This document summarizes a study on the concepts and habits of internet use among students and teachers in Austria. The study involved interviews with 117 students and 47 teachers from 10 Austrian schools. The analysis revealed several interesting findings: students trust information from crowds more than teachers, students learn information quality is not important since teachers don't grade it, online networks can both support and inhibit classmates in their work, and internet use can both save and waste time for students by distracting them with other online activities. The document discusses how students and teachers have different views of the internet and how the findings could help provide guidelines for integrating the internet into Austrian classrooms.

1. Abstract submitted for and presented at GOR09 - General Online Research
4 December, 2008
Concepts and Habits of Internet Use among Students and Teachers in Austria
Maireder, Axel and Nagl, Manuel
Department of Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Vienna, Austria
Introduction and research questions
Since there is currently no available data for Austria on students` habits of Internet use, an
exploratory research project funded by the Austrian Ministry of Education was initiated. The
project systematically asked for the terms, forms and consequences of Internet use in schools
and the impact of the school on Internet practices of teens.
Methods
In spring 2008, three dozens of group interviews with a total of 117 students aged from 13 to
17 years and 47 teachers were conducted in 10 Austrian schools of different type and location.
Our data was analyzed and interpreted within a methodological framework based on strategies
provided by Grounded Theory.
Results
The qualitative analysis of our data revealed interesting phenomena:
- While teachers have lots of trust in information originating from institutional contexts,
students put a lot of trust in the ‚Wisdom of the Crowds’.
- Because teachers hardly ever grade the quality of information in tasks involving
Internet research, students ‚learn’ that information quality is not important.
Consequently, they put much less effort into searching for information than the
appearance of their work.
- Regularly used, Internet-based communication networks can act both as support and
suppression networks by activating or inhibiting classmates in finishing educational
tasks.
- Using Internet has both time-saving and time-killing effects: Students basically need
less time to do their homework in terms of net time, but at the same time feel higher
cognitive workload due to the expanded gross time they worked on the tasks as a
result of distraction through social communication or other task-unrelated activities in
the Internet causing stress-related or fatigue symptoms.
Discussion
Students and teachers have very different concepts on the mechanisms, principles and
potential of the Internet resulting in different strategies of Internet use. Our findings show
some of the advantages and disadvantages of Internet use in schools. By revealing some
of the strategies and habits of learning and teaching we hope to contribute in providing
future guidelines for a student and teacher-friendly implementation of Internet-based
learning and teaching paradigms in Austria.
Keywords: Education, Internet use, Grounded theory, Media literacy