Habbo hotel - Academic studies in mixed feelings

Abstract

"The first time was not so painful they claim!" This is an example of comments expressed by university students who were compelled to use Habbo Hotel in their studies. In this article we analyse the usefulness of an internet game called Habbo Hotel as a collaborative platform when the students carry out their studies on digital media. Today, digital media has evolved to concern several dimensions of everyday life. We want to understand how digital media bends to act as social media in teaching and learning. Social media is characterised by participation, openness, conversation, community and connectedness. These concepts built the core also in our lessons where human-computer interaction was emphasised. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.