[publication] The Facebook Generation Boon or Bane for E-Learning at Universities?

Our publication on “The Facebook Generation Boon or Bane for E-Learning at Universities?” at this year ED-Media Conference in Lisbon is now online available. The slides have been already published here.
Abstract:

No other social community has been that booming ever than Facebook. A query among freshmen at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) displays this strongly ongoing trend too. Compared to the freshmen-studies of the last three years we can demonstrate the way Facebook already influences the communication behavior of today ́s students. Does the use of Facebook lead to a more competent understanding and intensive practice of Web2.0 applications in general? Does Facebook pave the way for Web2.0 or absorbs it by implementing and enabling Web2.0 functionalities on the platform? And what does this mean for teaching and learning aspects so far? Using a couple of statistical analysis methods for complex investigations (hierarchical cluster analysis, the principle component analysis and the varimax rotation) we tried to answer these questions and found out that the usage of Facebook already leaves it ́s marks on the communicational behavior of students. An influence on the usage of other Web2.0 applications cannot be stated with significance so far but it seems that Facebook has a repressive factor rather than a promotive one; it serves as a substitute for them.

Reference: Ebner, M., Nagler, W., Schön, M. (2011). The Facebook Generation – Boon or Bane for E- Learning at Universities?. In Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2011 (pp. 3549-3557). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.