Comments on: Facebook, college students, and lower grades

By: Scott McLeod

Scott McLeod — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

See these links: http://snipurl.com/fxsqc http://snipurl.com/fxsoe http://t.love.com/204108343 http://snipurl.com/fxsr8 http://snipurl.com/fxsk8 http://snipurl.com/fxsm9 http://snipurl.com/fxsn8 http://snipurl.com/fxsp5 Apparently my skepticism is shared by others. Karpinski is presenting her findings this week at AERA, the big annual educational research conference. I wonder if she was prepared for this kind of online 'peer review' that the Internet is providing her. I'll send her the link to this post and see if she'll share with us what she thinks about all of this...

By: Jeremy Brueck

Jeremy Brueck — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Thanks for the link. Interesting study. I found one statement somewhat entertaining, mildy irratating and really just plain sad. “Faculty members who allow students to use laptops in class have told her they often see students on the Facebook site during class.” Do you think college faculty will start to try and figure out how to leverage student interest in something like Facebook and use it to enhance the learning experience rather than just observe that students are on the site? Higher education in general is still so teacher-focused rather than student-centered and we’ve got to start changing that.

By: Eloise

Eloise — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

In addition, according to the report:

“Science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and business majors were more likely to use Facebook than were students majoring in the humanities and social sciences.”

Is there a difference there that has to be accounted for? Do people doing STEM/business typically have lower averages than those majoring in the humanities and social sciences?

Is there a link to age? Grad students are typically getting better grades, and are typically at least a few, possibly many, years older than undergrads. Does that higher mean age make them less likely to use FB and still keep that higher average grades effect, thus an easy and erroneous blame for FB usage on lower grades, when it’s simply the older students likely to get higher grades don’t use FB and so distort the conclusion.

She doesn’t have a FB account herself, because she thinks FB is a huge distraction: no chance of an à priori conclusion then. And nothing like a well controlled test group in evidence either!

By: Roger Whaley

Roger Whaley — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

“They found some undergrads who aren’t using Facebook?”

I think this may be the same crowd that never takes time to play. Extremely focused, never goes exploring out of their comfort zone, on task all of the time…

I probably wouldn’t do well comparing grades to that crowd either. I have had a couple of classes where I have learned a lot and not gotten the “A.” I am sure there are some people out there that would drop a class before taking a “B” as well. So is the GPA a really good indicator of learning?

By: Josh Bubar

Josh Bubar — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

To echo Roger Whaley’s comment, I say “So what?” Many colleges are realizing that grades, both in high school and college are not good indicators of future success in much of anything but more school (see Tufts University’s revamping of their admissions process). To link Facebook use to grades is nice idea (even if this is a flawed study), but how about linking Facebook use to success and/or happiness in later life?

By: Tyler Reed

Tyler Reed — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

If you look at this data with the preconceived notion that the use of Facebook is something seperate from learning, then you might assume it’s a distraction and has a negative impact on students’ academic performance.

But what if the use of social, digital tools like Facebook (skills that are becoming essential in the 21C) were part of the learning process for students in schools — then maybe the Facebook users’ GPAs would be higher.

Just hypothesizing here…

By: siobhan curious

siobhan curious — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

What struck me, when I first heard about this study on the news last night, was the classic argument that correlation does not equal causation. As you say, there could be all sorts of reasons for the results, including the reason that seems most obvious to me: students who spend a lot of time doing things other than studying do not do as well as students who spend most of their time studying. Also, students who do very well in school are often less sociable in all senses (not just in terms of online socializing) than others, because they’d rather be studying than hanging out with others, in real time or online – nerds don’t have tons of friends to eat up their time. (Believe me, I know.) I haven’t looked at the study in detail, but on the surface, it seems sensationalist and not very meaningful.

By: Alex H.

Alex H. — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Much to be skeptical about, particularly given no correlation found in much larger samples: http://crookedtimber.org/2009/04/13/zomg-facebook-use-and-student-grades/

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

As several other commentors noted, there are way too many factors in student learning to pick out one particular item as the primary cause. Plus the fact that if Facebook didn’t exist, there would be something else used by some students to divert their attention from classes. It’s always been that way, probably always will be.

However, I think a larger problem is the highly generalized headlines taken from a cursory reading of studies like this. Many people will see or hear the dozen or so words summarzing the “findings”. Some will read the whole article, fewer still will actually read and understand the details.

Guess which part becomes the “truth”.

By: teacherninja

teacherninja — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Yeah, good work with the skepticism. Too small of a sample size and blaming FB rather than other factors or a combination of factors is ridiculous. As for the comment that college professor see students on FB in class, I would say, so? If they banned laptops, that doesn’t automatically translate into in-class attention. That student staring at you could be making a grocery list in her head or thinking about the witty remarks she’ll Twitter later. You can’t control people’s attention ever second. Nancie Atwell wrote about a writing student that would doodle all during writing time, but would turn in great pieces at the end of the week. She wanted to bust him for wasting time, but couldn’t because his work was fine. Finally, after a conference with him, she realized the doodling was his brainstorming time and part of his process. You just never know.