A Quantitative Examination of Factors that Influence Technology Integration in Higher Education System

Technology Integration in Higher Education System Indonesian Journal of EFL and Linguistics Vol. 1 No. 2, 2016 eISSN: 2503-4197, pISSN: 2527-5070 www. indonesian-efl-journal.org A Quantitative Examination of Factors that Influence Technology Integration in Higher Education System Hicham Laabidi* Teacher-trainer at CREMF, Meknés, Morocco Youssouf Laabidi PhD candidate Faculty of Educational Sciences, Madinat Al Irfane, Rabat, Morocco. (*Corresponding Author) e-mail: Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe the status of technology integration in Moroccan higher education system. Forty-six university English language teachers were selected from two universities: Moulay Ismail University Faculty of Arts and Humanities – Meknes and Sidi Mohamed Ben AbdellahDahr – El Mahraz – Fes . The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages. The findings revealed that teachers consider Information and Communication Technology very essential in their teaching. The results also showed that computer technology is integrated in Moroccan universities at low levels. This lack of use of the new technologies in instruction and learning was attributed to several barriers including insufficient professional development, inadequate access to computer technologies, and lack of computer training to name only few. Keywords: technology integration, higher education, computer technology, computer training. Indonesian Journal of EFL and Linguistics, Vol. 1 (2), 2016 175 Technology Integration in Higher Education System 1. INTRODUCTION Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become a crucial section of most organisations and businesses these days (Zhang, Aikman, 2007). Computers started to be placed in schools in the early 1980s, and numerous researchers propose that ICT will be a significant segment of education for the next generation too (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000).It is self evident that ICT has been developing very quickly in recent years and opens new directions in the area of education. In other words, the speedy growth in ICT has brought conspicuous and notable changes in the twenty-first century, and influenced the requirements of modern societies. Bransford et al. (2000) confirm that “ what is now known about learning provides important guidelines for uses of technology that can help students and teachers develop the competencies needed for the twenty-first century” (p. 206). Dawes (2001) confirms that technologies have the capacity to assist education across the curriculum and supply chances for useful communication between learners and educators in ways that have not been possible before. That is to say, ICT in education has the ability to be effective in bringing about changes in ways of teaching. However, this potential may not easily be achieved, as Dawes ( 2001) emphasizes when he states that ‘‘problems arise when teachers are expected to implement changes in what may well be adverse circumstances” (P.61). Due to the significance of ICT in society and possibly in the future of education, recognizing the likely barriers to the integration of these technologies in schools would be a valuable step in ameliorating the quality of teaching and learning. Balanskat, Blamire, and kefala (2006) discuss that although teachers seem to admit the importance of ICT in schools, obstacles proceed to be encountered during the processes of adopting these technologies. Obviously, the barriers to the integration of ICT into teaching and learning environments have been examined in several distinctive studies. Ertmer (1999), for instance, divides the barriers into two main classes: first-order and second-order barriers. First-order barriers stand for those difficulties concerning basically various kinds of resources such as equipment, time, training and support. This means that if teachers do not have enough materials, it will be very hard if not impossible to obtain a satisfactory integration. The second-order barriers relate to teachers’ underlying beliefs about teaching and learning. It is self evident that ICT has been developing very quickly in recent years and opens new directions in the area of education. In other words, the speedy growth in ICT has brought conspicuous and notable changes in the twenty-first century, and influenced the requirements of modern societies. Bransford et al. (2000) confirm that “ what is now known about learning provides important guidelines for uses of technology that can help students and teachers develop the competencies needed for the twenty-first century” (p. 206). Dawes (2001) confirms that technologies have the capacity to assist education across the curriculum and supply chances for useful communication between learners and educators in ways that have not been possible before. That is to say, ICT in Indonesian Journal of EFL and Linguistics, Vol. 1 (2), 2016 176 Technology Integration in Higher Education System education has the ability to be effective in bringing about changes in ways of teaching. The primary purpose of this paper is to obtain satisfactory understanding of how important do Moroccan university English language teachers think ICT is in their teaching. Also, it intends to examine and analyse the difficulties and obstacles faced by teachers while employing ICT equipments in their classes. Therefore, the current paper seeks to answer the following research questions: 1. How essential do Moroccan university English language teachers think ICT is in teaching? 2. What are Moroccan university English language teachers perceived barriers to the integration of ICT in teaching? 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can play multiple roles in learning and teaching processes. Various researchers and theorists state that the use of computers can lend a hand to learners to become knowledgeable, decrease the amount of direct instruction given to them, and provide instructors with a chance to assist those students with particular needs (Iding, Crosby, & Speitel, 2002; Shamatha, Peressini,&Meymaris,2004; Romeo,2006). Becta (2004) suggestes that the success of the integration of ICT into education differs from curriculum to curriculum, place to place, and class to class, depending on the way in which it is applied. Bottino (2003) and Sharma ( 2003) highlight that the employment of ICT can boost performance, teaching, administration, and enhance pertinent skills in undeveloped societies. Besides, ICT can ameliorate the nature and value of education by assisting learning by doing, real time conversation, directed instruction, problem solving, information seeking and analysis, and critical thinking, as well as the ability to communicate, collaborate and learn (Yuen, Law, Wong, 2003). Computer Technology can be defined as new multimedia technologies, including computer software, CD-ROM, the Internet, mobile phone, television, movie as well as In (...truncated)