Technology usage at a glance

Diverse Issues in Higher Education, March 8, 2007

Technology Usage At A Glance

From increasing faculty interactions with students through
the Internet to enabling students to download course
lectures to their Ipods, technology has had a tremendous
impact on higher education, in particular, and American culture,
in general. All the more reason why the digital divide should
be closed, providing not only technology access to all children,
but priming them for careers in a field whose applications touch
every facet of life.

The Internet's Impact on College Faculty

Professors who say Internet communication has had
a positive impact on their interactions with students

                         Percent           Percent
                      Female Faculty     Male Faculty

Strongly agree              10                 7
Agree                       20                11
Neutral                     23                45
Disagree                    37                37
Strongly disagree            0                 0

Has the Internet changed the quality
of your students' work?

                             Percent           Percent
                          Female Faculty     Male Faculty

Quality improved                26                16
Quality worsened                47                35
Quality unaffected              15                39
Don't know/no opinion            9                 5

Source: Professors online: The Internet's Impact on College Faculty
by Steve Jones and Camile Johnson-Yale, www.firstmonday.org,
Vol. 10, No. 9 (Sept. 2005)

Percent of College Students and
General Population that Have Gone Online

                         College Students     General Population

Sample Size Surveyed          2,501                 16,125
All Respondents                86%                   59%
Men                            87%                   62%
Women                          85%                   56%
Whites                         90%                   61%
Blacks                         74%                   45%
Hispanics                      82%                   60%

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project Survey, 2002

Undergraduate Student Technology
Ownership, 2006

                                              Percent
                                              Change       Rate of
                        2006       2005      2005-2006     Change

Sample Size            13,819     15,382

Personal desktop
computer                67%        60%           7%          11%

Personal laptop
computer                70%        55%          15%          27%

Personal digital
assistant PDA           15%        12%           3%          21%

Smart phone
(Cell phone & PDA)       8%         1%           6%         582%

Electronic
music/video device      61%        39%          23%          59%

Source: Educause Center for Applied Research, 2006

Percentage of People Who Blog
vs. Internet Users in General

                   Bloggers     Internet Users

Gender

Men                  54%             49%
Women                46%             51%

Age

18-29                54%             24%
30-49                30%             45%
50-64                14%             24%
65                    2%              7%

Race/Ethnicity

White                60%             74%
Black                11%              9%
Hispanic             19%             11%
Other                10%              6%

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project,
Tracking Survey, 2005

Percentage of Podcast Downloads
by Demographic

Demographic Groups           February-April 2006     August 2006

Total Internet users                  7%                 12%

Gender

Men                                   9%                 15%
Women                                 5%                  8%

Age

18-29                                10%                 14%
30-49                                 8%                 12%
50-64                                 5%                 12%
65                                    4%                  4%

Education Level

Hi school graduate                    6%                  9%
Some college                          6%                 13%
College graduate or more              9%                 13%

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project Survey, 2006

Percent of College Students Using
Internet Communication Tools

E-mail                62%

Newsgroups             1%
Chat Rooms             2%
Web Boards             5%
Instant Messaging     29%

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project

Note: Table made from pie chart.