Exploring The Drivers of Technology Acceptance: A study on Pakistani University Student

The purpose of this study is to validate the technology acceptance model (TAM) in an educational context to explore the drivers of technology on students of Pakistani university. Technologies have extended the teaching quality and open the new doors for the student to make their career highly professional. The data were collected from 508 students through online questionnaire in Pakistan. For analyzing the research model PLS-SEM partial least squares method to structural equation modeling was chosen to analyze the effect of Trialability, Attitude towards technology, Behavior intention, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, facilitating condition, Perceived usefulness, Technology complexity and demographic factors. The gap which we have find is about underprivileged countries that are poor in technology and have not get advancement and success in there so many countries yet. Limitation for this study are we have collected the data from university students. The research is based on descriptive research. Researchers choose a no probabilistic convenience sampling technique to collect data as it is fast, inexpensive and easy. The finding of this study is that all the independent variable has positive and significant relationship with dependent variable. We recommend that future researcher can add more variable to the research and use most updated software version

The students’ perceived use, ease of use and enjoyment of educational games at home and at school

Relevant literature suggests that today’s children possess digital skills and competences that set them apart from the previous generations. This may be due to their continuous exposure to ubiquitous media and digital games. Therefore, this research uses valid measures from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Theory of Planned Behavior, and from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to investigate the primary school students’ attitudes and normative pressures toward playing educational games, at home and at school. The study was carried out amongst year-3 students in a small European state. The findings reported that there were strong correlations between the students’ attitudes and their intention to play the school's games. The respondents indicated that they considered the educational games as useful and relevant for their learning. However, the results have shown that there was no significant relationship between the perceived ease of gameplay and the children’s enjoyment in engaging with the school’s digital games. These findings are consistent with the extant academic literature on the digital natives. To the best of our knowledge, there is no other study in academia that has explored the technology acceptance of digital games in primary education. Therefore, this contribution opens future research avenues as this study can be replicated in other contexts.University of Malta, Malta and Ministry of Education and Employment, Malta.peer-reviewe

Fearing the Robot Apocalypse: Correlates of AI Anxiety

This study examines the relationship between individuals’ be-liefs about AI (Artificial Intelligence) and levels of anxiety with respect to their technology readiness level. In this cross-sectional study, we surveyed 65 stu-dents at a southwestern US college. Using partial least squares analysis, we found that technology readiness contributors were significantly and positively related to only one AI anxiety factor: socio-technical illiteracy. In contrast, all four links between technology readiness inhibitors and AI anxiety factors were significant with medium effect sizes. Technology readiness inhibitors are posi-tively related to learning, fears of job replacement, socio-technical illiteracy, and particular AI configurations. Thus, we conclude that AI anxiety runs through a spectrum. It is influenced by real, practical consequences of immedi-ate effects of increased automatization but also by popular representations and discussions of the negative consequences of artificial general intelligence and killer robots and addressing technology readiness is unlikely to mitigate effects of AI anxiety

Motivations and passions in m-Facebook use

Introduction. It is estimated that more than 2.5 billion people globally use social networks (Statista, 2018c), among which Facebook remains by far the largest with nearly 2.3 billion active users (Statista, 2018b), despite the dominance of other social networks in large countries such as China (e.g. WeChat, QQ) and Russia (e.g. Vkontakte). Following a long tradition of technology use models (Davis, 1989; Van der Heijden, 2004), extant literature on social networks focuses on enjoyment (hedonic motivation) and usefulness (utilitarian motivation) as the main perceived benefits motivating people to use social networks such as Facebook (Chang, Hung, Cheng, & Wu, 2015; Cheung, Chiu, & Lee, 2011; Lin & Lu, 2011) Meanwhile, an emergent strand of research draws on the theory of passions (Lemay, Doleck, & Bazelais, 2017; Orosz, Vallerand, Bőthe, Tóth-Király, & Paskuj, 2016; Wakefield & Wakefield, 2016) which posits that user engagement is the result of a psychological process that makes social network use an integral part of the user’s own identity (Vallerand et al., 2003; Vallerand et al., 2007)

