The Impact of Technology-Enhanced Learning on the Academic Performance of Undergraduate Students at the University of Ilorin: A Comprehensive Study.
This research seeks to examine the extent to which technology-enhanced learning have influenced the academic performance of the undergraduate student at the University of Ilorin.
Background of the Study
Whenever we think about “Technology Enhanced Learning”, it is important to determine the exact focus. Is it technology? Or is it enhanced? Or maybe the focus is on learning? It appears that whatever word is assumed to be the main in this content, will not represent the whole of the activities and ideas covered by Technology Enhanced Learning. Going back in history, we could find how influential technology inventions were. It was so important, that it is still used to date – in schools, at homes, and in libraries. it is a perfect tool for learning. It has been used for centuries, and it will be used in the future(Elica, 2005)This opening chapter presents some of the main concepts and issues that need to be considered when looking at the introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT) into education systems.
The issue of ‘computers in education’ started to become popular in educational policy-making in the early 1980s, when relatively cheap microcomputers became available for the consumer market. Stimulated by governmental policies, and quite often led by the fear of losing the technology race, many countries started to build their brand of microcomputers (BBC, Acorn, Tomson) and distributed these to schools. Later, near the end of the 1980s, the term ‘computers’ was replaced by ‘IT’ (information technology), signifying a shift of focus from computing technology to the capacity to store and retrieve information.
This was followed by the introduction of the term ‘ICT’ (information and communication technologies) around 1992. Concerning the early introduction of microcomputers in education, there were high expectations that it would make education more effective and motivating. However, when many surveys had shown that computers were used mainly as a supplement to the existing curriculum and much less as tools that were fully integrated in the learning of traditional subject matter, the general feeling among many policy-makers was one of great disappointment. Between 1992 and about 1995, the investments in hardware, staff development and research programs on ICT decreased. However, when the World Wide Web became available, the political interest in ICT was quickly boosted for a second time. This interest was accompanied by a commonly accepted rhetoric that education systems would need to prepare citizens for lifelong learning in an information society.
This rhetoric can be characterized as follows:
- As a result of ICT, many societies will change into information societies
- Citizens in these information societies will need new competences that have not yet been (or that have been, though insufficiently) targeted and attained in the traditional education systems; and,3. Educational innovations aimed at attaining these new skills (with the help of ICT) and at finding a new balance between old and new educational targets are needed.
According to the above, education needs to become more focused on creating opportunities for students to acquire new skills. However, it has to take place in a school system that emphasizes student self-direction and responsibility in the learning process. Educational innovations in basic education are necessary if these new demands are to be met, and such innovations should have a strong pedagogical focus on student-centred and increasingly student-directed focused approaches facilitated by ICT, whereby teachers should play more of a guiding role.
The advent of the microcomputer in the 1980s raised a lot of interest from educators. Computer-assisted learning developed into a well**-established branch of so-called educational technology. Educational technology became the new all-embracing label, covering the study of learning and teaching, including instruction design methods, the supportive technologies as well as organizational and managerial issues. From the mid 90’s the emergence of the internet enabled a new type of distance learning that used web technologies for the distribution of learning content across institutional borders. This so-called e-learning paradigm was revolutionary in that it greatly enhanced the flexibility of learning with respect to the time, pace and place of learning. For expressing the innovative power of the technology paradigm, a new label was introduced: technology-enhanced learning. Initially, technology-enhanced learning strongly focused on learning content systems, content delivery and learning management systems, largely conforming to the instructional notion of information transfer
The expansion and dominance of technology is increasing globally one of which is the influence of e-learning in educational systems. E-learning is any electronic supported learning either with or without infusing the ICT facilities in the current conventional learning method be it traditional or active learning (Kassahun 2014). In education it is often taken for granted that technologies can ‘enhance learning’ and the term ‘Technology Enhanced Learning’ (TEL) is increasingly being used in the UK, Europe and other parts of the world. Referring to the application of information and communication technologies to teaching and learning, TEL subsumes the older term ‘e-learning’, which was used with a confusing variety of meanings (Guri-Rosenblit& Gros 2011).
Today, technology-enhanced learning has a wider scope, reflecting a branch of research that includes all types’ socio-technical innovations for learning practices, regarding individuals and organizations. It then become the topical successor of instructional technology and educational technology (Almenda, 2008).Technology enhanced learning (TEL) aims to design, develop and test socio-technical innovations that will support and enhance learning practices of both individuals and organizations. It is therefore an application domain that generally covers technologies that support all forms of teaching and learning activities. Since information retrieval (in terms of searching for relevant learning resources to support teachers or learners) is a pivotal activity in TEL, the deployment of recommender systems has attracted increased interest (Tzikopoulos et al. 2007).
Technology-enhanced learning (TEL) utilizes the increasing availability of smart phones, tablets and laptops to support flexible and mobile learning. These devices enable learners to access learning resources, such as eBooks, applications, videos and podcasts that suits their own specific learning needs (Lupton, 2015 & Ally, 2009). Recently the education sector has embraced this technological development, with higher education institutes and commercial developers creating TEL resources to support a wide range of educational disciplines (Bullock 2014). However, with increasing acceptance and use of such resources (Bickerdike et al. 2014; Joynes & Fuller 2015) and finite time available for learners to engage in preparation for summative assessments, it is essential that such resources are efficient, and support learner gain (that is, an increase in usable and retained knowledge)..
Get in touch for full materials
