Abstract:

Technology seems to be expanding faster and faster in society. We just have to go back three or four years ago to see that portable devices weren’t as popular as today. According to BrightEdge Mobile, one out of every three technology minutes is consumed on a mobile device. Moreover, 16% of US citizens over 18 years old report having a tablet, although they use them predominantly for gaming or entertainment. What is the place of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education? In the United States, large scale studies such as ECAR (Smith & Caruso, 2010) and PEW Internet (Zickuhr & Smith, 2012) are conducted almost every year, providing a clear portrait of ICT usage by students in the United States. While the data are accurate, however, the studies do not examine the perception of ICT integration in the classroom. The focus appears to be more on how student use computer in general life than on whether they are using computers in educational context. Our study sheds new light on student perception and usage of ICT in education, commitment in the classroom, and informational competencies skills using ICT.

Most studies have found that attitudes toward computers result from exposure to them (Huang, 2002; William, Ogletree, Woodburn & Raffeld, 1993). The more time you spend in front of a computer, the more experience you have and the more comfortable you feel. This attitude may be affected by gender (Meelissen & Drent, 2008) or age (Comber et al., 1997).

The data were collected in April 2011 from students attending 77 different colleges in Quebec. The final sample for analysis consisted of 25,507 students, averaging 20 years old. 94.0% were from public schools and 66.3% were female. The students came from various sectors, with 50.1% in general programs (university prerequisites), 45.6% in technical programs (job training) and 4.2% in particular programs.

The questionnaire was composed of six different sections:
(1) student portrait,
(2) ICT access,
(3) ICT and social networking uses,
(4) ICT and informational competencies,
(5) preference and satisfaction with ICT
(6) perceived ICT impact on learning and motivation.

In the first part of analysis, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis (principal component analysis) to create subscales: computer experiences (office, multimedia and social mass-media usages), information literacy (8 items), and commitment to learn with ICT (6 items). Next, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to determine the best predictor for the students’ commitment to learn with ICT and their informational competencies (ability to find useful information in the educational context). Preliminary results showed that, based on users habits, only two of the three computer experiences (office and social mass media) are positively related to informational competencies that can predict the students’ perception of ICT importance in education. Those results suggest that by promoting development of ICT competencies, students may perceived more positively ICT in education. For the final paper, further analysis will be conducted to include more factors, such as students’ self-competence belief with ICT and perceived teacher interest in ICT usage. This specific study will provide a wide range of results that can be helpful for e-learning administrators who want to have a better understanding of student perceptions of ICT in relation to educational purpose and student informational competencies.

Keywords:

ICT, motivation, learning, college students.