing on paper–but who needs paper? So passe….
Jolee
I think laptops definitely have a place in the classroom, for as long as students use it responsibly. I have personally been to classes where professors have talked at speeds that would make writing notes impossible!
Another great technology I’ve used for a while and briefly discussed during the ATR was the tablet pc. I’ve had mine for a couple of years and was pretty indispensable during my first 2 1/2 years here. Onenote 2007 (coupled with a tablet pc!) does a great job of doing most of the things livescribe can do; it offers users the option to sync up an audio (and even video) recording of their lectures and notes; you can play back your recorded lecture and the program highlights what you were typing at a specific time. It can also search your ink as well. There are even built-in collaborative tools that allow you to share notebooks with other users.
I think in the next few years we will see more professors interacting with their students during their class using technology. We’ve started to do this with the clickers some classes use, but we can certainly think of other ways professors can interact with students using technology (say, running a collaborative discussion using a tablet pc that syncs to other laptop users in the class?)
-Dan ‘08