Here’s a quick recap of what happened in the lab this week:

• Mousing Around (Kindergarten)
• Drew self-portraits using Tux Paint (3rd grade and under) and Paint.NET (4th grade and up)
  These will be showing up on Class Blogs and student Google Sites in a few weeks!
• Celebrated International Dot Day (Kindergarten, 2nd & 3rd – more Dot Day fun to come next week!)
  Dots will be shared once they’re all done!
• Keyboarding Speed Tests (4th grade and up when finished with self-portraits)

The results of this year’s Technology Survey of St. Martin’s 4th-8th grade students are in! All but one of our 4th-8th graders has a computer they can use to complete homework but five students don’t have printers if they need to print their work. Even the one student that doesn’t have access to a computer for homework does have access to other electronic devices with Internet access. Here’s a recap of the results!

What Electronic Devices do you OWN?

• 52% own an iPad or other Tablet Device
• 45% own a Laptop or Netbook
• 45% own an iPod Touch
• 34% own a Smart Phone
• 24% own a Desktop Computer

What Electronic Devices do other members of your family own that you can use?

• Laptop or Netbook – 66%
• Desktop Computer – 59%
• iPad or other Tablet Device – 59%
• Smart Phone – 52%
• iPod Touch – 38%

What Gaming Systems do you or other members of your family own that you use?

• Wii – 59%
• Nintendo DS – 45%
• Xbox – 41%
• Playstation – 41%
• Other handheld gaming systems – 4%

Cell Phones – 59% of our 4th-8th Graders own a cell phone; 28% of them have data plans and another 31% use their phones to access the Internet via WiFi. How much do they text using phones & other devices that allow texting like the iPod Touch?

• No texting – 24%
• Less than 25 text sent per week – 28%
• 26-100 texts per week – 14%
• 100-400 texts per week – 17%
• Over 500 texts sent per week – 17%

Internet Access – 100% of our students have some kind of Internet Access at home. 69% of our students can access the Internet anytime they want even without asking permission first and that same percentage use the Internet in their room. 90% can use the Internet without adult supervision. Here’s what our students use the Internet for:

Other is mainly watching but not posting videos.

Time Spent on the Internet or Gaming at home each week:

• An hour or less – 24%
• 1-2 hours – 14%
• 2-4 hours – 14%
• 4-6 hours – 21%
• 6-8 hours – 14%
• Over 8 hours – 14%

What do you think of these results? Did any of them surprise you? We’re planning a parent night to discuss responsible Internet use later this year. Let me know if you would like to attend.