Showcases

In the next Academic year the CLC will be showcasing 21st Century learning.

21st Century Tools Survey

During December, we conducted a survey to find out about peolpe's understanding and use of Web 2.0 tools. We used the online tool at  www.surveymonkey.com to complete this.

 Firstly, many thanks to all who took part in this survey, I hope it showed just how easy it is to set up an online survey using the website surveymonkey. All the respondents were “over 19”, with roughly 28% being male. A large majority had their own computers, nearly everyone had a mobile phone and over half had an mp3 player. There were a substantial amount of games consoles owned as well.

 So the survey respondents were by no means technophobes. Everyone admitted to using the Internet at least for a few minutes most days, the majority for at least one hour a day. Roughly one third thought their Internet use could run to over three hours per day. The largest uses for the Internet were for work/study and e-mail and shopping.

 I was really pleased to see that my survey revealed people who accepted “gadgets” in the broadest sense and included people who were quite prepared to say they weren’t into gadgets. Although there were votes for phones and ipods and accepted “computer” gadgets, people also loved their coffee makers and other things that we might define as household. In other words you don’t have to be a gadget lover to work with 21^st Century technology although many of us have a tool that makes life more fun.

 So my survey had revealed people who used technology and the Internet. When we came to the question about Web 2.0 tools half of my respondents did not answer and, of those that did over half said that they didn’t know about them. This should not surprise anyone. Even in the CLC where we are bombarded with information headed Web 2.0 we had to stop and look up what the phrase really means. The best I can up with is that these are websites that you can interact with. When we first had the Internet we used it to look things up and take information. With Web 2.0 we can comment on what we see (e.g. blogs), add our own contributions (e.g. wikis) and communicate with others online. More people in the survey said they used social networking than said they knew of any Web 2.0 tools.

 I would ask those who answered the survey and were already using a sophisticated array of tools to be patient with colleagues who are confused by the terminology because I think if you talk to them about individual tools you will find them able and willing to start using them.

 If you would like to know anything more about Web 2.0 tools or how to create an online survey, please contact us here at the CLC. We run an educational blog through one of the free sites. Have a look on http://knclc.edublogs.org and post a comment!