Although hardware has traditionally defined the technology, mobile software is now outpacing hardware in innovation. There are lots of other worthwhile choices in this category, including the nearly perfect That's what you're likely to find in a lot of the more affordable laptop models. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product or service, we may be paid a fee by that merchant.Jake Leary is an editorial intern at PCMag covering tech news. Finally, we are preparing to distribute our 2018 survey at UCF and at two collaborating institutions. Among instructors, however, simply owning a mobile device does not often correlate with high usage in teaching. More than 70 percent of respondents reported using social and music apps in their personal lives. However, mobile strategy should be set forth with the entire campus in mind. In 2014, 66 percent said they used mobile apps for learning at least once a week, and that number increased slightly to 69 percent in 2016. It's mid-summer, and that can mean only one thing: School is coming. Discuss: 7 things to know about buying a laptop for college in 2019 Best Buy, meanwhile, offers a free-to-enroll College Student program, with a number of discounted laptops already available. MP3s, while still in use by about two-thirds of college students, have also fallen out of favor, while the pace of laptop ownership growth has stalled.Smartphone and tablet ownership should continue to rise: a leading 31% of respondents plan to buy a smartphone in the next year, with tablets (22%) third on the list behind laptops (25%).Students are engaging with a number of different applications on their smartphones and tablets. Students also reported a 10 percentage-point increase in instructors who modeled the use of mobile apps/devices in class and a 20 percentage-point increase in instructors clearly stating a mobile apps/devices requirement in the course or in the course syllabus.As figure 7 shows, reasons for students not wanting instructors to use mobile technology in a course also increased in most subcategories from 2014 to 2016. Josh Miller/CNET In addition to our stand-alone mobile training course, we intend to integrate learning concepts, such as universal design, into all training programs to help instructors design mobile-compatible online courses and assignments.To support these mobile initiatives, UCF has created a new position, program director of mobile strategy, to focus on growth and awareness of mobile technologies. OK, but can you really get by on, say, 256GB of storage, or even 128GB? Documents (such as school papers) consume very little space, and will likely be housed on Google Drive or Office Online anyway.

How much horsepower do you really need? A recent study of instructors found that one of the strongest disincentives to classroom innovation is that instructors fear embarrassing themselves in front of students.Among many recent studies on technical support issues, ECAR research provides detailed insights into the considerable challenges institutions face when trying to properly support mobile learners.In 2012, we designed the original mobile survey and distributed it online; our goal was to get a general overview of mobile technology ownership and use among UCF students.
In 2012, 32 percent of students said they used mobile apps to complete an assignment at least once a week. Read more Desktop/laptop ownership among adults in the United States from 2008 to 2019 The 2016 survey includes closed and open-ended questions, which were modified slightly based on the 2012 and 2014 survey results.