THE UTILITY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING. AN ANALYSIS OF THE PERCEPTIONS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Among the transformations at the University in the last years, the incorporation of new information and communications technology (ICT) for teaching is of major importance. Diffusion of ICT has taken place for reasons related to supply and demand (Brical et al., 2000). On the one hand, the society is demanding that new graduates know the influence and management of ICT and that they have the competencies or skills to make use of these technologies. On the other hand, the use of new technologies in University education reports benefits in research, management and teaching. Regarding the latter, its use is allowing the disappearance of the restrictions of space and time in teaching and the adoption of a student-centered learning model that is different from the traditional teacher-centered.

Incorporating ICT in teaching offers benefits in several levels (Brical et al, 2000). Among these advantages, we can highlight the possibility of a greater interaction between student and teacher. This interaction is possible thanks to the use of tools (such as e-mail, videoconferencing or WWW) that do not require spatial and/or temporal coincidence. This increase in interaction opportunities is not only limited to the teacher-student relationship, but it is extensible to communication between students who also have access to these resources. Finally, innovations that have taken place in the last years open new doors to learning through the use of simulators and to the development of competences and skills in virtual research laboratories.

These technologies have been incorporated at the University of La Rioja in all levels: research, management and teaching. In the case of teaching, two objectives have been proposed. On the one hand, to promote a growth in educational activities that allows the university community to get the required knowledge to use ICT in the teaching and learning process. On the other hand, to create incentives that facilitate the process of student learning and the use of new information technology experiences. To this aim the University of La Rioja is carrying out several supporting and training activities related to the use of ICT in teaching. These initiatives aim to overcome the resistance of the academic and administrative staff to the introduction of new ICT in the pedagogical model (Brical et al., 2000). Increased educational skills and higher levels of motivation allow the introduction of different tools that promote the role of the teacher as tutor in the learning process. They also allow the presentation of content in a more attractive way and to replace the mere exposure to arguments and information for interaction and discussion.

The objective of the study is twofold. First, to analyze the use of technological tools available to students. Second, to analyze the opinion of students regarding the usefulness of these tools. To this aim, we elaborate a questionnaire to be answered by students of a Strategic Management course at the University of La Rioja. To analyze the data, we calculated descriptive statistics using SPSS software.

The results obtained show that a high percentage of students have used different ICT tools in their learning processes. However, the possibilities of collaborative work that these technologies offer are not good enough. Tools such as Dropbox or Doodle are considered as a tool of relatively low importance in the coordination and the decision making of assignments.