Week 6 - EDUCAUSE Text Chapter 7

I was surprised by some of the findings in this study.  For example, students responded by saying that they used internet technology more for school work than for communication.  While I use the internet for research and presentations, I also use it to communicate with people from home and in other parts of the country.  I thought more students would have said that they use technology for communication.  I was also surprised at the amount of the "net geners" that prefered limited or no use of technolgy in the classroom.  I would have thought that with the use of technology today, students would prefer their professors to use more technology in the classroom.  It is also shocking that so many people thought that the only benefit to technology in the classroom was that it was convienent.  In my opinion technology saves time and helps organize information better.  With the amount of people who own computers and have internet access, I would think that they would learn better through visual lessons, rather than sitting and listening to the professor lecture.  The internet can introduce videos and other interactive resources into the classroom that I believe would make learning a lot more fun than the "talking head." Most of the other information in the text was as I expected. For example, the amount of seniors that reported owning a a computer and using technology was higher than the amount of freshman.  I also expected that boys would report playing more video games than girls, especially the younger boys.  I also expected that boys would report a higher skill level than girls when it came to technology use.  Based upon this information, there are some aspects of this study that I expected and others that surprised me. 
If I were to give a survey to my students I would ask them how many hours a week they spend on the computer. I would also ask them what they use the computer for (i.e. communication, games, research/school work, etc.)  I would also ask them if they would like more technology in the classroom and perhaps what type of technology they would like to see in the class.  I would also ask them what they thought the impact of technology was on different activities in the classroom.  These are some examples of what questions I would ask if I gave a technology survey to my students.