Utilización de los blogs por futuros docentes de Educación Infantil

This study examines those factors which affect the possibility of using blogs as a tool for continued learning by future infant-school teachers. 222 students participated (3 cohorts spread over 13 class groups) who were in basic infant teacher training classes in a Spanish university. The students, following their experience using blogs throughout the course, responded to a self-administered electronic questionnaire that had been previously validated. A model was created underpinned by various constructs which produced relevant hypotheses based on social-cognitive theory and the technology acceptance model. The partial least squares (PLS) method was used to examine the proposed hypotheses, of which ten were accepted. The results indicated that the variables which significantly contributed to students continuing to use blogs to learn were perceived self-efficacy, personal outcome expectations, perceived support for enhancing social ties, along with perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude and perception of playfulness. The results are discussed and compared with results of other similar research, which allowed the model’s predictive capacity to be replicated and confirmed). Finally, the study provides useful recommendations based on the findings for those teachers who want to use blogs with their university students and want their students to continue using them in their learning.En esta investigación se analizan aquellos factores que inciden en la posibilidad de uso de los blogs como herramienta para continuar aprendiendo por parte de quienes van a ser futuros docentes en el ámbito de educación infantil. En el estudio participaron un total de 222 estudiantes (pertenecientes a 3 cohortes distribuidas en 13 grupos de aula) que cursaron una asignatura de formación básica perteneciente al grado de maestro de educación infantil en una universidad española. El alumnado, tras su experiencia a lo largo del curso en el uso de blogs, respondió a un cuestionario electrónico auto-administrado y previamente validado. Se elaboró un modelo sustentado por diversos constructos que dieron lugar a hipótesis relevantes derivadas primordialmente de la teoría socio-cognitiva y del modelo de aceptación tecnológica. Se utilizó la técnica de mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS) para el contraste de las doce hipótesis planteadas, de las cuales se aceptaron diez. Los resultados indican que la auto-eficacia percibida, las expectativas de resultados personales, el apoyo percibido para mejorar los vínculos sociales, así como la percepción de utilidad, la facilidad de uso percibida, la actitud y la percepción de alegría y disfrute, son variables significativas que contribuyen a que los estudiantes continúen utilizando los blogs como mecanismo para aprender. Asimismo, se discuten y comparan los resultados obtenidos con otras investigaciones internacionales similares, lo que ha permitido replicar y confirmar la capacidad predictiva del modelo. Finalmente, se aportan recomendaciones útiles, derivadas de los hallazgos obtenidos, para aquellos docentes que pretendan utilizar blogs con sus estudiantes universitarios, a fin de que estos continúen utilizando dichas herramientas para desarrollar sus aprendizajes

Understanding students’ behavior in online social networks: a systematic literature review

The use of online social networks (OSNs) has increasingly attracted attention from scholars’ in different disciplines. Recently, student behaviors in online social networks have been extensively examined. However, limited efforts have been made to evaluate and systematically review the current research status to provide insights into previous study findings. Accordingly, this study conducted a systematic literature review on student behavior and OSNs to explicate to what extent students behave on these platforms. This study reviewed 104 studies to discuss the research focus and examine trends along with the important theories and research methods utilized. Moreover, the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model was utilized to classify the factors that influence student behavior. This study’s results demonstrate that the number of studies that address student behaviors on OSNs have recently increased. Moreover, the identified studies focused on five research streams, including academic purpose, cyber victimization, addiction, personality issues, and knowledge sharing behaviors. Most of these studies focused on the use and effect of OSNs on student academic performance. Most importantly, the proposed study framework provides a theoretical basis for further research in this context

Factors influencing students’ perceived impact of learning and satisfaction in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning

The analysis of the processes and elements articulating effective Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) constitutes a focal research stream in education. Following these streams, satisfaction and perceived impact on learning have already been stablished as determining aspects of any type of learning and, particularly, of CSCL. The goal of this study was to identify factors affecting students' satisfaction and perception of impact on learning in CSCL. The Partial Least Squares technique was used, applying a questionnaire to 701 students in a virtual university. The proposed model exhibited high predictive performance, confirming the 13 hypotheses established. The variables confirmation, perceived usefulness, and perceived enjoyment positively and significantly influenced students’ satisfaction with CSCL. Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness positively and significantly influenced attitude, and attitude, together with perceived enjoyment, were determining factors in perceived impact on learning. These are factors that should be considered when designing CSCL to be implemented both at the institutional and class level, and teachers and students should be aware of these interdependencies for CSCL to be successfulThis paper has been written in the context of the research projects: “Ecologías de aprendizaje en la era digital: nuevas oportunidades para la formación del profesorado de educación secundaria” (ECO4LEARN-SE) “Learning ecologies in the digital era: new opportunities for teacher training in secondary education”. It has been partially financed by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities in Spain, (Reference: RTI 2018-095690-B-I00); and "Cómo aprenden los mejores docentes universitarios en la era digital: impacto de las ecologías de aprendizaje en la calidad de la docencia" (ECO4LEARN-HE) "How the best University Teachers Learn: Impact on Learning Ecologies on Quality of Teaching" (Reference: EDU2015-67907-R). It has been partially financed by Spanish Ministry of Economy and CompetitivenessS

