The Role of Digital Technologies in Learning: Expectations of First Year University Students / Le rôle des technologies numériques dans l’apprentissage : les attentes des étudiants de première année universitaire (original) (raw)
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Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 2012
A growing literature suggests that there is a disjuncture between the instructional practices of the education system and the student body it is expected to serve, particularly with respect to the roles of digital technologies. Based on surveys and focus group interviews of first-year students at a primarily undergraduate Canadian university and focus group interviews of professors at the same institution, this study explores the gaps and intersections between students’ uses and expectations for digital technologies while learning inside the classroom and socializing outside the classroom, and the instructional uses, expectations and concerns of their professors. It concludes with recommendations for uses of digital technologies that go beyond information transmission, the need for extended pedagogical discussions to harness the learning potentials of digital technologies, and for pedagogies that embrace the social construction of knowledge as well as individual acquisition.
International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 2016
In fall 2014 we surveyed 311 students who had been enrolled at least one semester in two Canadian junior/community colleges. We inquired about their views, experiences, and recommendations about ICTs used in their college by their instructors in face-to-face classes in various programs of study. Results show that students consistently preferred that their instructors use ICTs in their teaching, including lectures as well as individual and group work in class. Students in all programs liked most forms of commonly used ICTs used by faculty in their teaching (e.g., PowerPoint, videos, CMS features). However, they disliked digital textbooks, online courses, collaborative work online, discussion forums, blogs, chat rooms, instant messaging, and all forms of communication using social networking when used by faculty (e.g., Facebook). Students' views about what ICT-related experiences worked especially well and poorly for them are presented, along with their recommendations about what colleges and instructors need to change.
Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 2016
Faculty frequently express concerns about students' personal use of information and communication technologies in today's university classrooms. As a requirement of a graduate research methodology course in a university in Ontario, Canada, the authors conducted qualitative research to gain an in-depth understanding of students' perceptions of this issue. Their findings reveal students' complex considerations about the acceptability of technology use. Their analysis of the broader contexts of students' use reveals that despite a technological revolution, university teaching practices have remained largely the same, resulting in 'cultural lag' within the classroom. While faculty are technically 'in charge', students wield power through course evaluations, surveillance technologies and Internet postings. Neoliberalism and the corporatisation of the university have engendered an 'entrepreneurial student' customer who sees education as a means to a career. Understanding students' perceptions and their technological, social and political contexts offers insights into the tensions within today's classrooms.
Expectations and Reality: Exploring the use of learning technologies across the disciplines
2008
Abstract This paper describes a study of the use of learning technologies by first-year students from a variety of different entry routes and across a variety of subject areas at the University of Edinburgh. The focus is on “critical moments”; more specifically, the involvement and impact of both institutional and personal IT-related technologies on learners' transition to university and how their use of learning technology changes as they progress through their first year.
Are digital natives a myth or reality?: Students' use of technologies for learning
retrieved on line: http://www. academy. gcal. …, 2009
This paper outlines the findings of a study investigating the extent and nature of use of digital technologies by undergraduate students in Social Work and Engineering, in two British universities. The study involved a questionnaire survey of students (n=160) followed by in-depth interviews with students (n=8) and lecturers and support staff (n=8) in both institutions. Firstly, the findings suggest that students use a limited range of technologies for both learning and socialisation. For learning, mainly established ICTs are used-institutional VLE, Google and Wikipedia and mobile phones. Students make limited, recreational use of social technologies such as media sharing tools and social networking sites. Secondly, the findings point to a low level of use of and familiarity with collaborative knowledge creation tools, virtual worlds, personal web publishing, and other emergent social technologies. Thirdly, the study did not find evidence to support the claims regarding students adopting radically different patterns of knowledge creation and sharing suggested by some previous studies. The study shows that students' attitudes to learning appear to be influenced by the approaches adopted by their lecturers. Far from demanding lecturers change their practice, students appear to conform to fairly traditional pedagogies, albeit with minor uses of technology tools that deliver content. Despite both groups clearly using a rather limited range of technologies for learning, the results point to some age differences, with younger, engineering students making somewhat more active, albeit limited, use of tools than the older ones. The outcomes suggest that although the calls for radical transformations in educational approaches may be legitimate it would be misleading to ground the arguments for such change solely in students' shifting expectations and patterns of learning and technology use.
