[Air-L] New ECAR student survey released - focus on SNSs

[Nicole Ellison]

Hi,
There was some interest from the list when I mentioned the 2008 ECAR  
report a few weeks ago. This year's report focuses on social network  
sites and was just officially released:

http://tinyurl.com/6dztlm

Here's the abstract:
This 2008 ECAR research study is a longitudinal extension of the 2004,  
2005, 2006, and 2007 ECAR studies of students and information  
technology. The study is based on quantitative data from a spring 2008  
survey of 27,317 freshmen and seniors at 90 four-year institutions and  
eight two-year institutions; student focus groups that included input  
from 75 students at four institutions; and analysis of qualitative  
data from 5,877 written responses to open-ended questions. In addition  
to studying student ownership, experience, behaviors, preferences, and  
skills with respect to information technologies, the 2008 study also  
includes a special focus on student participation in social networking  
sites.

I wrote the introduction, which discusses educational uses of SNSs  
among other topics.

Thanks, N.

  * * *
Nicole Ellison, PhD
nellison at msu.edu