The effects of wireless computing in collaborative learning environments

Eighty-four students distributed between two different courses at a major r esearch university (one a communication course, the other a computer scienc e course) were given laptop computers with wireless network access during t he course of a semester. A wide variety of data (from questionnaires, e-mai l logs, proxy server logs, and diaries) regarding students' use of the lapt ops 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 wer e investigated in relation to the prevalence and nature of social computing (e.g., e-mail, instant messaging, chat, discussion boards, online annotati ons) in students' laptop usage. The relative prevalence of social computing increased and became more exclusive for students in the communication cour se, especially on the wireless network. Social computing and use of the wir eless network were less prominent and influential for students in the compu ter science course.