Impacts of Use of Internet for Higher Education: A social psychological review

This atiicle evaluates use of computer communication technologies in promoting university education from social psychological point of view. The a1iicle is based on three series of studies: observation of class discussions via the internet (discussion groups), a comparison between the most active and the active discussion groups using computer communications, and a survey asking student's motivations and attitudes about use of internet. Results show that there · are complicated social-psychological- organizational interaction processes when computer technologies are used for education. According to the findings, among 2512 courses offered at Carleton University, only 574 courses (22%) were using the internet system to participate in discussion groups and to exchange information about the material taught in the class. From these 574 classes, only 164 classes (6.5%) had used the internet discussion groups at least 10 times during a term. The results of survey also indicate that lack of interest in using computer communication technologies is due to social psychological reasons. The most impotiant reasons were lack of enough time and then lack of motivation and interest. The results indicate that effective use of computer communication for education needs more social - psychological - organizational preparation than the availability of computer technologies.