BibTeX:

@article{IJIRSTV2I9022,
     title={Students' Positions Regarding Academic Use of Smart Devices},
     author={Dan Bouhnik and Alona Yom-Tov},
     journal={International Journal for Innovative Research in Science & Technology},
     volume={2},
     number={9},
     pages={71--77},
     year={},
     url={http://www.ijirst.org/articles/IJIRSTV2I9022.pdf},
     publisher={IJIRST (International Journal for Innovative Research in Science & Technology)},
}

In the era of the information age students grow in a digital environment. Information technologies are entwined in their daily life, never separating. Smart devices such as smartphones, tablets, e-readers and palm computers are devices used by students worldwide for academic purposes. These smart devices have proven their efficiency as instructional tools in the world wide academic environment by enriching and intensifying the learning experience and significantly improving students' achievements around the world. The present study has two objectives: the first objective is to explore the way students cope when encountering difficulty whilst using a smart device for academic purposes, and to explore their attitudes towards academic use of these devices. The second objective of this research is to identify the connections between the factors that affect the scope of academic use of smart devices. The study was conducted in Israel using the quantitative method; data was collected via survey questionnaires and statistical analyses. The population of subjects included 146 bachelor and master students from two academic institutions. The results indicate that the student's way of coping was characterized more in a way of problem solving, rather than emotionally. Also it was found that the students' attitudes towards academic use of smart devices are gender related, with the female students possessing slightly more positive attitudes than the males. The first research hypothesis claimed that those who tend to cope with the problems less emotionally and turned toward problem solving would have more favourable attitudes towards the smart devices and would make more use of them for academic purposes. This hypothesis was not confirmed, rather the findings show just the opposite – those students who handled the problems on a more emotional level tended to show more positive attitudes than those who coped by problem solving. The second research hypothesis stated that the more positive the positions of the students, the greater their preference towards a specific device and the greater the academic use of the device. This hypothesis was confirmed.

Attitudes; Way of coping; Smart device preference; Scope of academic use