Digital Technology as Affordance and Barrier in Higher Education

109 Pages·2017·4.11 MB·English

by  Maura A. Smale

Digital Technology as Affordance
and Barrier in Higher Education
MauraA.Smale(cid:129)MarianaRegalado
Digital Technology
as Affordance and
Barrier in Higher
Education
MauraA.Smale MarianaRegalado
NewYorkCityCollegeofTechnology BrooklynCollege
CityUniversityofNewYork CityUniversityofNewYork
Brooklyn,NewYork,USA Brooklyn,NewYork,USA
ISBN978-3-319-48907-0 ISBN978-3-319-48908-7(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-48908-7
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016957751
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For Jonathan andGreg
And forGus, William,and Charlotte,
who willbecollege studentssoon!
Andfor Jill,who worked sohardlast summer
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are indebted to the 743 students and 140 faculty we interviewed or
whocompletedourquestionnaireforthisprojectatBrooklynCollegeand
New York City College of Technology in 2009–2010; at Borough of
Manhattan Community College, Bronx Community College, The City
CollegeofNewYork,andHunterCollegein2010–2011;andatBMCC,
BrooklynCollege,andCityTechin2015–2016.Wethankthemfortheir
generosityinsharingtheirtimeandexperienceswithus,andweappreciate
the opportunities that this project has provided us to better understand
the students we serve and to make improvements in our libraries and on
our campuses. Sincere thanks are also due to our research assistants
Christopher Baum, Rachel Daniell, Jay Blair, and Brenna McCaffrey for
theirworkonthisproject,especiallytheirmanyhoursspentontranscrip-
tion.Wearealsogratefulfortheassistanceofourlibraryfacultycolleagues
atBMCC,BronxCC,CityCollege,andHunterCollegeinfacilitatingour
interviews withstudents andfaculty atthosecampuses.
Our work has been supported by grants from the City University of
New York PSC-CUNY Research Award program, a CUNY Fellowship
Leave,andProfessionalReassignmentLeave.Wethanktheadministration
and our colleagues on our own campuses and in our libraries for their
support during our research.
AfewpassagesinChapters1and2,aswellasmuchofthedescriptionof
ourearlierresearchmethodsintheAppendix,werepreviouslypublishedin
articleswewroteforEDUCAUSEReviewOnline,UrbanLibraryJournal,
andCollege&ResearchLibraries.Wewouldliketothanktheeditorsand
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
anonymouspeerreviewerswhoprovideduswiththoughtfulfeedbackfor
thosearticles.
As this research project has developed over the years, we have been
lucky to work with many talented colleagues at CUNY, in academic
librarianship,andbeyond.WethankNancyFosterforsparkingourinitial
interest in the study of undergraduate academic culture, and Lesley
Gourlay for her encouragement to write up our research on students’
use of technology as this book. Our long-time collaborations and con-
versationswithAndrewAsherandDonnaLancloshavemadeourresearch
stronger (and much more enjoyable!), and we look forward to our con-
tinuingwork together.
DatafromthestudentSMSsurveyinfall2015wasgatheredaspartofa
larger project, and we are thankful to be collaborating with Project
Director Andrew Asher and our fellow research team members: Jean
Amaral,JuliannCouture,BarbaraFister,DonnaLanclos,andSaraLowe.
Any project of this length will necessarily spawn conversations both
formalandinformal,andweareindebtedtoourmanyCUNYcolleagues
whohavehelpedusthinkthroughthisworkovertheyears.Manythanks
are due to Jean Amaral at BMCC for partnering with us on the 2015–
2016 data collection. Alycia Sellie suggested that we have students draw
mapsoftheirdaysratherthantracethemontocampusmaps,andweareso
glad that she did. We have benefitted from ongoing conversations with
FransAlbarillo,JillCirasella,BethEvans,andHelenGeorgasthroughout
theyearsofourresearch,especiallyinconsideringhowourlessonslearned
canbeappliedatourowncolleges.Wehavealsoappreciatedconversations
aboutstudents’useoftechnologywithMattGold,JodyRosen,andLuke
Waltzer,andwiththespring2014andspring2016cohortsoftheCUNY
Graduate Center’sInteractiveTechnology & Pedagogy program.
Jonathan Miller provided thoughtful feedback on our manuscript
(twice!), and we appreciate his sharp eyes and red pen. Our families have
our sincere gratitude for their patience and support while we wrote,
especially on the weekends and during summer vacations. We couldn’t
have donethiswithoutthem.
Any errors of factoromissionare, ofcourse, our own.
C
ONTENTS
1 SituatingCollegeStudentsand Technology 1
2 CollegeStudentsandFixed Technology 23
3 CollegeStudentsandMobile Technology 41
4 CollegeStudents,Technology, andTime 57
5 Recommendationsfor Technology inHigher Education 73
Appendix:Research Methodology 89
Index 99
ix
L F
IST OF IGURES
Fig.2.1 Off-campusinternetaccessforCUNYundergraduates,2010
and2014(CUNYOIRA2016a,b). 27
xi
L T
IST OF ABLES
Table1.1 CUNYstudents’commutetimetocampus(CUNYOIRA
2016a) 12
Table2.1 USpersonalcomputerownership,adultsover18yearsold,
2015(Anderson2015,7–8) 25
Table2.2 Studentuseofpersonalcomputers,questionnaireresponses
fromBrooklynCollege,CityTech,andBMCC,2015 26
Table3.1 USmobiledeviceownership,adultsover18yearsold,2015
(Anderson2015,7,10,11) 43
Table3.2 Studentuseofmobiledevices,questionnaireresponsesfrom
BrooklynCollege,CityTech,andBMCC,2015 44
xiii