Abstract
The growing presence of digital media in the lives of university students signals a change in how use of such media in educational contexts should be viewed. Institutional focus on technologically mediated education and the promotion of blended learning initiatives further serve to encourage media use in academic settings. Scant attention has been afforded to the potential negative consequences arising from heightened media engagement. This is especially the case in areas of study where technological artifacts are often the medium and the subject of interest, for instance the computer and information sciences. In this study a survey was done to investigate students’ use of media, as well as the behavioural beliefs, norms and motivators surrounding such use.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
For readers from outside South Africa: the South African ‘honours’ degree is an extension of the classical ‘B.Sc.’ degree which enables a student to commence with Master-studies thereafter. While already considered ‘postgraduate’ in South Africa, the ‘honours’ degree in South Africa is reasonably well comparable to the final study-year in the (longer) U.S.American ‘B.Sc.’ curriculum.
- 2.
The scope of this paper does not allow for a detailed analysis of the relationship between media use and academic performance. Our findings in this regard shall be published separately.
References
Annan-Coultas, D.L.: Laptops as instructional tools: student perceptions. Tech Trends 56(5), 34–42 (2012)
Bain, K.: What the Best College Teachers Do. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (2004)
Berkowitz, A.D.: The social norms approach: theory, research, and annotated bibliography. Technical report (2004)
Blackburn, K., Lefebvre, L., Richardson, E.: Technology interruptions: technological task interruptions in the classroom. Fla. Commun. J. 41(2), 107–116 (2013)
Burak, L.: Multitasking in the University classroom. Int. J. Scholarsh. Teach. Learn. 6(2), 8 (2012)
Calderwood, C., Ackerman, P.L., Conklin, E.M.: What else do college students do while studying? an investigation of multitasking. Comput. Educ. 75, 19–29 (2014)
Carr, N.: The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way we Think, Read and Remember. Atlantic Books, London (2010)
Cotten, S.R., McCullough, B., Adams, R.: Technological influences on social ties across the lifespan. In: Fingerman, K.L., Berg, C., Smith, J., Antonucci, T.C. (eds.) Handbook of Life-Span Development, pp. 647–671. Springer, New York (2011)
Dahlstrom, E., Bichsel, J.: ECAR study of undergraduate students and information technology. Technical report (2014)
David, P., Kim, J.H., Brickman, J.S., Ran, W., Curtis, C.M.: Mobile phone distraction while studying. New Media Soc. 17(10), 1661–1679 (2014)
Dietz, S., Christopher Henrich, C.: Texting as a distraction to learning in college students. Comput. Hum. Behav. 36, 163–167 (2014)
Fishbein, M., Ajzen, I.: Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. Philos. Rhetoric 10(2), 130–132 (1977)
Fried, C.B.: In-class laptop use and its effects on student learning. Comput. Educ. 50(3), 906–914 (2008)
Garrison, D.R., Kanuka, H.: Blended learning: uncovering its transformative potential in higher education. Internet High. Educ. 7(2), 95–105 (2004)
Jacobsen, W.C., Forste, R.: The wired generation: academic and social outcomes of electronic media use among university students. Cyberpsychol. Behav. Soc. Netw. 14(5), 275–280 (2011)
Junco, R.: In-class multitasking and academic performance. Comput. Hum. Behav. 28(6), 2236–2243 (2012)
Junco, R., Cotten, S.R.: A decade of distraction? how multitasking affects student outcomes. In: A Decade in Internet Time Symposium on the Dynamics of the Internet and Society, Oxford (2011)
Kay, R.H., Lauricella, S.: Exploring the benefits and challenges of using laptop computers in higher education classrooms: a formative analysis. Can. J. Learn. Technol. 37(1), 1–18 (2011)
Kreutzer, T.: Internet and online media usage on mobile phones among low-income urban youth in cape town. In: ICA Proceedings International Communication Association Conference, pp. 1–21 (2009)
Leysens, J.L., le Roux, D.B., Parry, D.A.: Can i have your attention, please? an empirical investigation of media multitasking during University lectures. In: Proceedings South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists, paper #21, ACM (2016). https://doi.org/10.1145/2987491.2987498
Lomas, C., Oblinger, D.G.: Student practices and their impact on learning spaces. In: Learning Spaces, Educause (2006)
McCoy, B.R.: Digital distractions in the classroom: student classroom use of digital devicees for non-class-related purposes. J. Media Educ. 4(4), 5–12 (2013)
Moreno, M.A., Jelenchick, L., Koff, R., Eikoff, J., Diermyer, C., Christakis, D.A.: Internet use and multitasking among older adolescents: an experience sampling approach. Comput. Hum. Behav. 28(4), 1097–1102 (2012)
North, D., Johnston, K., Ophoff, J.: The use of mobile phones by South African university students. Issues Inf. Sci. Inf. Technol. 11, 115–138 (2014)
Parry, D.A.: The digitally-mediated study experiences of undergraduate students in South Africa. Stellenbosch University, Doctoral Dissertation (2017)
Prensky, M.: Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horiz. J. Serv. Manag. 9(3), 245–267 (2001)
Roberts, N., Rees, M.: Student use of mobile devices in University lectures. Australas. J. Educ. Technol. 30(4), 415–426 (2014)
Rosen, L.D., Carrier, L.M., Cheever, N.A.: Facebook and texting made me do it: media-induced task-switching while studying. Comput. Hum. Behav. 29(3), 948–958 (2013)
Tapscott, D.: Grown up Digital. McGraw-Hill, New York City (1998)
Thompson, P.: The digital natives as learners: technology use patterns and approaches to learning. Comput. Educ. 65, 12–33 (2013)
van der Schuur, W., Baumgartner, S.E., Sumter, S.R., Valkenburg, P.M.: The consequences of media multitasking for youth: a review. Comput. Hum. Behav. 53, 204–215 (2015)
Zimmerman, B.J.: Investigating self-regulation and motivation: historical background, methodological developments, and future prospects. Am. Educ. Res. J. 45(1), 166–183 (2008)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
le Roux, D.B., Parry, D.A. (2017). A New Generation of Students: Digital Media in Academic Contexts. In: Liebenberg, J., Gruner, S. (eds) ICT Education. SACLA 2017. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 730. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69670-6_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69670-6_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69669-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69670-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)