Information and Communication Technology is the term used to describe exciting and innovative ways to provide lifelong learners with global access to information, learning and support.
Published in Chapter:
My Experience Tells the Story: Exploring Technology Adoption from a Qualitative Perspective - A Pilot Study
Terry T. Kidd (Texas A&M University, USA)
Copyright: © 2010
|Pages: 16
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-782-9.ch015
Abstract
For more than forty years, information technology (IT) has been part of the infrastructure supporting schools and universities. Essential functions such as central planning, budgeting, scheduling, grading, and maintaining student records have drawn on IT resources, beginning with mainframe computers and migrating to other platforms. Now routine business tasks are distributed throughout the workplace. Individual departments and faculty members regularly use tools like word processing, spreadsheets, publishing tools, email, and the Web for their research and administrative needs. Now that technology is widely available on most university campuses (The Campus Computing Project, 2001), the integration of these technologies into higher education for teaching and learning practices have become more important. According to Schrum, Skeele, & Grant (2002, p. 258), professors use software tools, like word processors, but rarely use technology for teaching or require students to use it for assessment purposes. McKenzie (2001) and Parisot (1995) examine the standard practice of higher education institutions in which they buy the new and complex technologies and simply make them available to faculty members without any attempts to build an infrastructure to support faculty adoption practices. If higher education is to survive the onslaught of technology, then they have to devise plans to support the adoption of such innovation (Hagenson & Castle, 2003, p. 2).a