Students' Most and Least Used Technology Uses in Academic Settings

Students' Technology Use in Academic Settings | Create Infographics

Visualization Post 1: Technology in Education

Student Access to Technology

This graphic is effective in its depiction of how different age groups implement technology in the classroom through a combination of numbers and shapes. The balance between figures and data help viewers process the information more efficiently because it is laid out in a clear format. Furthermore, the color scheme is not too distracting, though it would be clearer if it were color-coded by device.

Six basic principles of graphic design include:

1. Balance
2. Proximity
3. Alignment
4. Repetition
5. Contrast
6. Space

This graphic implements most of these principles through it's shapes, colors and numbers. Contrast is achieved through the color scheme. Alignment is achieved through the rows and columns. Repetition is achieved through the scheme. The rows and columns are evenly spaced out.

Education in Technology 

If we are to examine the relationship between education and technology, we must examine the access that students have to different forms of technology. This graphic, published in September 2013 by Project Tomorrow shows just that. Breaking down students by age groups and device type, the visualization shows how children from different age groups use technology.

This graphic clearly communicates the effect technology may have on education in the future because it shows trends of technology use by generation. For example, one-third of 12th-graders own personal laptops and/or smartphones. Those numbers are almost exactly the same for ninth-graders and sixth-graders. Moreover, twenty percent of third-graders own personal smartphones. These numbers reflect how a significant percentage of students have access to mobile devices at all times.

Schools are beginning to provide students with technology as well, though these numbers are much lower than personal usage numbers. Students in third grade have the highest percentage of school provided laptops at 13 percent. Though this number is low, it will probably become a trend as technology advances and becomes more affordable. 

Average Work Week Jumped to 47 Hours

I would share with my social network the article about the average work week increase. I think this is an interesting article because my colleagues and peers will soon be entering the full-time workforce and this piece of information is relevant to our futures.