Public Opinion About the Internet and Information Technologies - Teens And Classroom Technology

According to "System Failure? Teens Rate School Technology" by Julie Ray (Gallup Organization, July 29, 2003), the student-to-computer ratio in 2003 was 3.8 to 1, which was down considerably from 1983 when the student to computer ratio in public schools was as high as 125 to 1. A January/February 2003 Gallup poll asked

FIGURE 10.9

teens how they rated the technology in their schools. Most teens seemed appreciative, with 28% giving their school's technology an A and 33% giving it a B. Roughly one-third (38%) gave their school a grade of either a C or D and only 5% issued their school's technology a failing grade. Some trends emerged among students, which suggested that the students were as much a factor in the grades given as the technology. Thirty-one percent of boys, for instance, gave an A, while only 24% of girls did so. Ray suggested that this may be due to the gender gap in technology. As a whole, male students still embrace high technology more than female students do, and manufacturers of software, especially in the entertainment industry, tend to gear software to male tastes (i.e., plenty of violence and scantily clad women). Another trend that emerged from the January/February data was that students at the top of their classes tended to award more As than average or below average students did. One-third of students in the top of their classes gave As, as opposed to 23% of average/below average students. Overall, Ray concluded that students expect a lot when it comes to technology, and that budget cuts to school technology would likely lead to a lot of complaints.