Application of Technology in Education

Application of Technology in Education

1. Technology-related Challenges for Students

First, when it comes to the Internet access and skills, students in the European Union seem to be exercising a relatively high level of confidence. This aspect, while no longer problematic per se for higher education students, still requires monitoring due to the marked differences that exist between member states. Overall, Europe is in the third place of the Internet usage statistics with 63.2 per cent of the total population online after North America (78.6 per cent) and Oceania/Australia (67.6 per cent) with overall growth of 393.4 per cent over 2000 – 2012 (‘Internet world stats,’ 2012). Inside the European Union, the level of the Internet access ranges from 90 per cent and more in Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Luxembourg to 44.1 per cent in Romania, 51 per cent in Bulgaria and 53 per cent in Greece; the Czech Republic rates as fourteenth with 73 per cent of the population online (‘Internet world stats,’ 2014). These figures confirm that the majority of the Europe Union population has Internet access. Even if not from one’s home, the Internet can be accessed from public spaces, such as Internet cafes, public libraries or university campuses. Particularly interesting in this respect is the Eduroam roaming service for higher education students and researches. It provides both wireless and wired Internet access, according to its website, to 68 territories worldwide, 38 of which (including Turkey) are located in geographical Europe. Also, it serves as a good indicator of the breadth of its coverage that it exists in all three countries with the lowest Internet access; although there are only three points of access in Romania (‘Where can I eduroam,’ 2014). As for the European Union students themselves, on average, they declare a fairly high level of proficiency in the Internet use skills. European survey of secondary schools found that students tend to be more confident about their ICT skills and have a more positive outlook on the role of ICT in their education if they have access to computers in class as well as at home (‘ICT in education,’ 2013). In spite of the fact that the survey covers secondary school students, it is possible to deduce that their ICT skills are likely to improve not worsen if and when they enter universities and/or professional training. Hence, it can be inferred, the European Union students exercise a relatively high level of confidence in ICT skills and benefit from stable Internet access.

Thus, the first challenge that causes concern to educators’ is that easy access to resources, instead of promoting enthusiasm for discovery, may result in haphazard approach to research and difficulties with proper source acknowledgement. According to PewReport, a survey conducted in the USA, 71 per cent of teachers believe that their students ‘equate research with Googling’ and that overreliance on search engines discourages students from in-depth research of a wide range of sources (Purcell, Heaps, Buchanan, & Friedrich, 2013). One of the reasons behind this is seen to be the lack of critical thinking and research skills. Students, used to having information on their fingertips, do not question its source and, if they later use it, they may not see the necessity or not want to identify the authorship. In this respect, Goodfellow and Lee (2008) talk about students introducing practices from a non-study environment (for example, looking up information online, reading it from the screen and using it) into the learning process. The ability to apply skills acquired in one area onto another is undoubtedly beneficial; however, if trustworthiness of and reference to sources is not addressed, this can result in incorrect ideas about academic research as such and in lower quality of students’ work; in the long run it can impede their professional lives as well. The same survey found that 76 per cent of teachers strongly agree that search engines condition students to work with information that pops up on the first page of the search. Moreover, 60 per cent agree that ‘today’s digital technologies make it harder for students to find and use credible sources of information’ (Purcell, Heaps, Buchanan, & Friedrich, 2013). If students are familiarized with and encouraged to employ quality research tools, such as scientific and scholarly databases the gravity of the issue may be lessened.

Next, the amount of unrelated information and the omnipresence of social media, online games and other recreational websites make it increasingly difficult for students to concentrate on their work. Students today can be victims of a habit of receiving information from several sources simultaneously, of an ability to multitask and, consequently, of a shorter attention span. Goodfellow and Lee narrow the issue down to undergraduate students, they point out that ‘networking sites, such as Facebook, will be more likely to appeal to undergraduates than online computer conferencing and discussion boards’ (2008). Indeed, unless students are highly motivated to complete the task, they are most likely to be slowed down or completely lured away by possibilities of quick and easy rewards and instant gratification, which form the basis of the online games and social networks strategy for making users to stay longer and come back. Moreover, even when students are actively working, they have to constantly sort out irrelevant information; it can range from Internet advertisements to numerous pages and articles on the topic in question with a varying degree of credibility. PewReport found that 83 per cent of teachers agree that students have to deal with the amount of information that is overwhelming for most of them (Purcell, Heaps, Buchanan, & Friedrich, 2013). Teachers and institutions cannot directly influence the amount of time each student spends online on non-learning related tasks and it is probably best to delegate the time management responsibility to students themselves. At the same time, it could be illustrated to students that the volume of information can be narrowed by proper formulation of search requests both in search engines and in databases. This can decrease the amount of time spent looking for sources while simultaneously increasing their quality. In addition, proper research skills are very likely to prove valuable outside classroom as well.

Finally, students can find it difficult to work with learning materials presented online. Text remains the one most approved of by education professionals and, consequently, most commonly used way of information delivery for college and university students. The importance of text format is undisputable, what may need reconsideration is its convenience to work with. Scanning textbooks and uploading them online as images or PDFs can obstruct students’ workflow because it is either impossible or difficult to highlight information, copy and paste chunks of text, add notes and change them to fit individual learning preferences. Scholars (for example, Hills, 2003; Hurd, 2010; Harasim, 2012) agree that a more up-to-date approach is making a text interactive with hyperlinks, which is possible both in a text editor and on a webpage. Difficult vocabulary and single concepts can be linked to dictionaries, while more complex issues – to further resources on the Internet. Images and video could also be added to increase students’ engagement, although care has to be taken to organize all media in a way that does not interrupt the flow of text so as not to distract students. Another matter to consider is that digitally native students tend to prefer video and audio over text and are used to multitasking (Benson, Donnelly & Kirk, 2012, p. 63). With the relative simplicity on the part of teachers of creating and sharing video and audio podcasts, students could indeed benefit from a variety of methods of delivery in e-learning. Of course, ideally, video and audio resources could be supplemented with transcripts to facilitate students’ later work and to suit various learning styles.

While European Union students’ ICT skills can be described as fairly good and Internet access in and outside of educational institutions in the EU has become a norm, guidance is still necessary to improve students’ learning-related computer skills. Due to a well-developed and often lifelong relationship with technology and the Internet, students are accustomed to one-click-away access to information. Such blind trust to sources with an often questionable reliability does not concur with research requirements of HIEs and obstructs students’ personal and professional development. Another outcome of this relationship is a shift in handling information: students habitually receive it from several sources simultaneously. Therefore, they tend to concentrate on something for shorter periods of time and often switch between sources. Especially when combined with inept time management strategies, this can result in difficulties when completing tasks. Even online research itself can be challenging, students have to work their way through large amounts of data and at the same time disregard irrelevant input, such as endless Internet advertisements, before finding relevant quality resources. Finally, the way online learning materials are presented may complicate and slow down students’ progress, in particular, when materials are not convertible in different formats and cannot be rearranged and edited.

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