Probably too many questions ;-)

Peter's additional questions:

• what was the last book (magazine?) you bought?

Moderator questions for morning breakouts

1. How old were you when you first used a computer or video game

2. Do you own a cell phone?

• What do you use it for - voice, text messaging, games, camera, video, audio recording?
• How often do you use it for each of these tasks
• Is most of your use for fun and socializing or for school / work related any use in support of learning, eg get help from friends, take pictures, record
• Have you ever recorded a class lecture or an interview for a paper?
• Have you ever taken pictures with it for a class?
• Have you ever participated in group work via your cell phone?
• when do use your cell phone – walking, relaxing, in class?

3. Do you own an mp3 player/ipod

• what do you use it for – music, video, other
• do you download music, do you buy music online, do you buy cd/dvd’s? Do you share music etc. files with friends?
• do you download videos to your player/ipod? What kind
• Have you ever downloaded a podcast?

4. Do you have a laptop

• Do you bring it to class?
• Do you use highspeed internet at home? Outside of the home? At school?

5. Do you have a regular computer at home

• high-speed internet

6. When you wrote your last school essay

• Did you talk to or collaborate with a friend about your paper?
• Did you use to the internet (not a Library’s site)?
• Did you cite any websites in the paper?
• Did you use a library website? Why?
• Did you download any full-text academic articles? What about other resources like fulltext newspaper articles or newscasts?
• Did you physically go into the library and get something from off the shelf?

You can also ask them when they used the resource; before they started writing, just after they started writing and/or planning, or after they were well into their paper. A visual helps this process.

7. Do you blog

• Do you read blogs?

7a Do you ever read online news? Online blogs?

8. Do you use flickr or any other online photo sharing site

• how often
• do you have a profile
• what kinds of things do you do there

9a Do you use del.icio.us?

10. Do you go to youtube or google video

• do you post videos
• what kinds of videos do you watch

11. How do learn about stuff you are interested in

• on the web
• through friends
• using a library

12. How do you use of computers/cell phones/ipods for high school or university courses? How is that different from how you use them for personal stuff?

13. What would you like to be able to do on the web/internet 5 years from now?

Other comments:

Generally, I like the questions, but would be interested to know a little more about how the students use technology for integrating learning and socializing / playing together...for example, your friend might call you on your cell just to visit and ask you about a homework assignment. You might go to the library to hang out and to find books. You might blog about learning PHP and drinking too much Saturday night.

Also, I’d be interested to hear about accidental learning. For example, Have they ever gone to a Blog for fun and found info for a project, personal interest, or homework assignment? Have they searched a library database and happened upon medical information that helped their mother?

Maybe asking questions with concrete examples of moments involving information needs would be interesting, like:

“If your professor mentioned an author you had never heard of in class and you wanted to find out about that author, what would you do?”

Lastly, I’d be interested if they have ever used any free services, such such as gone to lectures, optional / free classes, used the LAC, use tutorials etc. This generation is supposed to want that sort of thing, but I wonder how much they do.

Those are my thoughts, take them or leave them.

Kathy