Each time we run the survey the first-year and sophomore respondents are answering it for the first time. By comparing one survey’s first-year’s or sophomore’s answers to another survey’s first-year’s or sophomore’s answers respectively we can look for trends in how the general technology landscape is changing.

As we conduct the survey each time the set of questions we ask evolves, depending on what we need to know for upcoming projects (e.g. when we ran the first survey we had a major phone project impending and needed to know how many students had/used their land-lines), depending on answers from previous surveys (e.g. since mobile phones reached 100% penetration in 2009 we’ve changed that area of questioning to be more about what kind of phone people have and how they use it), and depending on new technology (e.g. in 2012 we started asking about tablets). As a result, the items covered on this page don’t necessarily match exactly with the questions on any given survey, and sometimes data for a given survey are derived rather than being explicitly asked. With all that in mind, here’s what we know about how the use of technology is changing:

Phones

Has a land line phone

There is a clear and strong trend away from having a land line phone.

Has a cell phone

There is a clear and strong trend for having a cell phone. The campus had 100% (plus or minus survey margin of error) cell use by 2009. The question going forward is less about whether a student has a phone and more about what it can do (e.g. can browse the web, or run apps, or just make and receive calls).

These results may be skewed by the fact that the surveys are web-based – it’s not at all unlikely that a potential respondant that doesn’t have a phone is also less likely to answer a web-based survey.

What kind of cell phone

Has a smart phone (i.e. one capable of accessing the web and/or running apps)

This number has implications for the questions about how the phone is used.

NOTE: the definition of a smart phone shifts over time – a ‘smart’ feature in 2009 might be a basic feature in 2012.

First-year

Sophomore

Combined first-year and sophomore

How the cell phone is used

We did not ask about this on the 2006 survey.

The question allows a respondant to choose multiple answers, so the percentages often won’t add to 100% (and if they do, it’s just a coincidence). The percentages are the porportion of the respondants of that class that answered that question.

The answers here are also greatly influenced by the capabilities of the phone that the respondant has. Since we ask about using it for phone calls every person that has a phone at all can answer yes to that. The items that require more advanced phone features (e.g. email) will be capped at roughly the percent of people that have smart phones (see the previous item). It’s also worth noting that the definition of a ‘smart phone’ changes over time – what was a smart phone feature in 2009 might in 2012 be considered a part of a basic/simple phone.

Text messaging

Since we’re interested in function more than how it’s implemented, this item combines SMS and any other text-based chat tool (e.g. AIM, gChat, etc.)

Email

Taking pictures

Sharing/sending pictures

Looking at pictures

Watching video

Recording video

Listening to music

Web browsing

Calendar/scheduling

GPS

This is probably pretty tightly linked to phone capabilities and general GPS system capabilities.

Blogging

Games

We didn’t ask about games on the 2008 survey.

Computers

The data in this section is presented in a slightly different format. The anwers are indicated in the rows, and there are three separate tables: one first-year only, one sophomore only, and one combined first-year and sophomore.

In some years we asked about netbooks and hand-helds/palmtops, but the answers were never above 0, so they’ve been excluded from this summary.

This single biggest trend this reveals is the shift from Windows to Mac. Also, laptops continue to slowly whittle away at the few remaining desktops.

In 2012 we changed this question a bit – instead of forcing respondants to rank their devices (primary, secondary, etc.) we ask about frequency of use. A device is then counted as ‘primary’ if its use at least once a day or more. This means that the totals starting in 2012 can be higher than 100% (e.g. if someone has a laptop they use daily and a tablet they use hourly).

First-year

Sophomore

Combined first-year and sophomore

Internet

The question allows a respondant to choose multiple answers, so the percentages often won’t add to 100% (and if they do, it’s just a coincidence). The percentages are the porportion of the respondants of that class that answered that question.

The results are group into 4 categories: Communication, Creative/productive, Entertainment, and Personal. However, these groupings provide only a very general perspective / guide – one could argue that participating in a forum is more about Creation/production for some people, and Entertainment for others.

Communication

Social-site messaging

Social networking

Direct Communication (chat, voice call, video call)

Video call

Participating in email lists / groups

Participating in forums / discussion boards

Creative/productive

Publishing images (e.g. flickr, picasa, etc.)

Publishing your writing / blogging

Micro-blogging (e.g. status updates, twitter, etc.)

Publishing videos (e.g. youtube, etc.)

Contributing knowledge (e.g. wiki editing, book reviews, etc.)

Document sharing (e.g. google docs, slideshare, etc.)

Entertainment

Passive entertainment (e.g. watching videos, reading comics, etc.)

Active entertainment (e.g. games)

Personal

Calendaring / scheduling

Reading / watching news

Research

Managing projects

Personal journaling

Social networking

First-year

Sophomore

Combined first-year and sophomore

Email

Primary email account

First-year

Sophomore

Combined first-year and sophomore

Check email how often

First-year

Sophomore

Combined first-year and sophomore

Williams-specific

Uses Williams-provided network storage space (Achilles)