Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Mobile technology adoption could help Hispanics in higher ed

Hispanic broadband use jumped from 28 percent in 2004 to 68 percent in 2008.

Hispanics in the U.S. use mobile devices and social media more than any other demographic, while colleges and universities adopt both technologies as key parts of course work.

Almost 90 percent of Hispanics own a mobile device, with 53 percent using their smart phone to access the internet, according to research detailing Hispanics’ use of mobile technology and social sites like Twitter and Facebook, released May 17 by The Hispanic Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization.

Eight in 10 whites included in the study said they have a mobile device, and one-third said they peruse the web with their phone.…Read More

Troubling gaps still exist in broadband use

A survey last year found that 35 percent of Americans do not use broadband at home.

The U.S. still faces a significant gap in residential broadband use that breaks down along incomes, education levels, and other socio-economic factors, even as subscriptions among American households overall grew sevenfold between 2001 and 2009.

What’s more, even when controlling for key socio-economic characteristics, the U.S. continues to confront a racial gap in residential broadband use, with non-Hispanic white Americans and Asian-Americans more likely to go online using a high-speed connection than African-Americans and Hispanics.

Those are some of the key conclusions of a new analysis of Census data being released Nov. 8 by the Commerce Department. It found that the percentage of households that connect to the internet using broadband grew to 63.5 percent in 2009 from 9.2 percent in 2001, reflecting increases across nearly all demographics.…Read More