| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 教育研究所 === 100 === The rapid development of computer technology and the Internet allows learners to search for the needed information and to learn online without limitations of time and space. Recently, the social networking website Facebook has gained popularity among students. Facebook connects with many websites and allows users to easily import or re-post messages from other websites to Facebook. Although this feature provides users with means to easily share information with friends, it nevertheless exposes users to many false messages and results in misunderstandings. Therefore, it becomes important to foster students’ abilities of information verification and critical thinking so they can correctly and objectively evaluate information and synthesize various messages into useful information.
The study purposes are: (1) to investigate current college students’ Facebook use and information-verification behavior, (2) to understand how college students’ critical-thinking ability and their Facebook-use characteristics (including awareness, immediacy, accessibility, and interactivity) influence their information-verification behavior (including objectivity, authority, covering, and currency), and (3) to compare male college students’ Facebook-use characteristics and information-verification behavior with their female counterparts’, and (4) to compare the differences of Facebook-use characteristics and information-verification behavior between undergraduate students and graduate students.
Questionnaires were distributed online, and 439 college students provided valid responses. The major findings were as follows:
1.The college students used the Facebook frequently, and 41.7 percent of the students would verify information on Facebook.
2.Students of different genders showed significant differences in the objectivity dimensions of information-verification behavior.
3.Undergraduate students and graduate students showed significant differences in the authority dimension of information-verification behavior.
4.College students’ Facebook-use characteristics, critical-thinking ability, and information-verification behavior were significantly correlated.
5.College students’ critical-thinking ability was a mediator between Facebook-use characteristics and information-verification behavior.
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