Information-Seeking Behavior Study

Children are more likely to look for answers to their questions online than to ask their parents, according to a survey of 15,226 people in 10 countries by Lenovo. Many parents also said they look online to help their children with homework assignments, most often in math. Globally, three-quarters of parents said their children would turn to the internet first. That was highest in India (89 percent) and China (85 percent) and lowest in Germany (54 percent).
https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/parents-no-longer-needed-for-homework-modern-generations-empowered-by-smart-devices/

Online Learning and Librarians

Online learning, already an essential component of the higher-education and professional landscape, has now developed a more ubiquitous presence in K–12 learning due to educational trends such as flipped education and use of tools such as Google Classroom. Despite the increasingly important role of online learning in K–12 education, little evidence indicates that graduates of school library preparation programs enter the profession with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required to design and deliver online learning experiences for K–12 students, experiences that take advantage of available resources and platforms. A mixed-method national survey of programs in the United States was conducted to examine the ways that school library preparation programs prepare candidates to design digital learning spaces that include fully online courses for K–12 students. Results indicate that preparation of future school librarians for the design and delivery of online instruction to K–12 students are not yet seen as an integral component of these graduate programs.

Green, L. S., Jones, S. A., & Burke, P. A. (2017). School librarians fully online: Preparing the twenty-first century professional. School Library Research, 20(2165-1019). http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslpubsandjournals/slr/vol20/SLR_SchoolLibFullyOnline_V20.pdf

Examining Online Trolls

A research project coming out of Cornell University and Stanford University found that online trolls are made, not born. Oftentimes, their origins come from how a person is feeling at the moment and whether others are displaying troll-like behavior too, the researchers found. Trolls, according to this report, are people who post disruptive messages in Internet discussions intended to upset others. While previous research has suggested that trolling behaviors are "confined to a vocal and antisocial minority," or sociopaths, the reserach has concluded that "ordinary people can engage in such behavior as well."

Cheng, J., Bernstein, M., Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, C., & Leskovec, J. (2017). Anyone can become a troll: Causes of trolling behavior in online discussions. Portland, OR: CSCW.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2998181.2998213

Gender Differences in Online Dating Abuse

Teen boys and girls experienced similar frequencies of digital dating abuse, but girls had increased odds of experiencing digital sexual coercion and expressing negative emotional responses, according to a study in the Journal of Adolescence. The study revealed that girls experienced more frequent digital sexual coercion and victimization, and that they were more upset by the communication and expressed more negative emotional responses to it. Both girls and boys, however, also reported they respond to direct aggression by blocking communication.

Reed, L. A., Tolman, R. M., & Ward, M. (2017). Gender matters: Experiences and consequences of digital dating abuse victimization in adolescent dating relationships.

Journal of Adolescence, 59, 79-89. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2017.05.015