editlib.org, 2012
We are witnessing the integration of increasingly sophisticated information and communication (ICT) tools in higher education settings, including those that are broadly described as social media tools. Understanding learners' and instructors' perceptions regarding the effectiveness of technology use and their proficiency and knowledge of specific types of ICT tools are both important and critical to the success or failure of integration of ICT in higher education settings. Taking into account theories of educational psychology and integration of ICT, a 120-item survey was constructed and data were collected from a sample of 15,020 students and 2,640 instructors from 12 Québec universities, using a probabilistic sampling strategy. Multivariate regression analyses show that, for teachers, the use of constructivist and interactive forms of teaching is more strongly linked to a positive perception of their students' learning experiences. Conversely, for students, there is a strong, positive link between engaging lecture delivery and appreciation of their learning experience.
2016
Faculty frequently express concerns about students’ personal use of information and communication technologies in today’s university classrooms. As a requirement of a graduate research methodology course in a university in Ontario, Canada, the authors conducted qualitative research to gain an in-depth understanding of students’ perceptions of this issue. Their findings reveal students’ complex considerations about the acceptability of technology use. Their analysis of the broader contexts of students’ use reveals that despite a technological revolution, university teaching practices have remained largely the same, resulting in ‘cultural lag’ within the classroom. While faculty are technically ‘in charge’, students wield power through course evaluations, surveillance technologies and Internet postings. Neoliberalism and the corporatisation of the university have engendered an ‘entrepreneurial student’ customer who sees education as a means to a career. Understanding students’ percept...
Exploring students' use of ICT and expectations of learning methods
Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 2010
This study investigates changing patterns in students use of electronic tools over a four year period, mapping changes in social communications with expectations in formal learning. The data, collected from 2001 to 2004, reflect the views of 2215 university entrants, the majority of whom were aged between 17 and 20 years across a range of disciplines (Business, Science and Engineering) on their first day at university. Although the data was collected prior to the emergence of the contemporary social technologies, it tests an underlying assertion that students expectations of learning are strongly influenced by their prior experiences. Results show no correlation between the extent of university entrants use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and their expectations of how they will learn. Despite a dramatic increase in students use of ubiquitous technologies over a four-year period, their expectation of how they might learn at university remained relatively static over the same timeframe.
Learning with digital technologies in higher education
2020
This exploratory research study proposes the notion of learning ecologies, as a space for learning where students can navigate to find knowledge by engaging with digital-material technologies. The study engages in a conceptualization of learning wherein the students are viewed as active participants, who seek knowledge and resources also outside the course contexts. The study explores this assumption in the empirical context of two higher education courses, in software engineering and teacher education. The analyses of the qualitative data indicate that digital-material tools are a part of the students’ learning processes and shape the way they act and learn during the activities. The study proposes that pedagogical practice in higher education gives better consideration to how digital technologies can be embedded in the formal learning environments and connects students to various sites for learning.
Digital divides? Student and staff perceptions of information and communication technologies
Computers & …, 2010
This paper reports qualitative findings from a study that investigated Australian university staff and students' perceptions and use of current and emerging technologies both in their daily lives and in teaching and learning contexts. Forty-six first-year students and 31 teaching and support staff from three Australian universities took part in interviews and focus groups. This paper examines how students and staff reported on their use of new technologies in their daily lives, their stated reasons for using those technologies, and their beliefs about the benefits and limitations of using technologies as teaching and learning tools. The findings question assumptions that have been made about a ''digital divide" between ''digital native" students and their ''digital immigrant" teachers in higher education today, suggesting we need to develop a more sophisticated understanding about the role technologies play in the lives of both students and staff. A better understanding of student and staff perspectives will allow for more informed decisions about the implementation of educational technologies in today's higher education institutions.