Technology Use Survey and Self-Study

Your goal for this project is to construct and administer a survey for yourself and some other people you know, such as friends, family members, or classmates. Ideally, you should aim to submit your survey to as many people as you can that fit your goals, but sometimes getting survey data back from others is easier said than done. For this reason, you are only required to get at least one other response.

You might already be familiar with other surveys about technology use that have been published over the years, such as the many on social media, tech adoption, teens and technology, online entertainment, or any number of other topics from Pew Research Center. If not, it might be helpful to visit Pew and review some of their tech-related survey analyses to get some ideas about things you would like to know more about.

Objectives:

Construct a survey for yourself and another friend, family member, or colleague on how technology is used in daily life, including for communication and staying current in news and current issues, as well as for school, work, and entertainment.
Analyze and compare results of the survey and reflect on your findings in a brief (2-3 page) paper (bonus points: submit your abstract to PNW Day of Discovery Research Conference).

How to Complete - Your Task

Identify your target audience. What is the age level, gender, educational level, socioeconomic status, or other identifying demographic of the people you want to talk to? It could be anyone and everyone, or you could try to target a specific group, such as "freshmen at PNW" or "people over the age of 21 who own a smartphone." Ideally, this is also a group that you yourself belong to, as you're going to be filling out the survey, too.
Develop a survey of at least 10 questions about things you want to know about technology use and habits. What interests you about people's use of technology? Are you looking at things from a social aspect? Work or school? Entertainment? Health? All of the above? Your questions, whatever you come up with, could be open-ended, multiple choice, or a mix - the choice is up to you. There are several survey development tools available to you:
- Ask for permission. At the beginning of your survey, be sure to ask for the participant's consent to participate. In essence, simply tell them what the survey is intended for, and give them an opportunity to say no and bow out. If you are wishing to use your survey in a "true" research project, you will want to be a little more explicit with your informed consent - see this link for some tips: https://www.rit.edu/research/hsro/informed_consent_document_sample_tips
- Take your survey and distribute it to your target audience. You might do the distribution through social media, give it to any classes that you have, or approach people in the cafeteria, your work, or wherever it is that you spend time and meet others who are in your target demographic.
- Reflect. What did you find out? Anything you expected to see? Anything you didn't? Analyze your results and what you thougth about them in a brief paper of about 2-3 pages. Include your actual result statistics (you can download them from your survey tool and attach them as an appendix).

Extra Credit Research Opportunity:

If you are interested in turning this research into "real" research you would like to present at the Day of Discovery on April 3 (https://www.pnw.edu/research/discovery/), or in another venue, you will need to work on IRB approval of your research and your abstract. I will help you with this process if you wish to do this - talk to me about it and consult the resources in our module for more info.

Turning it in

Submit your paper, a link to your survey, and your results data to the assignment in Module 2 of our BlackBoard Course

How you're graded

	Unacceptable	Beginning	Developing	Proficient
Target Audience and Survey Purpose 5 points	Not submitted or link not accessible	It is not clear who the intended audience is for the survey, and/or what the intended purpose of the survey is.	There may be a mismatch between the intended target audience and the survey's purpose, or details may be missing to make the purpose of this survey clear.	The target audience and purpose of the survey are clearly stated and match well with the actual survey items.
Survey Construction 5 points	Not submitted or link not accessible	The survey items are partially inaccessible, unintelligible, or otherwise not working as they should. Informed consent is not present at the beginning of the survey.	The survey items are accessible and working correctly, but may use a format inconsistent with the needs and expectations of the intended audience. Informed consent may be missing from the beginning of the survey.	The survey items are accessible and working correctly, using a format consistent with the needs and expectations of the intended audience. Informed consent of some kind is present at the beginning of the survey.
Reflection Paper Data Analysis 5 points	Not submitted or link not accessible	Data results are present but appear to be incomplete (missing at least one participant, or the student's response). Limited attempt is made to analyze the results of the survey.	Data results are present from at least one participant and the student, but there are may be important details left out in the analysis of those results with regard to what was found and what implications might be present.	The data from the survey is presented in a clear way, and the results are analyzed thoroughly with regard to what was found and what the implications might be.
Reflection Paper Conclusions About Technology 5 points	Not submitted or link not accessible	Limited reflection is provided with regard to thoughts about technology and usage related to the target objectives of this survey.	Some reflection is provided with regard to thoughts about technology and usage related to the target objectives of this survey.	Clear and thorough reflection is provided with regard to thoughts about technology and usage related to the target objectives of this survey.
Grammar and Mechanics 5 points	The Reflection and/or Survey contains more than three major spelling and/or grammatical mistakes; OR is not turned in.	The Reflection and/or Survey contains two to three major spelling and/or grammatical mistakes.	The Reflection and/or Survey contains only a small number of minor spelling and/or grammatical mistakes.	The Reflection and/or Survey contains no spelling and/or grammatical mistakes.

Resources

Developing surveys may be something that you have done already. If this is your first time, or you are looking for some insights, the following resources might be useful.