Are you keeping your Facebook passions and habit under control? A dual systems perspective on Facebook addiction-like symptoms

After many years of techno-enthusiasm, public discourse has turned to the dark side of technology and notably the dysfunctional consequences (e.g., addiction-like symptoms) of excessive social media use. Recent research in this area draws on dual-system theory and demonstrates that while habit predicts use, it does not directly predict addiction-like symptoms. This is not surprising, since habit lacks valence and its measurement does not discriminate between desirable and undesirable use. To clarify the antecedents of addiction-like symptoms, this paper extends prior research by drawing on the dualistic theory of passions and argues that habit is a manifestation of harmonious and obsessive passions that are anchored in the user’s identity. By applying structural equation modeling on survey responses from 225 U.S.-based users, we first replicate and confirm the main findings of prior studies and then proceed to show that harmonious and obsessive passion drive Facebook habit and use. Moreover, obsessive passion emerges as the exclusive driver of addiction-like Facebook symptoms while the restraining effect of self-control is mediated by the two passions, as well as habit and use. The main finding is that the dual-system explaining Facebook addiction-like symptoms comprises of obsessive passion as the direct driving force and self-control as the indirect preventative restraining force. Our analysis contributes to the debate about mitigating the negative effects of social media and opens up new questions for further research

Kehittyvien oppimisteknologioiden hyväksyntä Vaikutus Pakistanin opettajaksi valmistuviin opettajiin COVID-19:n aikana

