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Are today's students really motivated to go into IT?

June 29, 2010

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The CDW Government LLC (CDW-G) has announced the results of its 2010 21st-Century Classroom Report, a U.S.-based survey of more than one-thousand high school students, faculty and IT staff members to better understand how students and faculty members are using IT, and to determine if anything can be done to help them choose IT as their ultimate career goals.

Overall, the CDW-G found that only about eight percent of high school teachers said that IT is fully integrated into the classroom and that technology that is available is primarily used by teachers and not students. That news came as a new revelation, but something that many observers knew for quite some time.

As a result, more than 42.8 percent of students interviewed said they are not prepared to use IT in higher education or the workforce, and that was identified by some as saying "we are not interested in information technology."

Bob Kirby, vice president for K-12 education at CDW-G says "More than ten years into the 21st-century and IT skills for students today still remain almost non existent for many. Students today need a positive, and stimulative learning environment that is highly interactive in which the technologies that they use outside of school are fully integrated into the curriculum. With that in mind, districts need to focus on providing a hands-on technology experience that translates to students' futures, whether in higher education or the workforce."

On the rise with about 42 percent of faculty and 33 percent of students reporting that they use digital content as an educational tool is online textbooks, e-text and open source content. Overall, digital content ranks as a top three choice among students when asked which technology tool would be most useful to their career's education.

Worse, CDW-G says it expects that the technology gap may even continue to widen, as 59 percent of IT professionals report that their high schools' technology needs to be refreshed, is aging rapidly or is in the "dark ages" as pre-2000 technology.

Only about ten percent of the faculty today report that their IT budgets will increase in the coming school year, which clearly isn't enough.

In order to successfully prepare students for their IT career, the 21st-Century Classroom Report strongly recommends that districts:

Understand student needs -- About 31.4 percent of students say their high school seeks student input on classroom technology. Consider using the 21st-Century Classroom survey tool to get an accurate picture of student, faculty and IT staff needs. Use the results to discuss 21st-century skills with students to determine what technology they find most beneficial and seek guidance on how to effectively incorporate technology into the curriculum.

Improve faculty resources -- School districts everywhere in the U.S. should bring together faculty and IT staff to discuss must-have IT resources and implement professional development that aligns and reinforces the district's overall technology plan, and carefully follow that plan for at least the next 5 years.

Look to the future -- Focus on professional development and 21st-century skills to create a curriculum and classroom environment that promotes learning and seamless IT integration. Consider how today's students learn and how to bring their native technology into the classroom and technology labs.

And while high school teachers in the IT segment provide support for technology such as wireless Internet access, student computing devices, interactive whiteboards and even virtual learning, only 44.2 percent of faculty members are designing lesson plans that enable students to use technology in class, and just 24.7 percent of students report they are encouraged to use technology throughout the school day.

About 96.2 percent of all students interviewed said they use technology at home to complete class assignments. But lack of technology integration means most students are starting to lose interest in IT, even though 84.3 percent still believe that modern information technology is an important educational tool, and will be so for at least the next decade.

So the question is: why do the student and faculty/IT disconnect? CDW-G found that it comes down to a lack of understanding. Only about 46.8 percent of high school students say their school's faculty really understands how they want to use IT as a good learning tool.

Comparatively, 68.1 percent of IT professionals in the industry today believe their district understands how students want to use technology. At the same time, 71 percent of faculty said they are not incorporating guidance from their department on how to provide technology-rich assignments.

The CDW-G study also found that school faculty and its students are using next-generation technology, e.g., MP3 players, smartphones, blogs and podcasts in their personal lives, but that it is not widely adopted in the classroom, and that they wished it was.

The CDW-G report is worrisome and raises a lot of questions, as today's students will play an important role in the IT industry in the next 5 to 10 years. School districts and their faculty need to fully realize the importance this will have in the technology segment, as this could impact many future generations, and potential students that would otherwise have a great career future in the IT segment of the economy.

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Source: The CDW Government LLC.