ERIC Number: EJ1114805
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1356-2517
EISSN: N/A
Digital Downsides: Exploring University Students' Negative Engagements with Digital Technology
Selwyn, Neil
Teaching in Higher Education, v21 n8 p1006-1021 2016
Digital technologies are now an integral feature of university study. As such, academic research has tended to concentrate on the potential of digital technologies to support, extend and even "enhance" student learning. This paper, in contrast, explores the rather more messy realities of students' engagements with digital technology. In particular, it focuses on the aspects of digital technology use that students see as notably unhelpful. Drawing on a survey of 1658 undergraduate students from two Australian universities, the paper highlights four distinct types of digital "downside". These range from low-level annoyances and interruptions, to ways in which digital technologies are seen to diminish students' scholarship and study. Against this background, the paper considers how discussions of digital technology might better balance enthusiasms for what we know might be achieved through technology-enabled learning, with the often unsatisfactory realities of students' encounters with digital technology.
Descriptors: Educational Technology, Technology Uses in Education, Undergraduate Students, Student Surveys, Foreign Countries, Barriers, Student Characteristics, Teaching Methods
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A