Georgina Hibberd, the soul of Templatedata, is back from her blog hiatus and writes about a very interesting study done the University of Melbourne in Australia: First year students’ experience with technology: are they really digital natives?
This study of 2000 students was conducted in March 2006, during the first two weeks of their first semester (it’s down-under, remember, my dear North-American and European readers?)
The 27-page PDF report published by the Biomedical Mutlimedia Unit of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences can be downloaded for free and seems to confirm most of our assumptions about this generation:
1- Technology is a disease
No, the report doesn’t imply this at all, but don’t you think it’s funny to have such a study carried out by a team from the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences?
2- Unrestricted access to “technology” devices is generalized
96% for mobile phones, 90% for desktop computer, 76% for digital cameras and 69% for mp3 players.
3- Email isn’t dead yet (in Australia at least)
For 94% of these freshmen, email is one of the most common computer-based activities. 80% cite Instant Messaging.
4- Text messaging is big in Australia, social networking isn’t
93% use their mobile phone for text-messaging, but only 24% use social networking websites.
Anyway, those are just a few of this study findings.
If you’re based in Australia, it’s definitely a must-read. So, go get the report now!
Wow, thanks!!! That will certainly be a good read for me, living in Australia and all… :-)
I will let you know what I think, and what I can make of all that.
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