Friday, April 18, 2008

Instructional Technology Report

From The Chronicle's Wired Campus Newsletter an instructional technology report out of Harvard University showing that of all the digital tools that professors use, Harvard students find most useful online course material and syllabi.

"The report said students want courses to have "a Web site that contains readings, notes and other content so they can be accessed easily during the semester," wrote Anthony A. Pino in his report. It is based on responses last December from 328 undergraduates and 120 graduate students. Students were asked to rate the usefulness of about 16 technologies, including RSS Feeds, wikis, blogs, podcasts, and videos. One of the most noticeable difference between undergraduates and graduate students was over video lectures. Undergraduates valued them but graduate students worried that undergraduates would use them as a substitute for attendance, wrote Mr. Pino"

With it's heavy use of graphs this is a very easy to read report.

For some informal insights into "digital natives" see the blog Digital Natives