The effects of wireless computing in collaborative learning environments

Eighty-four students distributed between two different courses at a major research university (one a communication course, the other a computer science course) were given laptop computers with wireless network access during the course of a semester. A wide variety of data (from questionnaires, e-mail logs, proxy server logs, and diaries) regarding students' use of the laptops for electronic communication, Web browsing, and local application use (e.g., word processing) was collected and analyzed. The influences of course, network (wireless-wired), student population, and the passage of time were investigated in relation to the prevalence and nature of social computing (e.g., e-mail, instant messaging, chat, discussion boards, online annotations) in students' laptop usage. The relative prevalence of social computing increased and became more exclusive for students in the communication course, especially on the wireless network. Social computing and use of the wireless network were less prominent and influential for students in the computer science course.