How Technology is Influencing Students' Career Choices and Information Consumption
This issue charts students’ choice of careers, children’s Web sites, home Internet connections, technology expenditures, the sources students use to get information and technology spending on ESL students.
1. Career Paths
A high percentage of high school students considering career paths are intrigued by technology, according to “The State of Our Nation’s Youth,” a report published by the Horatio Alger Association in August 2003. The survey shows that 49 percent of respondents—the highest combined numbers among the leading career fields—have a “lot” or a “fair amount of interest in the technology field. Only 26 percent have “no interest” in pursuing technology as a career.
2. Connected Kids
More than 2 million American children ages six to 17 currently have their own personal Web sites, and researchers project that more than 6 million American children will have their own personal Web sites by 2005.
3. Information Sources
While most students still favor television as the best source for information about world events and other cultures, the Internet is in second place.
Most Important Resource
Entertainment shows - 8%
Television news channels/shows - 36%
Newspapers - 15%
Parents /friends /teachers - 14%
Internet - 27%
Second-Most Important Resource
Entertainment shows - 17%
Television news channels/shows - 63%
Newspapers - 34%
Parents/ friends/teachers - 37%
Internet - 48%
(Note: The “most important resource” column adds up to 100 percent. The “second-most important” column doesn’t add up to 100 percent, possibly due to multiple answers.)
Source: “The State of Our Nation’s Youth,” an annual report published by the Horatio Alger Association (August 2003)
4. Instructional Technology Expenditures
A comparison of the instructional technology expenditures per student for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 school years reveals that spending is holding steady.
5. ESL and Special Needs
Is technology spending increasing as a result of the higher number of English-as-a-Second-Language and special-needs students?
NO - 43%
YES - 57%
Source: Association of School Business Officials International (Sept. 2003)
6. Back to the Present
Excluding those whose technology budgets during the current school year are the same compared to previous years, a majority of Association of School Business Officials International members say their technology budgets are lower this year compared to the past.
SAME - 35%
HIGHER - 22%
LOWER - 43%
Source: Association of School Business Officials International (presented at a conference Sept. 15, 2003)
