What Do Students Think About Wearables?

Young adult students are often seen as experts on new technologies, especially given their affinity for smartphones. Amy Schmitz Weiss, an associate professor at San Diego State University, conducted a survey of 454 young adults at a southwestern college to see what students think of wearable technology in the classroom specifically. Most think it could be helpful–in the future, at least.

Over 80 percent of the young adults surveyed were aware of wearable technology. 16 percent of students owned a wearable device, usually a fitness tracker, and 30 percent plan to get a wearable in the future. Their reasons for adoption including “tracking physical activity,” “usefulness,” “trying out new gadgets,” and “for fun.”

According to the survey, almost three quarters of students can see the use for wearable technology if recording a class lecture. A little over half thought wearables could be useful for taking notes in class, taking photos for relevant topics in class, and for gathering information during class.

Source: PBS.

Most of those who participated in Weiss’s survey, 59.6 percent, said they would be interested in using wearable devices in classrooms. 40.4 percent said they would not be interested. Those who would be interested said things like relative advantage and ease of use would affect their desire to use wearables in an educational setting.

Weiss says these findings show that wearable technology is “still in the innovator to early adopter stage.” She says there is potential to use wearables in the classroom, but that is not happening yet since the most popular wearables among young adults are Fitbits or other fitness smartbands. Because students are open to the idea, though, wearables may be at schools sooner rather than later.

*Main Image Source: Lubomir Panak, used here via Creative Commons License.

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