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The purpose of this study is to investigate the internet use of Turkish adolescents, with a (particular) focus on the risk of Internet addiction. A web-based questionnaire was completed by a total of 4,311 adolescents attending public high schools in grades 9-12, in a small-sized city in western Turkey. Ages ranged from 15 to 19 years, 54 percent were female and 46 percent male. The questionnaire included items on sociodemographic information, Internet usage, and a Turkish version of the Young's Internet Addiction Test. The data were analyzed in SPPS 15.0 program using the t test, the Mann-Whitney U test, correlation and hierarchic regression analysis. The findings show that, regardless of gender, Facebook ranked highest in the classification of students' purpose of Internet use; it was also found that females mainly used the Internet for communication, whereas males were more interested in playing online games and reading newspapers and magazines. The results of hierarchic regression analysis indicated that the significant predictors of the internet addiction were the presence of Internet access at home, gender, and family income levels.

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This study examined the effects of technology-based scaffolds that were composed through the use of the seven-stage, problem-based learning strategy on knowledge construction in a problem-based online asynchronous discussion. In a quasiexperimental setting, 60 students in an undergraduate Instructional Technology and Material Design course were assigned to one of three groups. In one group, students posted messages using a prescribed set of message categories. Using the same message categories, another group completed their messages using suggested sentence openers. A control group received none of the above mentioned scaffolds. Using a multi-method approach (content analysis, measurement of learning performance), the research results showed that technology-based scaffolding in a problem-based online asynchronous discussion improves students' task orientation and leads to more task-related learning activity. Furthermore, using both message labels and sentence openers, which were composed through the use of the seven-stage problem-based learning process theoretical framework, offers an effective strategy for encouraging more elaboration and higher cognitive discourse.

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