Some Ball State University students, like others across the nation, are coming to school equipped with high-tech gadgets and technological knowledge that improve the college experience, both in and out of the classroom.
The increasing amount of know-how that students possess coming into the university is affecting what is taught in classes at Ball State, Nancy Carlson, chairwoman of the Department of Telecommunications and associate professor of telecommunications, said.
"It is allowing us to get more content in a 15-week semester because we don't have to spend as much time teaching the technology," she said.
Courses are able to focus more on teaching content, rather than hardware and software, because the students enter classes with more experience in computer-aided learning, Carlson said.
According to a survey released by the National Retail Federation in August, this year college students across the country are expected to spend a total of $10.46 billion on electronics, an increase of $2.26 billion from the amount spent in 2005.
During the past four years, the NRF has conducted surveys to track the changes in the amount of back-to-college purchases made by students and their parents. The findings confirm that electronics have become an integral part of college spending, comprising nearly half of the money students allocate for school, the surveys said.
Technological devices available to students vary from iWake, an alarm clock with a dock for an iPod, to cell phones that allow the user to take pictures, watch videos, instant message and access the web.
While the statistics show students spend a large percentage of money on electronics, not all Ball State students come to college with a wide range of technological gadgets.
"All I own right now is a laptop, PlayStation 2 and a cell phone," junior Matthew Neer said.
Neer said he has a desire to own more technological devices but cannot afford them. He said he has been using high-tech equipment since the age of 10 or 11.
"My mom went back to school and we bought a PC and I taught her how to use [Microsoft] Office," Neer said. "I taught her how to use computers."
Portability and a wealth of information stored on handheld technology devices, such as cell phones and PDAs, make it easier for students to stay on top of their responsibilities, Carlson said.
"The students that are incoming now is where we see the most dramatic kinds of changes," O'Neal Smitherman, vice president for information technology, said.
He said the incoming Ball State students have always had luxuries such as cable and satellite television, cell phones, computers and the Internet. Smitherman said this allows for more connectivity among students than was possible for prior generations.
The Internet has also changed the problem-solving methods of today's youth, Smitherman said. Readily available technology has made young people use the Internet as a default method of finding information, because it has been around throughout their lives. Older generations have had to train themselves to use that technology because it has not always been available.
"The digital age students come equipped thinking that way," he said. "From the moment they begin to be able to talk and read and interact they begin thinking in that new way. Those of us who had old ways of solving problems now we have to not only learn new ways [of solving problems] but we have to get rid of those old ways as techniques."
Teens and Technology, a 2005 research project released by Pew Internet & American Life Project, attributes the increased reliance on technology to the exposure students received while growing up.
From 2000 to 2005 the survey sites an increase of three million Internet users ages 12 to 17. In 2005, 21 million people in this age bracket used the Internet.
Fifth-year entrepreneurial student Emily Eoff said she has a wide collection of technological gadgets.
"I have an Apple laptop, a Nano, a first generation iPod and my Treo," she said. "This [the Treo] has my world in it. It basically has the capabilities to be online anywhere, it has a touch screen, you can take pictures, videos and send anything. It's a computer basically," Eoff said.
Eoff said she had assistance in purchasing her electronic devices. She received her iPods as gifts, and received a discount through Ball State for her laptop.
Eoff's purchase of a Treo stemmed from a desire to have a phone that could fill multiple needs.
"I wanted a phone that could get online ... I need something that did the phone, music, pictures, everything," she said. "And I wanted it in one thing ... This is my life."
Advances for combining media sources will give consumers more ways to view data, Smitherman said.
"You will then make the choice ... do I want to see this video on my cell phone, or do I want to have it seen on a large-screen high definition display (like a television) or do I want to see it on my computer screen or do I want to see it as an image projected on the back of my retina so it looks like a 40 by 40 foot screen?" Smitherman said.
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