Here they come...

“I’m a firm believer that the students that are up and coming are the ones that are driving the adoption, because they’re coming with a set of expectations,” explained Joanne Kossuth, the chief information officer and vice president for development at.

As if we didn't already feel pressure from our students to adapt, a new study produced by the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research called The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2007, used data taken from online polling of students and faculty at 103 institutions as well as other data taken last spring to gauge the level of technology use in the classrooms and lecture halls.

Above, this graphic shows the devices that students own, and at what percentages. Taken in isolation, it isn't that shocking, but taken in context with this bar graph which details the change over the last three years, it's astounding:
Look specifically at the change in students using a "Smart" phone, or the percentage change in desktops owned v. laptops owned in the three years. See any trends?

Now, as with any blog post worth its salt, the real juice is in the comments. To find some comments, I took myself to Inside Higher Ed's article, Student's Evolving Use of Technology, and drilled down into some of the responses to the article. The ones that struck me most, of course, were those that called for an ease up on technology, much like that of the Liverpool, NY removal of it's 1:1 program from a way back, because students won't use it correctly anyway, that it will distract from the real business of classes. That's a class management issue, not a technological issue. What's abundantly clear from the comments in this article is the need for conversations about what our classrooms, k-12 and university level, should look like, and real, concrete examples of what authentic learning and through authentic teaching looks like. I am feeling that January 26-27 in Philadelphia might be the portal through which I really begin to see this. Buty why wait...

Thomas, a commenter on the Inside Higher Ed article, hit is squarely:

As best I can tell, the most popular and successful professors are still those whose teaching style is simple, direct, and enlightening. A classroom of plugged-in 20-year-olds will sit mesmerized by a good teacher, without any need for bells and whistles.

Salaway, Gail, Borreson Caruso, Judith. "The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2007." 12 September 2007 17 September 2007 .