Situating College Students and Technology

Abstract

All US college students use digital technologies in their academic work, so understanding their experience using both their personal and campus technology is vital to supporting student success. Despite a widely held view of college students as “digital natives” proficient in the use of digital technology, undergraduates do not all share the same technology background or own and use technology to the same extent. Further, the mainstream media focuses on the experiences of residential students at research-intensive or private colleges and universities, though commuter and nontraditional students make up the majority of US undergraduates. Using qualitative methods and insights from the social sciences, this study at the City University of New York explores how commuter and nontraditional students are actually using technology for their coursework.