Just who are the students in EDM310 in this Spring 2011 semester? Well, you are a lot like the students in the Summer 2010 and Fall 2010 classes. I will show percentages in this order: (Spring 2011, Fall 2010, Summer 2010) and I use na to indicate that I data for that semester were not available.
Over half of you are 22 years old or younger (56%, 67%, na) and almost all of you (83%, 91%, na) are 30 or younger.
Almost all of you own a cellphone (92%, 96%, 100%) and an increasing number of those cellphones are smartphones (60%, 45%, 49%). You also own computers (96%,92%, 98%) which are primarily portables (74%, 66%, na). And you own digital video cameras (90%, 81%, 79%) and digital still cameras (83%, 82%, 95%).
Half of you intend to work in elementary education (50%, 54%, 63%).
You lead busy lives. Over two-thirds of you work (75%, 77%, 70%) Almost half of you work 21 hours a week or more (46%, 42%, 42%) and a significant number of you have part time jobs of 20 hours a week or less (40%, 35%, 28%).
I am surprised by how many of you take what I consider to be an overload, that is more than 5 classes(17%, 22%, na). Most of you are enrolled, however in a normal load of 4 or 5 classes (67%, 65%, na).
Over a third of you have at least one child under 18 living with you (38%, 32%, 35%).
Almost all of you think that all teachers should be technologically literate (87%, 92%, 98%). When asked whether you thought you were technologically literate or not, the Fall 2010 class differed greatly from the Summer 2010 and Spring 2011 classes. In the Fall 2010 class, 73% considered themselves to be technologically literate while only 365 in Spring 2011 and 42% in Summer 2010 considered themselves to be technologically literate. I am not sure how to explain these remarkable differences. Perhaps the Spring and Summer classes knew more about what I considered technological literacy to be than the fall semester class. This could be the result of the timing of the completion of the questionnaire.
Most of you consider yourselves to be proficient in word processing (83%, 81%, 95%). An increasing number of you use Skype (44%, 35%, 26%). You are use computer chat programs (61%, 60%, 77%). Almost all of you have Facebook accounts and make use of those Facebook accounts as your primary social network (83%, 85%, 79%). One of the interesting things apparent in a comparison of these three classes is that the use of Facebook in increasing significantly. Those of you who spend 3 or more hours a day on your social network now constitute 20% of the class (20%, 12%, 7%), up from 7% in the summer and 12% in the fall.
SMS text messaging seems to be rather limited with half of you sending 50 or fewer text messages a day (51%, 54%, 47%). Only a few of you send more than 300 messages a day (5%, 7%, 0%). Almost none of you are significant computer gamers that play games 3 or more hours a day (3%, 3%, 7%). You do listen to music with at least a third of you listening to music more than 2 hours a day (44%, 40%, 35%).
An increasing number of you Skype (44%, 35%, 26%). Many of you had already blogged when you entered EDM310 (23%, 21%, 30%). Some of you had created a movie on a computer (18%, 14%, 26%), but very few of you had ever participated in a podcast or a videocast (10%, 10%, 19%). About half of you had never heard of iTunesU before EDM310 (46%, 56%, 53%).
And reading books and newspapers? Excluding assignments most of you read 3 or fewer books annually (53%, 56%, 48%) yet there are readers in the class with a fifth of you reading at least 10 books a year (21%, 22%, 24%). Newspapers, however, have fallen on hard times. Almost all of you read a printed newspaper no more than once a week, if that (88%, 78%, 72%). No wonder the printed newspaper business is in survival mode. A good number of you have either gone to the USA Library (62%, 65%, 67%) or used the digital library (58%, 55%, 60%).
Finally, over a third of you (36%) in the Spring 2011 did not like the prospect of having to work 9 hours a week in EDM310. I did not ask this question in Fall 2010 or Summer 2010. Whatever you thought when you entered EDM310, I hope you are now more comfortable with that workload.
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This is crazy! I am one of the 365 technology illiterate students from the questionnaire and I will admit, I thought 9 hours would be a stretch with my schedule. However, I've put in well over 9 hours a week! It's a lot of work, but at least it is interesting and challenging.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post!
Awesome statistics! I really like to see how the classes have changed from one semester to the next, but it seems there is little change!
ReplyDeleteInteresting post! I fell into every category except having a child! Interesting to know how many people are just like me in my class!
ReplyDelete9 hours? I say it's more like 15 hours a week! Hard work but, so fun! You should have had a prize for the person with the most kids. ( Ha!)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kelly, more like 15 hours! I have learned so much already in this class! A good bit of it doesn't even seem like work!! I even showed my mom the iSchool Initiative video on youtube today. I have already come away with far more knowledge than I came with! I don't consider myself "as technologically illiterate" as I was when I entered the class!
ReplyDeleteI love this post Dr. Strange!
ReplyDeleteI will admit... I was somewhat scared when I heard that we would be spending 9 hours a week working, but I absolutely love EDM310! Everything we have done so far (and from the looks of it, things to come) are so interesting!
Interesting statistics. I do not track my time spent on EDM310 because it would probably scare me. I do know it is more than 9 hours! I spend more time on this class than any other class I take. Not because of the work load, but because I enjoy doing it. I know my future students will benefit from every hour I spent in EDM310.
ReplyDeleteWow, I would say more than 9 hours a week. I have already learned so much in this class so no complaining here. Thanks Dr Strange!
ReplyDeleteI figure i spend about 15hrs a week on my EDM 310 class. Don't know about the stats, but i am quite busy with the workload. Ok by me though, i've grown by leaps and bounds, since i started the class.
ReplyDeleteI am happy to know that almost all of us have computers and cell phones. My grandfather still does not own a cell phone, it makes it really inconvenient when he shows up at my house unexpectedly and I have stuff everywhere. He also takes pride in not knowing how to use a computer but also say's that it is necessary for our youth to be using them. However, he does have a computer but it's huge and still takes 5 minutes to load. Anyhow, I am saying how exciting it is to know that most of us know how to use this stuff.
ReplyDeleteInteresting statistics. It's crazy though, I bet at least half of us that own this technology, don't even know how to use it to its full potential. I know I don't. Another statistic that would interesting to know is how many of your EDM students, after leaving your class, are still using it or remember how to use it.
ReplyDeleteI have definitely been spending at least 9 hours a week on EDM 310. I consider myself to be technology literate, but I have learned so much already this semester!
ReplyDeleteI though 9 hours a week seemed a bit too much, but I completely agree that is an accurate number. Actually, I find that it just a little bit more because I do additional reading on my fellow classmates and checkout some of the things they have explored or encountered during EDM310.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the other people who have said they spend more than 9 hours a week on this class. Am I complaining about that? No. Although this class involves a good bit of work, we are actually learning useful things and I am having fun with most of the assignments. Each week, at least ONE of the videos we are assigned to watch, or the videos on our C4T blogs, get me even more excited about where I am headed. EDM310 may require more time than the average class but we are actually LEARNING how to do something we will actually use.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting statistics! It is always interesting to see where you stand compared to other previous classes. I totally agree with everyone! This class is a lot of work, but it is interesting work, so it helps the time go by fast! Thanks for the post!
ReplyDeleteThese statistics are very interesting! Its crazy how similar the semesters seem to be. I agree with everyone else though that I spend way more time than 9 hours a week. I'm not complaining about it though because it has been a very educational experience for me. I have to admit when going into this class I thought I was pretty illiterate when it came to technology! Boy was I wrong! I am learning more things about it that I love and though I have had to read a lot of tutorials it is definitely worth it in the long run.
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