Information and Communication Technologies: Views of Canadian College Students and “Excellent” Professors

Abstract

We explored s and compared students comp that worked w completed a c for them that n there were so books, blogs a did help with Both student Future researc between profe Keywords: i perspectives, p IntroductioInformation a ubiquitous an their use. Her their use of in do these work excellent in th Post-secondar in order to he (Hue & Ab J quality of te post-secondar resulted in nu information, a Professors TechnoloThere is an ex tion and C by Buchanan, Sainter and Saunders (2013), with a sample of 114 professors, found that the ten most frequently used technologies were: links to online library resources; online audio / video podcasts from other sources; formative online testing; online audio / video podcasts created by the professors themselves; discussion boards for class discussions; discussion boards for frequently asked questions; blogs with the goal of encouraging reflection on learning; Wikis; blogs for micropublishing; and online tests. An increase in the popularity of recorded lectures has also been noted (O'Callaghan, Neumann, Jones, & Creed, 2017).The popularity of social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, in academe has increased. Yet, there is minimal empirical literature on faculty experiences with the educational use of social networks (Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2012). Among existing studies, Caldwell (2015) found that only 18% of professors used social network sites in their teaching, although almost 50% were willing to use these more extensively. Zakharov, Horton, Reid, Willis, and Attardo (2017) provided an explanation for the low frequency of social media use by exploring the experiences of 126 professors. They found that a variety of barriers exist to the use of social media in teaching: reliability, complexity, lack of support, inadequate professional development, time requirements, and legal issues. ProficiencyThe limited research on professor proficiency in teaching with technology shows that professors were more likely to use technology in their courses if they had a greater degree of confidence in their ability to use this (Howard & Mozejko, 2015). These researchers also found no significant differences between male and female professors in their level of confidence in their ability to use technology. Use of Personal Technology in ClassThere are no universally accepted guidelines that dictate the appropriate use of mobile technologies in class (Lindroth & Bergquist, 2010). This has resulted in a culture of uncertainty, in which neither professors nor students understand what constitutes the appropriate use of laptops and other mobile devices in class (Kay & Lauricella, 2011;Santos, Bocheco, & Habak, 2018).Some professors do not allow students to use their laptops and mobile technologies in class at all (Young, 2006). This has the potential to create conflict between professors and their students, since students indicated that being allowed to use their personal technologies in class was important (Alkahtani, Ahmad, Darmoul, Samman, Al-zabidi, & Matraf, 2016).Other professors choo...

Digital Tools Faculty Expected Students to Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2021: Problems and Solutions for Future Hybrid and Blended Courses

“…As Table 2 shows, it is important that professors teach students how to use all technologies they expect their students to use, even if students are generally proficient in using technologies (Fichten et al, 2018). The comprehensive nature of the technologies reported by the participants suggests that it is unreasonable for students to have to learn to use these by themselves, without any direction from their professors.…”

“…In addition, some professors feel that the more technologies they use the more engaging their lecture. However, a conclusion from a study of excellent professors (Fichten et al, 2018) suggests that faculty should use only technologies that they are comfortable using, and that if a technology does not work to simply move on rather than spend time trying to troubleshoot it. Also, the need for students to navigate among a variety of apps, videos and content can be disruptive to learning.…”

Shedding light on students with support needs: Comparisons of stress, self-efficacy, and disclosure.

“…Both inter- and intranationally, estimates of the population of students with AND can vary greatly, in part due to differences in the definitions and measures of terms such as “disability” (World Health Organization, 2013). In higher education, it is further complicated in that many students who are eligible for support do not disclose to their educational institutions (see Fichten et al, 2018; Osborne, 2019). However, a recent study by Grimes et al (2017) has worked to address such challenges, and at one Australian university, has estimated that students with AND account for 35% of the undergraduate student population.…”

Integration of Information and Communication Technologies in Teaching by Female Academic Teaching Staff in the Higher Education Sector in Mauritius

“…Laabidi (2017) stated that the use of ICT in higher education institutions has faced several challenges related to the attitudes of academic teaching staff. Academic staff may want to explore using ICT in their teaching through online tests/quizzes, calendars, attendance records, portfolios, online polling/responsive systems, virtual office hours, as well as the possibility of simulations or virtual experiments, in both science, technology, engineering and mathematics and the social sciences fields (Fichten et al, 2018). According to Blau and Shamir-Inbal (2017), the more frequently teachers made use ICT in classroom, the more were their beliefs about the benefits of ICT; making the teachers felt digitally more competent.…”