What technology do they come with?

The following report is based on quantitative results from an ALiC Freshers Technology Survey (Questionnaire DOC). At this stage, there has been no analysis and we are just present a count of results. The questionnaire was emailed to freshers from the School of Computing, University of Leeds to be completed in September and October, 2008 and to freshers attending two modules at Leeds Metropolitan University. The following report is processed from the following raw data obtained from the returned surveys:

• CSV Data

The report is generated using a python script and all y-axis in the charts are the percentage. The dynamic content written content is added using the following taxonomy:

Taxonomy	Percentage Range
a negligible number of	0-9%
hardly any	10-19%
very few	20-29%
some	30-39%
a minority of	40-49%
several	50-59%
majority	60-69%
many	70-79%
a consensus of	80-89%
nearly all	90-99%
all	100%

Q1. At the address you live at while you're studying, do you have ...

Students were asked if they had at the residence while studying at university if they had a desktop computer, their own laptop and/or internet access. Results are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Facilities while studying

From the graph we can see that several students have a desktop computer and many students had their own laptops. The third bar chart grouping shows that nearly all students have access to the world wide web

Q2. Do you regularly use any of the following?

Students were asked to tick which technology they use regularly (see Figure 2) and to tick which technology they would be happy for the university to contact them (see Figure 3.)

Figure 2. Technology regularly used

From the questionnaire, the main focus of communication was: calling from land lines, calling from mobile devices, texting, instant messaging, using social sites( such as Facebook, Bebo, MySpace), sharing sites (such as YouTube, Flickr), and through virtual communities (such as Second Life). From Figure 2, a minority of students use landlines. The survey also shows that a consensus of students use their mobiles phones for phoning and/or texting. The questionnaire also shows that a consensus of students commuicate using instant messages and many students use social websites. We also see from Figure 2 that a minority of students use sharing sites for communication and a negligible number of students communicate in virtual worlds

Figure 3. Happy for university to contact using the technology

The graph in Figure 3. represents results where students are happy for the universities to communicate using the listed technology. One general observation from the graph is we see that some students are happy for the university to use technology associated with social activities as a communication medium.

Q3.If you don't use any of these sites, is there a reason why not?

Students were asked to give a reason for not using any of the listed technology in question 2. There were a minority of students that gave no reason with a negligible number of students citing no internet access.

Q4. Do you have any mobile devices that you always have with you?

Figure 4. Mobile devices students always have with them

From the questionnaire, student were asked to tick which technologies they always had with them. From Figure 4. we see that nearly all students are continually with their mobile and a minority of students have a music player with them. The questionnaire also shows that a negligible number of students always has a pda on their person and for playing video formats, very few students are continually with this technology. We also see that a negligible number of students stipulated other mobile devices that are always with them.

Q5. Does your device have multiple functions?

Students were asked if their mobile devices used had multiple functionalities, for example, voice calls, texting, playing music and/or video and internet access.

Figure 5. Own devices with multiple functionalities

We see in Figure 5. that nearly all student own devices that have multiple functionality.

Q6. Thinking about how you use social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, would you like the university to message you on there?

Students were asked to think about how they use social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, and would they like the university to message them on their social network. Messages students were asked to think about might include the university sending a reminder about a deadline or to inform of something important.

Figure 6. Allow university to contact using social networks

Figure 6. shows that several students were happy for the university to provide information using their social network.
The following are comments regarding being contacted by the university using social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo, MySpace etc.

"The benefit of this would be users being notified quicker and more centrally since the likes of facebook get checked very regularly. But there much more for the social part of our lives rather than the academic. What happens in time outside the university that doesn't effect us academically doesn't need to be shared with university."

"Academic Work isn’t just generally Socialising really"

"Good for freshers to connect new students. Prefer official contact eg. VLE/university email "