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Do we make First Year at uni fun for students? This was a question asked several times in different ways at the recent FYHE conference. Uni should be challenging, it should be intellectually rigorous, it should be welcoming and supportive but is it fun? And if it isn’t, could it be?

How often do you take time to reflect on what you are doing in your work?

The faculty that had the most respondents to the NODE student survey that owned laptops was Law. 81% of respondents from Law had laptops whereas overall 57% of students responding owned laptops.

Students from Engineering, Computer Science and Maths were most likely to access the internet more than twice a day -74% of respondents do. Followed by Med students (62%) and Business School students (63%). FECM students were also most likely to use Instant Messenger at least twice a day (35%).

The NODE team was keen to know what students' experiences and expectations were of ICTs. Many assumptions are made about what students know, what access  to laptops, broadband, mobile phones etc they have and what they expect of the University's IT environment. So we thought we would ask.

Have the possibilities provided through ICT as a tool to enhance student learning been overestimated? Professor Judyth Sachs, DVC Macquarie University, talks on this topic on Thursday 10 May at 6pm in the Geography Lecture Theatre. This is a free public lecture as part of teaching month so if you're interested, come along.