What stimulates teachers to integrate ICT in their pedagogical practices? The use of digital learning materials in education

The question ‘What stimulates teachers to integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in their pedagogical practices?’ was addressed in the context of teachers’ usage of digital learning mate- rials (DLMs). We adopted Fishbein’s Integrative Model of Behavior Prediction (IMBP), to investigate the various relationships between distal and proximal variables and intention. Mediation analysis revealed that the proximal variables attitude, subjective norm, and self-efficacy towards DLMs were significant predictors of teachers’ intention to use DLMs. The contribution of subjective norm, however, was modest. Attitude, subjective norm and self-efficacy mediated the effects of the following three distal variables on intention: previous use of DLMs, perceived knowledge and skills to use DLMs, and colleagues’ usage of DLMs. Persuasive communication and skills based training seem, therefore, appropriate interventions to promote a positive attitude towards DLMs and improve self-efficacy in using DLMs

Why do People Adopt, or Reject, Smartphone Security Tools?

A large variety of security tools exist for Smartphones, to help their owners to secure the phones and prevent unauthorised others from accessing their data and services. These range from screen locks to antivirus software to password managers. Yet many Smartphone owners do not use these tools despite their being free and easy to use. We were interested in exploring this apparent anomaly. A number of researchers have applied existing models of behaviour from other disciplines to try to understand these kinds of behaviours in a security context, and a great deal of research has examined adoption of screen locking mechanisms. We review the proposed models and consider how they might fail to describe adoption behaviours. We then present the Integrated Model of Behaviour Prediction (IMBP), a richer model than the ones tested thus far. We consider the kinds of factors that could be incorporated into this model in order to understand Smartphone owner adoption, or rejection, of security tools. The model seems promising, based on existing literature, and we plan to test its efficacy in future studies

[Virtual Reality Technology of Hajj Practice: An Innovation of The Future] Teknologi Virtual Reality Amali Haji: Satu Inovasi Masa Hadapan

Hajj is the culmination of worship required of every able Muslim. The implementation of this pilgrimage not only revolves around the theory or law of hakam, but this worship requires a thorough understanding while performing it. Practice, along with a clear understanding, is required for this worship to be accepted by God. The practice of HajjHajj is different from other acts of worship because it is an act of worship performed in a distant place, difficult to imagine and requires a clear and detailed explanation. Most pilgrimage teachings use actual aids such as the Kaaba model and the model of jamrah to enable a more precise picture to be given to the hujjaj or students who study it. Nevertheless, to what extent is the existing model able to give an accurate picture of this worship situation to the individual. Thus, the invention of Virtual Reality (VR) technology is one of the virtual technology approaches that can solve this problem. Through Virtual Reality (VR), students will be brought to an actual situation to someone as if they were in the realm of reality in the Holy Land while implementing the fifth pillar of Islam. The integration of VR technology in the teaching of umrah and HajjHajj is one of the best solution methods to provide in-depth exposure and give individuals a more precise understanding of umrah's implementation of Hajj. This VR innovation is an innovation of the future that is expected to have a practical impact on education, especially Islamic Education. Ibadah Haji merupakan kemuncak ibadah yang dituntut ke atas setiap muslim yang mampu. Pelaksanaan ibadah haji ini bukan hanya berkisar kepada teori atau hukum hakam sahaja namun ibadah ini memerlukan kepada pemahaman yang jitu semasa melaksanakannya. Amali beserta dengan pemahaman yang jelas memang dituntut agar ibadah ini diterima oleh Allah. Amali haji berbeza dengan ibadat lain kerana ia merupakan ibadat yang dilaksanakan di satu tempat yang jauh, sukar dibayangkan dan memerlukan kepada penerangan yang jelas dan terperinci. Kebanyakan pengajaran ibadah haji menggunakan bahan bantu sebenar seperti model Kaabah dan model jamrah bagi membolehkan gambaran lebih jelas diberikan kepada para hujjaj atau pelajar yang mempelajarinya. Namun sejauh manakah model maujud tersebut mampu memberi gambaran sebenar kepada situasi ibadah ini kepada individu. Maka, ciptaan teknologi Virtual Reality (VR) merupakan salah satu pendekatan teknologi maya yang mampu menyelesaikan permasalahan ini. Melalui Virtual Reality ( VR) pelajar akan didatangkan dengan situasi nyata kepada seseorang seolah-olah mereka berada di alam realiti di Tanah Haram sambil melaksanakan rukun Islam yang kelima. Integrasi teknologi VR dalam pengajaran ibadah umrah dan haji merupakan satu kaedah penyelesaian terbaik untuk memberi pendedahan yang mendalam dan memberi kefahaman yang lebih jelas kepada individu tentang pelaksanaan umrah dan haji. Inovasi VR ini merupakan satu inovasi baharu masa hadapan yang dijangkakan memberi impak yang efektif kepada dunia pendidikan khususnya Pendidikan Islam

