Ict Usage Of University Students In Learning

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are playing crucial roles and are leading to shifts in teaching and learning methodology in both traditional and distance education. Computers, video-conferencing, interactive video and Internet have been adjusting the learning and teaching experiences in the classroom environment. As ADB (2009) mentioned, "as various ICTs become increasingly affordable, accessible, and interactive, their role at all levels of education is likely to be all the more significant in making educational outcomes relevant to the labor market, in revolutionizing educational content and delivery, and in fostering information literacy" (p. 1). There are three more studies to prove that students who learn with ICT can receive benefit greatly from methodology of learning.

First, a survey was conducted in four Southeast Asian Countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand) and four South Asian countries (Bhutan, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). It was indicated that Asian instructional organizers are very fascinated to design training associated with the application of current research and theory; the selection and use of methods and media; and technology trends including mobile learning methods. Therefore, they become crucial in assisting students’ effective learning through ICT. The same survey also stated, "in particular, students who knew how to use e-mail and how to create a short talk with slides by means of presentation manager, were more positive about the use of ICT in education" (p. 11). It meant presentations are important for students to share and present the information easily to the audience when e-mails were mainly to exchange information and communication. However, lacking of experience as well as ability to use ICT would lead to traditional methods in learning.

Second, due to finings produced by Belawati (2009) has shown that Higher Education in China mainly via the Conventional System is becoming more accessible to students through the use of ICT in order to offer flexible e-learning methods. There were over 15% of Chinese students who have accessed ICT in Higher Education. Furthermore, E-learning in Chinese higher education is increasing rapidly, as there are 6, 000 students in 2009 outside the campus that learn via E-learning. For instance, in Mongolia it is not surprise that radio and TV broadcasting are major components of the emerging sectors in the country. This includes the Internet, which has been prioritized by Distance Learning Council of Mongolia. Moreover, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam have been encouraged to start arranging the programs related to ICT in order to increase the interest of learners and make learning more effective.

Moreover, a study by Chivoin Peou shows that among 2074 students from four universities and two high schools in Phnom Penh prove that 75% of students have their personal computers at home, and 94% are proficient in typing. Of those university students, 39% study arts and humanities, 22% in social science, 21% in business and related, 12% of sciences, 5% of law, and less than 1% is on the other subjects.

The study also claims that 85% of them have experienced using Internet and 46% access the Internet at the Internet shops, 33% through mobile phones, 25% at universities or/and campus facilities, 19% at home, 3% at restaurant where Wi-Fi connection is provided. Apparently, they use Internet in order to search for information for schoolwork, sending/reading emails, online chatting, looking for job announcements, and a few look for friendship and romance. In addition, there are three main reasons for information seeking, entertainment and socialization (Peou, 2010).

However, after more than thirty years civil war in Cambodia, the Royal Government of Cambodia has been trying to develop human resources as well as other sectors in the main purpose of reconstructing and integrating the country into the regional and international community, otherwise Cambodia will fall farther behind other neighbor counties and the young generation will not have enough qualifications as well as practical skills in order to meet their needs to live in this technology age. In partnership with national and international partners especially UNESCO Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (2004) had completely formed the Policy and Strategies on Information and Communication Technology in Education in Cambodia in 2004 with its vision is to make sure all citizens have equal access to quality basic education and to prepare all of them to play a very active role in reconstructing our country and also integrating Cambodia to the knowledge-based global society. Moreover, three main goals are set in order to achieve its vision are:

Increased access to basic education for all, both formal and non-formal, using ICT as one of the major tools for learning, teaching, searching and sharing information.

Improved quality of basic education and promote independent and lifelong learning, especially for post-primary education,

Availability of workforce with the ICT skills needed for employment and use in a knowledge-based society; to ensure that Cambodia can compete and cooperate in an increasingly interconnected world.

