WiFi at University: A Better Balance between Education Activity and Distraction Activity Needed.
Summary: Ubiquitous access to the internet is provided to students via WiFi to enhance their learning experience. Internet use is central to education, however when overused for distraction it can be problematic and negatively affect students’ academic performance and well-being.
A spatial-temporal analysis of actual behaviour on a University WiFi examines whether WiFi use enhances users’ experience of education. This study is an analysis of internet activities on WiFi, using data on more than two and a half million user sessions over an academic year. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed to identify the most important dimensions of the users’ behavior. Distraction activity dominated. Over the year and relative to use for education, users were ten times more active in search, four times more active in social media and three times more active in shopping. The level of distraction activity may be problematic and negatively affect student wellbeing and academic performance. Increased education activity was linked to reduced social media activity. Over 75% of all user behaviour on the University WiFi was hosted by Google, Facebook and Amazon, enabling an extraordinary influence on a University population.
The research findings suggest that University WiFi is predominantly used for distraction activities and consequently expected educational benefits may be negatively impacted. Overuse of the internet for distraction is a potential harm. Universities should consider practical options to reduce internet distraction, such as education programs to develop awareness of the risks of Problematic Internet Use (PIU) and/or filtering, blocking or time limiting use of distraction-related websites on a University WiFi.
