University students’ use of social media and digital devices: insights

into their personal learning environments

Palitha Edirisingha, Tracy Simmons (University of Leicester, UK) and Arunangsu Chatterjee (University of Plymouth, UK)

A research project funded by the College of Social Sciences, University of Leicester

PLE 2013 Conference, Beuth University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, 10 - 12 July 2013#CS01

Research questions

• How do university students’ use digital devices and web 2.0 technologies within their formal learning context?

• What are the digital literacy issues that might emerge in using web-based resources and tools?

• How might we recognise students’ informal use of these tools and resources as part of their Personal learning environments?

Background

Jenkins et al (2008),Francis (2010)

Adorno (2001)

Background

Buckingham (2007)

Methods1st round (2010-11)

2nd round (2011-12)

3rd round (2012 – 13)

Questionnaire surveys of undergraduate and postgraduate students to identify their ownership of and use of digital devices and web 2.0 tools(based on Francis, 2008)

53 students 41 students From July

Focus groups (4) with students (3 – 4 in each group) to gain a deeper insight into their use of web 2.0 tools in a learning context

3 groups, 10 students

3 groups, 11 students

From July

Workshops with students to observe their online activities and digital practices

8 students From August

Findings / themes

Transition into a new academic culture

Access to and use of digital devices, web-based tools and resources

Approach to an assessed piece of work

Use of web-based tools and resources for their formal learning

Ownership of computer and other digital devices (% reporting)

Desktop

Laptop

Smartphone

Phone

Digital Camera

MP3player

Tablet

eReader

Gaming device

Other

0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0% 100.0% 120.0%

2011-20122010-2011

Note: 2010 – 2011, n= 53; 2011 – 2012, n=41

The most important device(s) for your studies / study-related activities

Note: 2010 – 2011, n= 53; 2011 – 2012, n=41

Laptop

Smartphone

MP3player(R1)/Camera(R2)

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0% 90.0% 100.0%

89.4%

56.8%

44.4%

91.3%

38.2%

25.0%

2011-20122010-2011

The devices used to access internet during term-time

Note: 2010 – 2011, n= 53; 2011 – 2012, n=41

University computer

Own computer(laptop)

Mobile phone

iPod touch

Others

0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0% 100.0% 120.0%

81.1%

100.0%

54.7%

15.4%

0.0%

84.4%

98.7%

70.1%

6.5%

11.7%

2011-20122010-2011

Locations where you use computers during term time

Note: 2010 – 2011, n= 53; 2011 – 2012, n=41

Term-time accommodation

University library

Public library

Lecture/seminar rooms

Computer room in the university

Office or workplace

Cafes at the university

Cafes elsewhere

At friends, relatives

On the move

Other places

0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0% 100.0% 120.0%

94.3%

94.3%

11.7%

24.5%

64.2%

11.3%

30.2%

13.2%

28.3%

20.8%

9.6%

96.1%

96.1%

11.7%

39.0%

68.8%

7.8%

32.5%

18.2%

36.4%

26.0%

3.9%

2011-20122010-2011

Top three locations for computer use during term time (2010 – 2011 data)

University computer rooms

57%

27%

University library

65%,

Term-time accommodation

Online activities (2011-12 data)

Update social network

Watch TV programmes

Listen to radio on the computer or mobile phone

Write your blog

Use social bookmarking sites

Contribute to wikis

Play video games

Download/share music

Use 3D vitural world

Chat using instant relay text

Make voice calls using Internet

Share digital photographs

Share videos

Record your own music

Mix music

Make graphic art

Contribute to onlin discussion

Microblogging

Subscribe to RSS

Programming

eBay trading

Online shopping

Online banking

Use apps

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

RarelySometimesAlways

Please go to the following URL and view / download the data from the 2010-2011

questionnaire survey

http://goo.gl/kraQF

Approaching an assessed piece of work – patterns of navigation and study environments

Mostly used web-based resources and tools for learning

Web tools and resources that students use for their formal learning

NON-WESTERN Web tools and resources that students use for their formal learning

Recommendation sites / toolsP(J): I want to mention a special website. It’s a Chinese website and its name is Douban. I find, it’s a very useful website for me, because if I want to read a book and I search the book in Douban, I will find the book. There is specific webpage for this book and some recommendations and some comments from other readers, their recommendations, their comments about this book. Besides, this website allow people to use tags about books, music or films, so members of this website can just search these tags and they can find relevant resources and besides that, the website will give you recommendations. If I search a book, and the website itself, will give some, some most relevant search results about, relevant to books. It means that, besides the book that I am searching it will display several books on the same topic, in the same theme, or several books most of the readers of this book were also interested in. So, for me, I suppose, it’s a very useful website for learning. But I haven’t found English websites that have the same function. [2011. FG2]

Twitter

Y: I find it quite useful for my academic work because all the people I know, professors here [at the university], are on twitter but it is not easy to find these professors on Facebook. When I follow my supervisor on Twitter I can also see others who are also following him on twitter who are also professors so we can have useful conversations. [2012. FG3]

Interviewer: What are the advantages of following your professor on Twitter?

Y: He always updates on some academic news, what he has found out, his recommendations ….

Final remarks

• Vertical and horizontal space of the new media environment raises a number if challenges

• Expert and ‘non-expert’ information• Moving across ‘expert’ or ‘academic’ information that flows

downwards: reading lists, Library e-link, alongside peer to peer (horizontal) information.

• Seamless spaces on-line QQ, off-line: group study rooms in the library.

• Students have useful mobile technology an iPhone provides multiple uses: mini photocopier, access web material, arrange group meetings etc.

Challenges

Research questions

• How do university students’ use digital devices and web 2.0 technologies within their formal learning context?

• What are the digital literacy issues that might emerge in using web-based resources and tools?

• How might we recognise students’ informal use of these tools and resources as part of their Personal learning environments?

Special thanks to our PhD students for their contributions

• Dimitrinka Atanasova (Media and Communication, Leicester)

• Mengjie Jiang (Institute of Learning Innovation, Leicester)

• Nan Yang (University of Trento, Italy)

Selected referencesAdorno, T. W. (2001). The Culture Industry : Selected Essays on Mass Culture . London: Routledge.

DCMS (2009) Digital Britain: Final Report London: TSO. Available at http://interactive.bis.gov.uk/digitalbritain/report/being-digital/getting-britain-online/. [Accessed September 2009].

Dijk, J. V. 2005. The Deepening Divide: Inequality in the Information Society. London: Sage.

Francis, R.J., (2010) The Decentring of the Traditional University: the future of (self) education in virtually figured worlds,

Francis, R.J., (2008), The Predicament of the Learner in the New Media Age, DPhil thesis submitted to University of Oxford.

Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated Language and Learning: A critique of traditional schooling, Abington, Oxfordshire: Routledge.

Jenkins, H., Purushotma, R., Clinton, K., Weigel, M., & Robinson, A. (2006). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. Cambridge, MA: Comparative Media Studies Programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Available at: http://www.projectnml.org/files/working/NMLWhitePaper.pdf [Accessed 2 Nov 2010].

Melville, D. (2009) Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World: Report of Committee of Enquiry into the Changing Learner Experience, Available at: http://www.clex.org.uk/CLEX_Report_v1-final.pdf. [Accessed 29 May 2009].

Lave, J., and Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ofcom (2011b). UK adults’ media literacy.London: Ofcom.