Since then, Policy of ICT in Education has been formulated by MoEYS with financial support of Japanese Funds-in-Trust and technical assistance from UNESCO. This policy focuses on four core areas: (1) in order to reduce the gap of digital between Cambodian schools and other neighbor counties all teachers and students are provided access to ICT, (2) use ICT functions in education as learning and teaching tools in variable subjects as well as ICT itself, (3) introduce it to all ages, genders, ethnicities, disability people and locations through distance learning, self learning and especially children, youth, adults who can access less or cannot access to training skills as well as basic education by integrating ICT with other tools such as television, printed or painted materials, radio and other media, (4) push to use ICT to produce more productivity, effectiveness and efficiency in education management.

1.2 Research Problem

There is a limitation on using ICTs to support students’ studies is because many students are from different backgrounds and most of them are from the provinces, so ICT tools are quite expensive for some students to afford. High costs, limited availability, and other factors contribute to preventing students from using ICTs to improve their education as well as their daily life (MacLean, 2009). However, according to Spot Survey (2001) the power of ICT had been adjusting the learning process and its result was really influenced students’ education, particularly in the science and technology subjects. Therefore, those who had experienced online discussion believe that ICT is another resource to assist students to learn effectively such as doing assignment and homework. Furthermore, students are positive towards the use of ICT in education and learning because it could lead to more precise guidelines on how to complement ICT learning with technology methods.

In addition, students have shown the three opportunities such as facilitating contact and information exchange, and promoting access to higher education and adjusting the learning process and learning outcomes. In contrast, according to Policy and Strategies on Information and Communication Technology in Education in Cambodia (2004) mentioned, "Not all colleges have enough computers to run ICT courses effectively and some have problems with power supply for example having rely on a generator or having to turn off all other electrical appliances in the college while the computer room is in use" (p. 9). When Richardson (2008) found, "15.6% of the schools never allowed their students to access the computers, 22.9% of the schools reported that none of their teachers had access to the computers, while only 14.6% of the school reported all of the teachers had access to the computers" (p. 70). Anyway, Floridi (1995) argues, the Internet remains appealing to higher education for a number of reasons: the reduction of the time lag between the production and utilization of knowledge; the promotion of international co-operation and sharing of viewpoints; the free share of information; and the weakening of the concept of specialization (as cited in Neil Marriott, 2004).

1.3 Research Objectives

Due to the problems above this research objective should be:

To collect students’ perceptions about the potential of using ICT to assist them to learn.

To understand the perceptions of ICT services in those target universities.

1.4 Research Questions

To achieve these two objectives we have to answer these following questions:

How do students use ICT in their studies?

What kinds of opportunities do universities provide to encourage students to use ICTs? What kinds of ICTs services are provided in universities?

1.5 Significance of the Study

Apparently, this research is very necessary to conduct because of the following helpful reasons. One, its result will help to shape the students’ thoughts in using ICT to improve their studies. It is very useful when the students get involve with ICT for the right purposes and right ways of using them, rather than using them to entertain themselves so much but also use them to evolve the capacities, skills and knowledge. Hence, when they are qualified enough they will be able to fulfill the job market’s needs, which is possibly encourage them to gain more helpful experiences for their better living. Two, this research will awaken the students as well as higher institutions to the realization that ICT is one of the other most important components should be equipped to produce more qualified and skillful human resources for this technology age. Also, it would be able to guide some weaker students to use ICT in proper and useful ways for their studies.

1.6 Definition of Key Terms

1.7 Proposed Chapter Outline

This proposal systematically exists three main chapters. The first chapter is the introduction of the research that mention about the background of the study, research problem, research objective, research question, significance, the definition of the key terms and the proposed chapter outline. The literature review will be discussed in chapter two. The final chapter will detail about the research design, tools, or instruments for data gathering, sample or population, sampling, data collecting procedures, analyzing data, and ethical consideration.

CHAPTER 2

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Asian Development Bank. (2009). Forcus on Education. Good Practice In Information And

Communication Technology for Education.

