Pew researches "Generations and Their Gadgets"

The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently released a study regarding "Generations and Their Gadgets." Let's take a quick look at the overall findings and trends. They surveyed about 3,000 adults 18+ about the 'gadgets' they own:

* 85% own cell phones. It was 95% in the 18-34 demographic. For the K-12 crowd in favor of classroom cell phone usage, this echoes what you see every day, which is that nearly everyone has a phone, can we leverage it, etc. For the K-12 crowd against phone usage, I suppose we could argue that many aren't full-blown computers and that simply having an item isn't reason enough to mandate its usage as part of the educational process.

* 59% own desktops and 52% own laptops. As expected, the numbers are higher for the younger and, for the 18-34 group, we see more laptops than desktops. This could spark a discussion about desktop vs laptop deployments. If you're a 1:1 district, I could see doing away with labs. However, in the more 'traditional' setting, desktop-based labs still make sense as long as our teaching styles involve students sitting in rows and performing similar tasks. I know that we can argue that the room design is driving the instruction rather than the other way around, but most schools are wired for this setup and I don't see it changing across the board in the near future. You could use this to argue that teachers should use laptops rather than desktops. Some districts are looking into this and I do think the topic is worthy of discussion within your district.

* 74% of the 18-34 group own an iPod or MP3 player. Are we recording lectures and archiving them for download? Should we be? Would it help? I see this as one area where could really make some improvements. The ability to easily record audio and video is there. Anyone can do it. This data shows that many have devices that could be used to listen to a recording. The cost point on these is such that these could be provided to those who do not have them. I suppose loading up an MP3 player with hours of instruction (or posting it online) and having the homebound student download and listen sounds boring and tedious. It is an option, though, and I could probably find some kids who would argue that it's no less boring than their typical school day. :)

* The e-Book and iPad/tablet figures are at about 5% each. This would explain why I'm getting asked about these quite a bit. They are the latest things and bring the potential of electronic textbooks and, for the iPad/tablet category, thousands of apps for educational usage. Each have their downside as well, but the fact that these are even being included on the survey should tell you something.

To me, the generation gap is most telling when you look at the percentage surveyed who state that they have none of these devices. Overall, it was 9%. However, 43% of the age 75+ responders and only 1% of the age 18-34 responders were in this group.

It's an interesting report from an organization that has done some really good surveys over the years. Give it a look and think about what the results might mean for your district.

Pew Report on Cell Phones and American Adults

While browsing around, I ran across one of the many interesting reports from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. This one is entitled "Cell Phones and American Adults" and, as is typically the case, there is quite a bit of interesting data that I can't analyze quickly enough (and isn't THAT what the Internet has become?) Just some random stats of interest from the report:

* 82% of American adults own a cell phone
* Adults who text send/receive about 10/day on average. Teens who text average 50/day
* African-Americans and English-speaking Hispanics are slightly more likely to own a phone than whites and they are also more frequent and intense users of the phone
* About 2/3 (65%) sleep with the phone nearby. It's over 90% for the 18-29 demographic
* (Only) 58% make voice calls on a cell phone for work-related purposes
* 86% think it's rude when someone regularly interrupts a conversation or meeting to check on their cell phone
* 31% of teens send more than 100 texts/day
* 39% of adults use the cell phone to entertain themselves when bored. 69% of teens do
* About 79% reported having a desktop or laptop computer - that's the same or slightly less than the percentage having a cell phone

I guess this is where I should add some level of in-depth analysis of this data. That's tough, because I can only really speak from my own perspective and it differs in a few areas. I can't imagine NOT using my cell phone for work-related purposes. I suppose the number could be artificially low due to the ages or work status of those surveyed. It's also hard for me to imagine that there are as many or more cell phone owners than computer owners, but that simply goes to show how quickly that market has grown and how necessary the cell phone is thought to be.

I confess that I'm quite surprised that a higher percentage of minorities own and use a cell phone (as compared to the white population). I see this as a potential wake-up call to those of us in education. Admittedly, I haven't traditionally been a big fan of cell phone use as part of the educational process. However, if this technology is helping to close the 'digital divide', how can we NOT embrace the use of this technology to help close achievement gaps?! There are some very interesting trends in minority use of technology brought up in this article that mirror these thoughts.

When I see the number of texts that our teens send, I'm reminder of something that David Couch brings up on occasion. I've heard him compare the depth of text conversations to the phenomenon of CB radios when they were first introduced. Many people wanted to talk on the CB but, if you read a transcript of the conversations taking place, most were fairly useless in nature. The cell phone data reveals that many text simply to say hello or chat - particularly with teens - so I can only assume that the nature of a printout of the texting conversations between many teens wouldn't necessarily be groundbreaking thought.

The data shows that most of us have a cell phone. Is there a way to use this device educationally? Should it change the way we teach? If virtually every teacher has a cell phone, is THAT how he/she should communicate with parents (rather than a phone in the school or classroom?)