LISTENING TO STUDENT VOICES—ON TECHNOLOGY

Michael Stephens brought my attention to this report from Education|Evolving, a partnership of the Center for Policy Studies and Hamline University (Minnesota). Listening to Student Voices—on Technology presents 15 findings, but these are the ones most of interest to librarians.



Students are sophisticated users (duh!)

In-school access to technology is limited and its corollary, Home use dominates.

Computers and the Internet are communications tools, first.

Students want adults to move beyond using the “Internet for Internet’s sake.”



And the most important finding: Technology has caused students to approach life differently; but adults act as though nothing has changed.



You may also want to look at the “Vision 2020.2” report on Student Views on Transforming Education and Training Through Advanced Technologies (suggested by a commenter on Stephens’s blog. There are some really good ideas for library technology here.



URLs:

Education|Evolving: http://www.educationevolving.org/

The report: http://www.educationevolving.org/studentvoices/pdf/tech_savy_students.pdf

Stephens’s post: http://tametheweb.com/2006/09/listening_to_student_voices_fr.html

“Vision 2020.2” report: http://www.netday.org/SPEAKUP/pdfs/Visions2020-2.pdf