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Education

International audienceAs Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) gradually permeate daily life, they are profoundly changing the way education is conceived and delivered. Teachers play a key role in this transformation process; their beliefs, pedagogical practices, and teaching skills are continuously challenged. ICT integration in the educational process can significantly enhance traditional courses and Internet-based education, i.e., e-learning, is becoming a serious alternative to traditional, face-to-face courses. To be used as a lever for pedagogical innovation and institutional transformation, teacher ICT competencies need to go beyond skills in ICT use per se, and enclose contextual knowledge about technology, pedagogy, and content. On the other hand, learners' engagement with ICT in education depends on their expectations and conceptions of learning and required assessment. A learner's experience with ICT in education is linked to his perception of systems' ease of use and usefulness in achieving learning goals. Adaptive learning systems open new potentialities for a personalized instruction which is tailored to the learner's characteristics. At the edge of a new era, schools, colleges, and higher education struggle to seize opportunities and overcome obstacles

Predicting teachers’ use of digital technology

In recent years, the use of digital technology and its relationship to the ability known as digital competence has become a core concept in discussions about the skills that individuals should possess in a knowledge society. Teachers’ skills in using digital technology are becoming a critical component of developing practical pedagogical knowledge for practice and student learning enhancement. The purpose of this study is to predict the factors that influence secondary school teachers when it comes to using digital technology. This study will establish relationships between personal innovativeness, technology self-efficacy, attitude toward digital technology, and digital competence. In Pahang, Malaysia, a survey was conducted with 493 secondary school teachers from 50 public secondary schools of 11 districts. Proportionate stratified sampling, cluster random sampling, and simple random sampling were used to obtain samples. The findings have established that technology self-efficacy, attitude towards digital technology, and digital competence significantly affect how teachers use digital technology. These findings emphasize the importance of increasing teachers’ digital competence as well as numerous elements that influence teachers’ use of digital technology to fulfill the expectations of future qualified professions and thus prepare students for their future

Setting-up a European Cross-Provider Data Collection on Open Online Courses

While MOOCS have emerged as a new form of open online education around the world, research is still lagging behind to come up with a sound theoretical basis that can cover the impact of socio- economic background variables, ICT competences, prior experiences and lifelong learning profile, variance in intentions, environmental influences, outcome expectations, learning experience, and economic return on taking and completing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The potential diversity of participants of MOOCs has been taken as a starting point to develop a theoretical model and survey instrument with the goal to establish a large-scale, cross-provider data collection of participants of (European) MOOCs. This article provides an overview of the theoretical model, the start-phase of the project, and reflects on first experiences with the cross- provider data collection.This work has been partially funded by a tender (JRC/SVQ/2013/J.3/0035/NC) of the European Commission’s Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS)

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING IMPACT OF PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS’ IDENTITY FORMATION ON USAGE OF DIGITAL LEARNING MATERIALS

Recently the results of a study examining the current state of digitized learning among different educational sectors in Germany revealed that students of teaching education are despite the availability of good technological infrastructure the least motivated group of students to use digital learning materials (DLMs). As students of teaching education are often regarded as the key factor of the educational digitization in schools, the question arises, “What motivates students’ of teaching education to integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in their daily pedagogical practices?”. To answer this question, we elaborate on the theory of Professional Identity Formation, while considering a teachers’ professional identity as a process in which different attributes, beliefs, values, motives, and experiences, the terms by which students define themselves in a professional role, are evaluated and internalized. Based on this a research model is proposed that combines the process of identity formation and the Context Input Process Product model, an evaluation model designed to achieve and improve accountability of educational programs. We intend to measure the influence of five selected variables: students’ motives to attend teacher education, faculty support, preparation for the teaching profession, professional orientation and commitment and their impact on students’ intentions to use DLM

Integrating ICTs into the Zimbabwean secondary school pre-service teachers’ curriculum

The need for nations to enhance their competitiveness by leveraging the imperatives of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has seen major shifts in teaching and learning strategies employed by educators globally. Research in Zimbabwean education has pointed to a gap in teachers’ competences in the use of information communication technologies (ICTs) for teaching. Using the UNESCO ICT competency for teachers and Bernstein’s (2000) theory of the pedagogic device we propose a conceptual framework for the pre-service ICT curriculum at four Zimbabwean secondary school teachers’ colleges. This is in terms of the complexities present in the nexus of the curriculum’s architecture, pedagogy and delivery context. The framework suggests strategies on how this curriculum could address the teachers’ competencies gap through effective integration of content, knowledge, skills, technology and pedagogy into the salient contextual aspects of the country’s education sector such as the constraining shortage of ICT resources.&nbsp

The role of transformative leadership, ICT-infrastructure and learning climate in teachers’ use of digital learning materials during their classes

This study investigated whether the school organizational variables transformative leadership (TL), ICT-infrastructure (technical and social), and organizational learning climate were related to teachers’ dispositional variables attitude, perceived norm, and perceived behavior control (PBC). The direct and indirect influences of these variables on teachers’ intention and use of modern technology such as digital learning materials (DLMs) were also investigated. A longitudinal design was used with three measurements spread out over three years, with 544 randomly selected teachers from the Dutch primary, secondary and vocational education. Model fit was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). All dispositional variables predicted the use of DLMs, mediated by teachers’ intention. TL had direct and indirect relationships via ICT-infrastructure and learning climate with attitude, perceived norm, and PBC. The longitudinal design proved the chronological effect of TL on learning climate and the dispositional variables. However, not all TL dimensions had relationships with ICT-infrastructure (only TL-vision and TL-intellectual stimulation) and with learning climate (only TL-intellectual stimulation). For educational practice, the results indicated that leadership can promote teachers’ use of DLMs directly and by supporting a school wide learning climate under the condition that an ICT-infrastructure exists