This article discussed how teachers have to organize themselves before introducing and teaching any related ICT work/assignments to their students. It also argued on how curriculum should be designed for teachers to teach. ADB (2009) stated, "Technology should be mainstreamed into the entire teacher education curriculum and introduced in context to develop pre-service teachers’ ICT capability. The many uses of technology should be integrated throughout coursework and field experiences" (p. 12).

Cecily Knight, B. A. (2006). International Journal of Education and Development

using Information and communication Technology. Releasing the padagogical

power of information and communication technology for learners: A case study , 2

(2), 27-34.

This article discussed two issues, they are the barriers that educators embrace in new technology and the last one is the strategies that educators use to break the barriers down. These authors realized that the educators are difficult in adopting ICT in their teaching and they still also use the old styles to teach. However, the authors supported ICTs demand changes the education system as well as the importance and relevance of ICTs in teaching are acknowledged by most educators.

Their article is relevant to my topic because they focus on educators using ICTs in their teaching. Although the authors do not answer my research questions directly, I will use their information to describe how teachers in two universities use ICTs as the helpful tools to teach their students.

Hsinyi Peng, C.-C. T.-T. (2006). Educational Studies. University students' self-efficacy

and their attitudes toward the Internet: the role of students' perceptons of the

Internet , 32 (1), 73-86.

This study discussed university students' attitudes in using Internet. There are two types of students' attitudes; first one talked about students who use the Internet as an entertainment tool expressed more positive attitudes and communication than who use the Internet as a practical tool. As the authors strongly believed that Internet usage of the learners is very affected to their learning outcomes, especially Interne-based environments, self-efficacy and their attitudes toward Internet usage, hence the authors tended to investigate it. As the primary result, the authors found that students were categorized by gender, while male students tended to use Internet as a toy; female students used it as a practical tool.

This study is related to my research because it functionally focuses on how university students use Internet in their learning. Stating, " The results indicate that university students demonstrate positive attitudes and adequate Internet self-efficacy and that these students are inclined to view the Internet as a functional tool - a functional technology" (p. 73). Even though, these authors do not answer my research questions directly, I will still use their information to detail how university students in two universities use ICTs as their practical tools in their learning.

Richardson, J. W. (2008). ICT in Education Reform in Cambodia. Problems, Politics, and

Policies Impacting Implementation , 4, 67-82.

Richardson argues on streams model of policy, problems, and politics of ICT in Education Reform in Cambodia. In this study, he discusses on negative impact, strenths, weaknesses, and improvement as well as implementation of using ICTs in Education reform. Morever, he asserts, "because politics, problems, and policies failed to remain interconnected, an ICT in education reform has yet to be fully embraced in Cambodia" (p. 68). In addition, description, multiple streams model, and analyses of how ICT in education reform which were introduced in the current status were disscussed in this study as well and it concludes

CHAPER 3

MOTHODOLOGY

Selecting the participants

We have decided to select two universities to opt the participants, which are from two higher institutions such as A University and B Institute. They have been studying in third year in two different subjects like English Literature and Accounting. All of them have been working very hard; as a result, they have got good results in their studies because they are new generations who have been able to use all modern technologies to support their studies. Base on our experiences we thought that university students who have been using new technologies as well as ICT in their learning always get good results, so in this research we used purposive techniques to select the participants.

The procedures

To get true data, we explained each participant about our purpose to do this study. That is why we let them know that we will not use their answers to do anything illegally, and we also informed them that their answers to these questions would be great benefit in assisting to shape the use of ICT in education field. They will be kept confidential and used only in our study.

Hence, we used some questions to ask them to get some more detail to ensure with our study that what we found were based on what we experimented and interviewed. Then, we interviewed them individually, which lasted about 40 minutes for each. In the meanwhile, we took notes and tried to ask with the questions "HOW and WHY" in order to get detail information from them. Finally, we compiled their answers together and used them for our research study.

References