Three technologies were evaluated in an introductory psychology class: Facebook for posting real-world examples of concepts, polling on difficulties with concepts, and online videos/tutorials including student-made animations. Student use of the technologies was observed, section grades were compared, and an end-of-term survey asked about technology use. Preliminary findings found students engaged actively with the technologies but grades were similar across sections. However, surveys indicated students enjoyed using technology and felt it made learning concepts more intuitive.

1. Abstract
In today’s world of ubiquitous technology, it is vital for postsecondary education to
evolve (Britton, Woodward, & Binkley, 1993). Previous generations of students were
taught with textbooks, papers, and simple lectures, but today technology is being
incorporated into the classroom in significant ways (Pickett & Walden, 2010; Dunn,
Wilson, & Freeman, 2011). Research has shown that it is important to reach out to
students with technology that they are familiar with from their everyday life, such as the
Internet (Odaci, 2011), Facebook, and YouTube (Hew, 2011). The purpose of this project
therefore, was to evaluate the effectiveness of incorporating “everyday” technology in an
“Introduction to Psychology” classroom.
Three different technological resources were used to teach introductory psychology
students at the University of Michigan during this study. The first resource was the social
networking site: Facebook. Each week, students were required to post a real-life example
of a psychological concept they learned from the assigned readings in a designated,
private Facebook group. Students were given great leeway in the example they cited, e.g.,
YouTube videos, pictures, comics, newspaper/magazine articles, etc. However, we
required that the message accompanying the post clearly demonstrated an understanding
of the selected concept and its connection to the real-life example. Students were
encouraged to read and comment on each other’s posts.
The second source of technology in our classroom was a polling feature on the sections’
shared Ctools site, a web-based platform for student-teacher collaboration (similar to
Blackboard™). Each week, students were required to indicate which concept from the
assigned readings they found to be “the most difficult.” The concept or concepts that
were most cited as difficult were given special review at the beginning of class in the
following discussion section.
The final aspect of technology used in our classroom was the incorporation of online
videos and tutorials. We primarily used publically available materials, e.g. videos on
YouTube. However, we also incorporated a series of videos created by fellow
undergraduate students utilizing Pivot Stickfigure Animator™. These brief, 2-minute
videos were simple clips that demonstrated the chosen psychological concepts in three
parts. The students were taught Frustration-Aggression Theory and Learned Helplessness
using these videos.
We evaluated the effectiveness of these resources in three ways. First, we observed and
documented student use of the technology. Second, we compared the grades of students
in our two ‘technology’ sections with the grades of the students in the other fourteen
discussion sections. Finally, we created an end-of-term feedback survey to ask the
students to indicate what they thought of the discussion section and how well they
thought they learned from the different technological sources.
Preliminary findings for the effectiveness of our methods indicate that students took
advantage of our technology, often going above and beyond the requirements of the
assignments. However, grade differences between sections were not significant. That
said, survey results indicated that students enjoyed the use of technology in their studies
and felt it made the acquirement of knowledge more comfortable and intuitive.

2. References
Britton, B. K., Woodward, A., & Binkly, M. (1993). Learning from textbooks: Theory
and practice. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
Dunn, D., Wilson, J., Freeman, J., & Stowell, J. (2011). Approach or avoidance?
Understanding technology's place in teaching and learning. In D. Dunn, J. Wilson,
J. Freeman, & J. Stowell (Eds.), Best practices for technology-enhanced teaching
and learning: Connecting to psychology and the social sciences (17-34). New
York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Hew, K. (2011). Students’ and teachers’ use of Facebook. Computers in Human
Behavior, 27(2), 662-676. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.11.020
Odaci, H. (2011). Academic self-efficacy and academic procrastination as predictors of
problematic internet use in university students. Computers & Education, 57(1),
1109-1113. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2011.01.005
Pickett, J. A. (2010). Linking the digital divide: Assessing teacher comfort levels to
increase uses of technology in the classroom. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved
from PsycInfo. (AAI3379837)