The COVID-19 pandemic influenced all sectors of society, in particular, the education sector worldwide. The higher education commission (HEC) of Pakistan issued guidelines to its affiliated universities to shift their learning approaches from face-to-face to online. The e-learning infrastructure was not available in traditional universities in Pakistan. Higher education institutions also did not prepare their teachers to face an emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher education students also did not have e-learning experience. Therefore, it was a difficult task to shift three million higher education students from face-to-face to online learning approaches overnight. However, the accessibility of mobile phones, the internet, and social media emerged as sources of learning technologies for higher education students. The researcher operationalized mobile learning, social media based-learning, and open educational resources as emerging learning technologies in this doctoral dissertation. This research has focused on the acceptance of emerging learning technologies among higher education students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. This doctoral dissertation is a compendium of four research articles. Article 1 studied mobile learning acceptance among pre-service teachers. Its theoretical framework was based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). Article 2 studied the influence of the different cultural levels on the behavior of pre-service teachers towards open educational resources. Its theoretical framework was based on the theory of planned behavior. While article 3 studied the social media-based learning acceptance among higher education students. Its theoretical framework was based on the technology acceptance model. The aim of this doctoral dissertation was also to find out the influence of the acceptance of emerging learning technologies on the authentic leadership development, research competencies development, and research completion process of the higher education students. Article 3 also studied the influence of social media-based learning acceptance on authentic leadership development among higher education students. While article 4 studied the impact of social media tools on the research competencies and research completion process of the pre-service researchers during the COVID-19 emergency. Research articles adopted a survey approach to collect data from higher education students in Pakistan. Data were analyzed through symmetric and asymmetric approaches. It included covariance-based, structural equation modeling, partial least square structural equation modeling, and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. This research dissertation provided knowledge in addition to previous literature; first pre-service teachers were ready to adopt M-learning, second pre-service teachers have positive intentions to use open educational resources, third higher education students accepted social media based-learning, fourth emerging learning technologies have influenced higher education students development as authentic leaders, fifth emerging learning technologies also helped pre-service researchers’ competencies development and research completion process during the COVID-19. This research project has practical implications for the higher education commission of Pakistan, and universities in a developing country like Pakistan to introduce emerging learning technologies-based instructional designs to continue teaching, learning, and research process during and post-crisis such as the COVID-19. It would help higher education students to emerge as authentic leaders during a crisis through emerging technologies. Future studies may be conducted to find out the emerging learning technologies adaptation process during the crisis. ________________________________________ Keywords: COVID-19, emerging learning technologies, M-learning, social media-based learning, open educational resources, higher education students, Pakistan  COVID-19-pandemia vaikutti kaikkiin yhteiskunnan osa-alueisiin, erityisesti koulutusalaan maailmanlaajuisesti. Pakistanin korkeakoulukomissio (HEC) antoi liittyneille yliopistoilleen ohjeet, joiden mukaan niiden on siirryttävä kasvokkain tapahtuvasta oppimisesta verkko-opetukseen. Pakistanin perinteisissä yliopistoissa ei ollut käytettävissä verkko-oppimisen infrastruktuuria. Korkeakoulut eivät myöskään valmistaneet opettajiaan COVID-19-pandemian kaltaiseen hätätilanteeseen. Myöskään korkeakouluopiskelijoilla ei ollut kokemusta verkko-opiskelusta. Siksi oli vaikea tehtävä siirtää kolme miljoonaa korkeakouluopiskelijaa yhdessä yössä kasvokkain tapahtuvasta oppimisesta verkko-opiskeluun. Matkapuhelimet, internet ja sosiaalinen media ovat kuitenkin nousseet korkeakouluopiskelijoiden oppimisteknologian lähteiksi. Tutkija operationalisoi tässä väitöskirjassa mobiilioppimisen, sosiaaliseen mediaan perustuvan oppimisen ja avoimet opetusresurssit nouseviksi oppimisteknologioiksi. Tässä tutkimuksessa on keskitytty uusien oppimisteknologioiden hyväksymiseen korkeakouluopiskelijoiden keskuudessa COVID-19-pandemian aikana Pakistanissa. Tämä väitöskirja on kooste neljästä tutkimusartikkelista. Artikkelissa 1 tutkittiin mobiilioppimisen hyväksyntää opettajaksi valmistuvien keskuudessa. Sen teoreettinen kehys perustui teknologian hyväksymisen ja käytön yhtenäistettyyn teoriaan (UTAUT). Artikkelissa 2 tutkittiin eri kulttuuritasojen vaikutusta opettajien käyttäytymiseen avoimia opetusresursseja kohtaan. Sen teoreettinen viitekehys perustui suunnitellun käyttäytymisen teoriaan. Artikkelissa 3 puolestaan tutkittiin sosiaaliseen mediaan perustuvan oppimisen hyväksyntää korkeakouluopiskelijoiden keskuudessa. Sen teoreettinen viitekehys perustui teknologian hyväksymismalliin. Tämän väitöskirjan tavoitteena oli myös selvittää uusien oppimisteknologioiden hyväksynnän vaikutusta korkeakouluopiskelijoiden autenttisen johtajuuden kehittymiseen, tutkimuksellisten valmiuksien kehittymiseen ja tutkimuksen loppuunsaattamisprosessiin. Artikkelissa 3 tutkittiin myös sosiaaliseen mediaan perustuvan oppimisen hyväksynnän vaikutusta korkeakouluopiskelijoiden autenttisen johtajuuden kehittymiseen. Kun taas artikkelissa 4 tutkittiin sosiaalisen median välineiden vaikutusta tutkijakoulutukseen valmistautuvien tutkijoiden tutkimuskompetensseihin ja tutkimuksen loppuunsaattamisprosessiin COVID-19-hätätilanteen aikana. Tutkimusartikkeleissa omaksuttiin kyselytutkimuslähestymistapa tietojen keräämiseksi Pakistanin korkeakouluopiskelijoilta. Tiedot analysoitiin symmetrisen ja epäsymmetrisen lähestymistavan avulla. Siihen sisältyi kovarianssiin perustuva, rakenteellinen yhtälömallinnus, osittainen pienimmän neliösumman rakenteellinen yhtälömallinnus ja sumeiden joukkojen laadullinen vertaileva analyysi. Tämä väitöskirjatutkimus tarjosi tietoa aikaisemman kirjallisuuden lisäksi; ensinnäkin esiopettajat olivat valmiita ottamaan käyttöön verkko-oppimisen, toiseksi esiopettajilla on myönteisiä aikomuksia käyttää avoimia opetusresursseja, kolmanneksi korkeakouluopiskelijat hyväksyivät sosiaaliseen mediaan perustuvan oppimisen, neljänneksi kehittyvät oppimisteknologiat ovat vaikuttaneet korkeakouluopiskelijoiden kehittymiseen autenttisiksi johtajiksi, viidenneksi kehittyvät oppimisteknologiat auttoivat myös esiopettajien osaamisen kehittymistä ja tutkimuksen loppuunsaattamisprosessia opintojakson COVID-19 aikana. Tällä tutkimushankkeella on käytännön vaikutuksia Pakistanin korkeakoulukomitealle ja Pakistanin kaltaisen kehitysmaan yliopistoille, jotta ne voivat ottaa käyttöön kehittyvään oppimisteknologiaan perustuvia opetusmalleja opetuksen, oppimisen ja tutkimusprosessin jatkamiseksi COVID-19:n kaltaisen kriisin aikana ja sen jälkeen. Se auttaisi korkeakouluopiskelijoita kehittyvän teknologian avulla nousemaan aidoiksi johtajiksi kriisin aikana. Tulevia tutkimuksia voidaan tehdä uusien oppimisteknologioiden sopeutumisprosessin selvittämiseksi kriisin aikana

