Presented at Ed Media 2014, Tampere, Finland. June 23-26.

1. Gender Differences and Middle School
Students’ Views of Smartphone and Social
Media for Learning, Social Connection, and
Entertainment
Jenny S. Wakefield and Leila A. Mills
The University of North Texas - Department of Learning Technologies
Anna H. Wakefield
Jasper High School
EdMedia, Tampere, Finland, June 23 – 27, 2014

2. Background
´ Educators increasingly use social media in the
classroom
´ Social tools are popular among students of all ages
´ Studies focus on the use of social media for formal and
informal learning as well as general use and time
spent on social media. For example:
´ Dunlap & Lowenthal, 2009
´ Mazman & Usluel, 2010
´ Mills, Knezek, & Khaddage, 2014
´ Few studies have looked at the entertainment and
socialization aspect among Middle School students.

3. Objective
The study began as an IRB approved Science Fair study.
The following research questions apply:
1. For what purpose do middle school students use social
media?
2. For what purposes and how do students use their
smartphones
a) learning
b) socializing
c) play/entertainment

4. Hypothesis
It was hypothesized that girls would enjoy social media
more than boys and that both boys and girls would use
smartphones more for play/entertainment than for actual
learning.
1. For what purpose do middle school students use social
media?
2. For what purposes and how do students use their
smartphones?
a) learning
b) socializing
c) play/entertainment

5. Theoretical Framework
Learning and Teaching as Communicative Actions LTCA
is a framework that has been used for both study of social
media and mobile learning.
´ Warren & Wakefield, 2012
´ Warren & Wakefield, 2013
The framework builds on Habermas’ theory (1984) of
communicative actions. At the core of human learning
and knowledge sharing are communicative acts towards
shared understanding. These acts are normative,
strategic, constative, dramaturgical, as well as affective
communicative actions.

6. Method
Participants, Data Collection, and Analysis

7. Method
´ Middle school in the southwest United States
´ 36 students, ages 12-14 years
´ 11 male / 25 female
´ Participants & Setting

8. Method
´ IRB approval
´ Students volunteered to participate
´ Parent signed consent forms
´ Survey research
´ Survey Monkey or
´ Paper version
´ Data Collected :
´ Demographic information
´ Likert Type: 31 items in two main scales:
´ Social Media Scale - 13 items – adapted from Alsobrook, Knezek,
& Wakefield 2012 (Knezek, Mills, & Wakefield, 2012)
´ Smartphone Scale – 18 items - adapted from Flanagin and
Metzger (2001
´ Data Collection

9. Method
´ Initial analysis in Survey Monkey
´ In-depth analysis in SPSS
´ Independent variable: Gender
´ Principal Component Analysis (PCA ) indicated seven scales:
3 for social media (SMS) and 4 for Smartphone (SPS)
1. Benefits of SM
2. Learning with SM
3. Communicating with SM
4. Social Connection SPS
5. Learning and information seeking SPS
6. Entertainment SPS
7. Communication SPS
´ Analysis

10. Method - Scales
DeVellis (1991)

11. Results
´ Group mean differences were examined by
calculation of Cohen’s d effect size due to small
sample size
´ Group means by survey items are of interest as large differences
in means are visible for boys and girls:
Cohen (1988)

12. Results
´ Two Smartphone items were found to have a very
large effect size by gender:
´ Girls the idea of using Smartphone for Learning, ES=1.02
´ Girls very attached to my Smartphone, ES=1.01
´ Girls entertaining with Smartphone, ES=.61
´ Girls feeling less lonely when using Smartphone, ES=.67
´ Girl faster response from friends, ES=.60
´ Boys lower perception than girls of entertainment value
of Smartphone, ES=.51
´ Girls to be part of a group, ES=.46
´ Girls to pass time when bored, ES=.45

13. Limitations
´ This study has several limitations
´ Small sample size
´ Female respondents outnumbered male respondents
´ One location only
´ Study looked at Smartphone use only. Additional findings
regarding social media use were not included due to the
paper’s space limits

14. Future work
´ A larger study is underway. This includes
´ Middle school data will be compare to
´ Undergraduate students
´ Graduate students
´ The study will explore possible differences in the use of
´ Social media
´ Smartphone
´ Challenges and benefits of rapid responses for student
learning environments, regardless of gender

15. Contribution
This pilot study contributed to our understanding of
communication technology use among young leaners
and the findings inform instructional designers and
educators on how these tools are perceived based on
gender.
This research informs of how smartphones are used within
informal and formal educational environments and
provides a stepping stone towards how we may leverage
the academic potential of smartphones.

16. References:
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence
Earlbaum Associates.
DeVellis, R.F. (1991). Scale development. Newbury Park, NJ: Sage Publications.
Dunlap, J.C., & Lowenthal, P.R. (2009). Tweeting the night away: Using Twitter to enhance social
presence. Journal of Information Systems Education, 20(2), 129-135.
Flanagin, A.J., & Metzger, M.J. (2001). Internet use in the contemporary media environment. Human
Communication Research, 27(1), 153-181.
Habermas, J. (1984). The theory of communicative action. Volume 1. Reason and the
rationalization of society. (Translated by T. McCarthy). Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Knezek, G., Mills, L.A., & Wakefield, J.S. (2012, November). Measuring student attitudes toward
learning with social media: Validation of the social media learning scale. In Proceedings of the
annual convention of the Association of Educational Communications and Technology, (pp.
127-134). AECT, Louisville, Kentucky.
Mazman, S.G., & Usluel, Y.K. (2010). Modeling educational usage of Facebook. Computers &
Education 55(2), 444-453. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2010.02.008.
Mills, L.A., Knezek, G., & Khaddage, F. (2014). Information Seeking, Information Sharing, and going
mobile: Three bridges to informal learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 32(324-334).
Warren, S.J., & Wakefield, J.S. (2013). Learning and teaching as communicative actions: A theory
for mobile learning. In Z. Berge, & L. Muilenburg (Eds.). The mobile learning handbook. (pp. 70-81)
Routledge: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Warren, S. J., & Wakefield, J.S. (2012). Learning and teaching as communicative actions: Social
media as educational tool. In K. Seo. (Ed.). Using social media effectively in the classroom. New
York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

17. Jenny S. Wakefield and Leila A. Mills
The University of North Texas
Department of Learning Technologies
Anna H. Wakefield
Jasper High School