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Background For youth in geopolitically at-risk environments, such as Palestine, the issues related to Internet overuse and addictions are complex. Youth residing in the occupied territories of Palestine as in other highly militarized zones have high levels of environmental stressors (e.g., militarization, poverty, lack of employment opportunities, cultural pressures, etc.) and few chemical or social outlets such as alcohol, intoxicants, and leisure activities. As such, the easily accessible and unrestricted opportunities for stress-reducing social contact of social media can lead easily to excessive and maladaptive Internet use. Therefore, interventions directly aimed at awareness and education on how to manage Internet use are critical for addressing these issues in high risk populations. Aims The purpose of the current study was to test the efficacy of a time-limited group training program aimed at improving social skills and reducing addictive Internet behaviors among university students. Methods and results The sample consisted of 30 university students who self-reported high scores on an Internet addiction scale. Participants were randomly assigned to either wait list or treatment group (15 in each condition). Results demonstrated that using a social skills training program over an 8-week period improved the level of social skills and reduced addictive Internet behaviors significantly in those who experienced the intervention when compared with a wait list control group. Conclusions These findings support the implementation of time limited training programs targeting social skills and addictive patterns of Internet use with university students identified with high levels of Internet addictive behaviors.

This study examines pre-service teachers' (PST) attitudes towards, readiness to use and the nature of usage of mobile technologies. The main objective of the study is to explore the different aspects of M-devices in terms of the actual use, attitudes of use and willingness to use in learning context of PST in College of Education and Teacher Preparation (CETP) at An Najah National University (NNU) in Palestine. The results of the study could inform NNU administrators and faculty members about the possibilities of integrating M-devices in the teaching/learning process. Data was obtained from a sample of 71 PSTs enrolled in "Computers in Education" course in the second semester of 2013/2014 academic year. The results revealed that many PSTs owned one or more mobile devices. For most students, the use of mobile devices is a routine part of their own lives with limited placement in their educational environment. Data suggest that NNU administration and PSTs teachers need to consider the availability of M-devices in the hands of students and to explore these emerging technologies for teaching. The results of this study can be used to inform NNU and other institutions the capabilities and willingness of students to use mobile devices in their learning.

Electronic resources are becoming an integral part of the modern life and of the educational scene, especially the high education scene. In this research we wanted to verify what influences first degree university students' use of electronic resources and their opinions regarding this use. Collecting data from 202 students and analyzing it using SPSS, we found that more than one half of the participants had high level of electronic media use and more than one third had moderate level of electronic media use. These levels of use indicate the students' awareness of the role and benefits of electronic media use. Regarding the factors that influence the students' se of electronic resources we found that the student's use of electronic resources had significant strong positive relationships with the provision of electronic resources by the academic institution. It had significant moderate positive relationships with the resources characteristics and the course requirement, and had significant weak relationships with the instructor's support and the student's characteristics. We explained these relationships as resulting from the influence of the surrounding community. Regarding the students' opinions about the use of electronic resources, we found that the student's opinion of electronic resources has significant strong positive relationships with student's use of electronic resources, level of this use, the academic institution available facilities, student's characteristics and resources characteristics. It does not have significant relationships with the instructor's support or the course requirement. We explained these relationships depending on activity theory and its integration with ecological psychology

The purpose of the current study was to explore students' characteristics that influence student's readiness to use mobile technology at An-Najah National University in Palestine. The researchers used a quantitative approach to achieve the purpose of the study. 214 students from different schools were participated in the study. A descriptive and one-way ANOVA to test the hypotheses were used in data analysis stage. The findings of the study revealed that the availability of technology is an important factor to use mobile technology in higher education, as well as the student's capability to use mobile technology for her study. Furthermore, student's attitudes towards mobile technology integration plays crucial role in student's readiness to use it. Higher education institutions could benefit from the findings of the study through designing capacity building programs for students to encourage them to use the mobile services inside and off campus. The limitations of the study were depending only on one tool for data collection from one university which could raise doubt about generalizing the findings to another context.