127
The New Media Use of Gifted Students and Its Impact on Academic Achievement
JOURNAL OF YOUTH RESEARCHES
Opinions and evaluations about how the new media influences learning and contributes
to the level of achievement also indicate the central role of the internet and the new media
in learning environment primarily of gifted students.
Interviewee 2, who said that the projects made in previous years for TUBITAK projects
should be watched and in this process she is doing research on Internet search engines,
related sites and new media platforms, believes that the new media contributes to the
learning process in terms of learning by watching and comparing. Interviewee 2 explains
the effect of the new media on the level of achievement ‘I think it actually benefits a lot to
improve my performance.’ Interviewee 7 states that she has opportunities to repeat and
reinforce what she has learned in class with the help of videos on Youtube.
Interviewees, except interviewee 3 who often point out that the Internet and the new me-
dia are useful in the project and homework preparation process but often leading to loss
of time and therefore to take apart from social networks in particular, are generally inte-
rested in the new media in terms of easy and quick access to information, performance
improvement, reinforcing and providing learning outside the classroom.
Conclusion and Recommendations
This study examines the use of new media by gifted students and its effect on learning
process. The result is that gifted students use the new media efficiently in terms of aca-
demic achievement.
Initially, all of İzmit BİLSEM students who can be claimed to be users of new media plat-
form and tools have been interviewed within the scope of the study can be said to be
all users of new media platform and tools. It has been concluded that interviewees have
access to social networking and video sharing sites via computers, tablets and smartp-
hones. They have used Whatsapp intensively and are interested in digital games.
One of the most striking results in the study is that gifted students have a pragmatic
perspective towards the new media platform and tools. The inclusion of Youtube lecture
videos, the Google search engine and Wikipedia’s main reference resources, by students
who use them for projects, assignments and researches, reveals that these students have
the potential to make a difference in the use of new media comparing to ordinary users
and their peers.
When the use of new media by gifted students is assessed in terms of its impact on
academic achievement, the findings have emerged: Interviewees use the new media to
have access to information easily and quickly, to provide performance improvement, to
accelerate the learning process, to reinforce learning and to provide learning outside the
classroom. This makes new media a part of learning environment and reveals the central
and effective role in gifted students’ learning life.