Online Help Seeking in Emerging Adults: The Role of Attachment Style, Emotion Regulation, and Distress Disclosure

There is minimal research investigating the role of the Internet and computer-mediated technology in help seeking among emerging adults. The purpose of this study was to explore how and from whom emerging adults seek help online for their emotional and personal problems. In particular, the study examined the relations between attachment with intentions and behaviours of seeking help online, as well as from informal and formal sources of support. Three-hundred and fifty-four undergraduate university students (17 to 25 years of age) completed an online survey of questionnaires assessing their attachment style in close relationships, difficulties in emotion regulation, tendency to self-disclose distress to others, and help-seeking intentions and behaviours online and from informal (e.g., parents and friends) and formal sources of support (e.g., social workers and psychologists). Results showed that approximately 95% of the sample sought help for an emotional or personal problem by using online computer-mediated technology, in some capacity, over the past four weeks. Higher levels of attachment avoidance were significantly associated with lower intentions to seek help online by way of directly messaging close others (e.g., via text message), posting to large audiences (e.g., on social networking sites), and searching for and reading information relevant to the problem, as well as with engaging in fewer help-seeking behaviours of directly messaging close others. Similarly, greater attachment avoidance was significantly related to lower intentions to seek help from informal and formal sources of support, as well as to engaging in fewer help-seeking behaviours from informal and formal sources. Conversely, higher levels of attachment anxiety were significantly associated with greater intentions to seek help online by way of posting to anonymous sources of support and searching for and reading information, as well as with engaging in more online helpseeking behaviours of searching for and reading information pertaining to the problem. Greater attachment anxiety was significantly related to lower intentions to seek help from informal sources, but also to engaging in a greater number of help-seeking behaviours from professional sources. A series of significant mediation analyses revealed that higher levels of attachment avoidance predicted greater difficulties in emotional awareness, which in turn, predicted lower intentions (directly messaging close others and searching for/reading information) and fewer behaviours (directly messaging close others) of seeking help online. In contrast, higher levels of attachment anxiety predicted greater difficulties with access to effective emotion regulation strategies, which in turn, predicted a greater number of online help-seeking behaviours (searching for/reading information). Yet, higher levels of attachment anxiety predicted lower tendencies to disclose distress to others, which in turn, predicted lower intentions to seek help from informal sources. Similarly, higher levels of attachment avoidance predicted lower tendencies to disclose distress, which in turn, predicted fewer help-seeking behaviours from informal sources. However, higher levels of attachment avoidance predicted greater difficulties with access to effective emotion regulation strategies, which in turn, predicted a greater number of help-seeking behaviours from formal sources. Applied implications for engaging young people in the help-seeking process via online, computer-mediated technology are discussed – namely, that trusting relationships with close others and greater awareness of emotions continue to be crucial facilitators of seeking help in an online context