Millennial engineers: Digital media and information ecology of engineering students

Media significantly shape how and what we learn. To date there is limited understanding of digital media and information use by engineering students. We comprehensively review existing literature and present findings from a research study investigating digital media and information use of 'millennial' engineers who purportedly possess distinctive experience, habits, and perceptions about technology. We administered a multiple-item survey to a cohort of first year engineering students who entered a large public university in the United States in August 2009. Self-reported information on the frequency of media device usage, participation in social networking, academic activities and information seeking tendencies, was received from 204 participants. Similar to other youth, millennial engineers use technology extensively and are frequent users of both commonly used digital devices as well as applications. Students' device ownership was marked by a relatively low use of desktop computers and significant use of mobile devices. Students reported using the Internet extensively for both entertainment and school related work. Facebook™ use was common but Twitter™ use was limited. Multitasking was common and its self-reported effectiveness varied across participants. Gender differences were found across several items. Implications for teaching and learning are discussed.