Exploring multidimensional conceptualization of online learned capabilities

Abstract

Internet has changed the way of learning, it has become an important part of the adolescents’ life, online social networking has become particularly popular with adolescents, yet it is relatively unclear what capabilities the teenagers have learned and developed from the social media. While the most teenagers have their digital life, many parents of the teens have a range of concerns about what do their children do on the Internet. For many parents and teachers, they are anxious about their children’s spending much time on the Internet might be risky, wasting time, having effects on their real life and academic performance. Therefore this study tries to close the gap to understand what the teenagers learn from their online activities. The purpose of this study is to propose a multidimensional conceptualization of “Online learned capabilities”, and exploring the relationships between positive/negative emotions of teenagers and their online learned capabilities. Based on the empirical study, a field survey was conducted to senior high schools in Taiwan. The paper-and-pencil version questionnaire was distributed to students through teachers after class. A totally 383 valid surveys were collected. The statistical analyses helped validated the proposed second-order “online learned capabilities” and would strengthen explanations of teenagers’ multi-dimensional learned from the cyber society.