Educause has published the latest results of their survey of Undergraduate students and IT. The main report is 124 pages long, but the Key Findings is only 11. Libraries and the use of library websites are mentioned several times, but I don’t think there’s anything earth shattering along those lines. A couple of the things I found interesting include:
- When asked if they liked to learn using specific types of technologies, “a solid half (50.8%) like to learn through programs they can control, such as video games or simulations.”
- There’s also a lot of data around students’ use of Social Networking Sites (Facebook’s still the big one).
“Perhaps most interesting… is the finding that half of SNS users… have integrated SNSs into their academic life as a mechanism for communicating with classmates about course-related topics. Only 5.5%, however, extend their use of SNSs to communication with instructors about course-related matters. Students in focus groups and in the survey comments expressed both pros and cons about the involvement of instructors in their SNS lives – many being adamant that social networking sites should be the exlusive realm of students, but others liking the idea of interacting with instructors and using the same SNS mechanism they already use to communicate with friends and classmates.”
If you work in Academics, go read the Key Findings, at least.