A Model of Technology Incidental Learning Effects

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A Model of Technology Incidental Learning Effects Jeffrey A. Greene 1

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& Dana Z. Copeland & Victor M. Deekens

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Accepted: 14 September 2020/ # This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply 2020

Abstract

Increases in technology use, among youth and adults, are concerning given the volume of information produced and disseminated in the modern world. Conceptual models have been developed to understand how people manage the large volume of information encountered during intentional learning activities with technology. What, if anything, do people learn when they happen upon news and other information while using technology for purposes other than learning? Questions like this highlight the need to understand incidental learning, i.e., learning that occurs when people, who are pursuing a goal other than learning such as entertainment, encounter information that leads to a change in thinking or behavior. In this article, we integrate theory and research from multiple scholarly literatures into the Technology Incidental Learning Effects (TILE) model, which provides a framework for future research on how incidental learning occurs and what factors affect this process. Current research on incidental learning can be informed by educational psychology scholarship on dual-processing, motivation, interest, source evaluation, and knowledge reconstruction. The TILE model points to many promising future directions for research with direct implications for modern society, including the need to better understand how and why people move from merely noticing to engaging with incidentally exposed information as well as how to help people successfully manage the large amounts of information they encounter when using technology for purposes other than learning. Keywords Incidental learning . Technology . Dual-processing . Knowledge

* Jeffrey A. Greene [email protected] Dana Z. Copeland [email protected] Victor M. Deekens [email protected]

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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 309D Peabody Hall, CB#3500, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA

Educational Psychology Review

While waiting in line at the grocery store, you open your Twitter app and begin scrolling through your feed. The posts slide by as you glance at titles, looking for something entertaining. You notice one headline proclaiming a political figure is a member of a secret organized crime syndicate. You quickly dismiss the headline and scroll on to other posts. Why did you notice the headline, and how did you decide to dismiss it? Further, what, if anything, did you learn from that headline? In the modern world, more and more people are getting their news and other forms of information via technology, particularly online sources (Fedeli and Matsa 2018; Pew Research Center 2017; Reuters 2016), with evidence that this trend is even more pronounced for younger people (Masip et al. 2018). Such trends in information consumption are concerning given the sheer volume of information fou