Data on faculty ownership of technology
In October Educause released the 2nd annual ECAR Study of Faculty and IT in the USA. One of the interesting bits of data in the report deals with device ownership. Below, the ECAR data is lined up against Pew’s data on the general population. The numbers are very different.
| ECAR | Pew (all adults by age) | |||
| Faculty | 30-49 | 50-64 | 65+ | |
| Tablet | 80% | 57% | 37% | 32% |
| Smartphone | 89% | 83% | 58% | 30% |
| Laptop* | 93% | 81% | 71% | 55% |
The Pew data was gathered from telephone interviews with adults randomly selected from the general US population, while the ECAR sample are faculty at selected institutions who responded to a survey. Maybe only people interested in technology filled out the survey (12% response rate), but the higher ownership numbers are more likely due to the higher income level of faculty members, as compared to the general population. With that said – and even if the data is off by 10% – the tablet and smartphone numbers are higher than I would have expected.
*Pew data – laptop OR desktop ownership
NspireD2: Learning Technology in Higher Ed. 