More Kids Than Teachers Own Smart Phones

The August issue of T.H.E. Journal contains statistics on smart phone ownership. Their findings include:

• Teachers report less ownership of smart phones than both high school and middle school students. (High school was 28%, middle school 24%, and teachers 20%.)
• Smart phone ownership among students in kindergarten through second grade is nearly equal to that of teachers.
• Principals lead the pack with 30% ownership. But, if 30% have a smart phone, that means 70% do not.

To read the article in its entirety, click here.

Is there a relationship between these figures and the debate discussed in the last two posts? If the percentage of teachers and principals who own smart phones was higher, would we be taking a different attitude and a different approach towards student use of these handheld devices?

In 1997, I completed my dissertation, A Study of Time Management Practices of Alabama Principals. I sent surveys to 614 Alabama principals concerning their use of some 50 different time management practices. The return rate was over 70%!

At the suggestion of my mentor, Dr. Henry Clark (who I was fortunate enough to have as a member of my dissertation committee), three questions related to the use of technology were added to the survey:

Do you personally use:

1. Voice mail?
2. E-mail?
3. Word processing program?

In this coming Monday's post, I will share the results for those three questions and the implications I feel they hold as we look a decade into the future.