University Students and Technologies

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses data on the use of technology in general and of Web 2.0 platforms and services in particular by students at the University of Milano-Bicocca. The data was obtained from a survey on media consumption habits and usage of new web technologies conducted by the university's Observatory on New Media, NuMediaBiOs. Research of this kind provides a valuable basis for the development, adaptation and improvement of existing services and offerings involving new technologies in educational contexts, given that for new technologies to be successfully integrated it is critical to have access to detailed information about how they are currently deployed by users (in this case, undergraduate students on basic degree programmes). Such analyses have implications for a range of contexts, not least for the public educational institution in which they are carried out, namely the university.

Italian Undergraduates Join Facebook, but Keep a Critical Distance

“…All students have broadband Internet access in university spaces, and all faculties services and communications are furnished online. Advanced uses of social web applications, such as blogs and wikis, are not very common (Cavalli et al, 2010;Ferri et al, 2009). Our study's participants mainly go online to accomplish three kind of activities: checking university matters, communicating with friends and consuming audiovisual material.…”

“…What was more interesting in our data, and what is more surprising, is the fact that such a big and fast increment of popularity applies only to Facebook and cannot therefore be interpreted as an overall explosion of the 'social web'. In fact, other 2.0 services and websites that were largely ignored in 2008, remain still unknown in 2009 and 2010 (Cavalli et al, 2010).…”

“…This article is mainly concerned with evidence coming from the qualitative research, while survey data are used to set the general background. More extensive accounts of the quantitative survey have already been presented elsewhere (Cavalli et al, 2010;Ferri et al, 2009). Section 3 provides a discussion of our results, and guidelines for future research.…”