Information and Communication Technology has experienced rapid changes over the recent past. This Technology has expanded its perimeter, is now beneficial in the educational sphere since it facilitates learning, and is not limited by time and place. Despite the substantial investment in ICT among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, significant gaps remain, especially in knowledge acquisition. Knowledge maps come in to identify areas where research gaps exist in the application of ICT among university students. Every OECD country is working to ensure that every university student accesses a functional configuration of multimedia computers, technical support, ICT-competent teachers and educational software. The rapid technological advances in ICT impact the way the students access, acquire and use knowledge. ICT tools have their advantages and disadvantages that serve as the research gaps in the technological development. Detailed research on ICT application in education among the OECD countries is essential in identifying the ICT tools and their implications among the university students. The main points of address in this paper are:
ICT tools
The impacts of ICT tools
Advantages of ICT use in schools
Disadvantages of ICT tools currently in use among the university students
ICT Tools and their Use
The education systems are under the spotlight in many countries worldwide. Information and Communication Technologies come in to aid address numerous challenges facing the education sector. ICT serves as an essential catalyst that transforms education by improving the current teaching and learning strategies and at the same time introducing new pedagogies (UNESCO, 2004, p. 73). Some ICT tools are widely used by university students in OECD countries. These tools include Google Apps, Twitter, YouTube, Edmodo, Remind, WordPress, Evernote, Puzzle, and Dropbox.
Google Apps
Google Apps for education commonly referred to as G Suite Enterprise for education is an ICT tool that offers additional learning materials for various institutions and customized explicitly for education. Over forty million students and educators worldwide use this suite to access educational materials and to enhance their collaboration with one another. Google Docs for example aid teacher-student collaboration and offer a calendar for planning their lessons. Currently, Google Apps for Education has over 70 million users worldwide. According to Punie, Zinnbauer and Cabrera (2006), G Suite Enterprise for education majorly aid eLearning in tertiary education in web-supplemented, web-dependent, mixed mode and fully online courses (p. 10). Google Apps in face-to-face classroom aid in research and extensive analysis of a subject.
Twitter has evolved to become a legitimate media for personal learning among learners and educators. Twitter is a micro-blogging portal used by students to get insightful ideas from fellow students around the world. Teachers also gain knowledge on how to develop effective teaching methods. Twitter facilitates students’ collaboration where they can share helpful links with one another to aid in research. It also makes data collection easier since researchers can engage their target population in a poll. These polls are then tabulated to come up with data helpful in a given research project.
YouTube
YouTube is a video sharing platform with myriad channels that aid in sharing educational videos among students. Many students and educators make use of the YouTube to access scientific researches and procedures for tackling a given topic or a laboratory test. Over the past decade, YouTube has helped many students share different subjects and lessons learned. One of the most popular channels in educational affairs is the Shots of Awe that educate students on various topics learned in a school setting.
Edmodo and Remind
Edmodo and Remind are platforms used by teachers to schedule assignments, read much about the trending educational matters, monitor student’s progress, and send messages to the students. These platforms enable the communication between the teacher and the student despite their distances apart. These ICT tools allow the teacher access how the students perform in their homework and send necessary instructions to one another.
WordPress and Evernote
WordPress is blogging software that enables teachers to create classroom blogs, and their students contribute to it. WordPress encourages distance learning and thinking deeply in discussions. The blog also hones students to better their writing skills. Evernote on the other side is an app that aid teachers share information and learning resources with their students. It consists of a tag and reminder features that help individuals schedule their time and utilizing all the learning materials present.
EDpuzzle and Dropbox
EDpuzzle is a software that aids students to add their voices to video presentations. Currently, many students advocate the use of EDpuzzle to create their presentations. Dropbox, on the other hand, is a cloud storage service that aids students turn in their assignments for marking. Dropbox also helps students access their documents any time they need. Much of its functionalities have been reduced by the inclusion of Google Drive among the G Suite Enterprise for education (Davitt, 2005, p. 11). Other essential tools that cannot be omitted despite being supplanted by other powerful software include Skype, Socrative and Class Dojo.
Different countries embrace different tools of ICT in their schools. Research done on different universities in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, France, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand portrayed the most common tools used. Table 1 samples some of the most commonly used tools and their popularity.
Name of ICT Tool
No. of
Respondent in %
Rank
e-Group
86
78.2
5
98
89.0
2
Fax
40
36.4
8
Internet
90
81.8
4
Intranet
95
86.4
3
Mobile Phone
99
90.0
1
Video Conference
30
27.3
9
Dropbox
79
67.5
7
YouTube
80
74.2
6
Table 1: Sample data showing the usage of various ICT tools among university students (Saleem and Batcha, 2013, p. 51).
The usage of these ICT tools varies among the different genders. Table 2 offers sample data collected from the same students but in different figures based on their gender.
ICT Tool
Male
Female
Total
Percentage (%)
e-Group
30
28
58
52.7
50
55
105
95.5
Fax
20
20
40
36.4
Internet
40
45
85
77.2
Intranet
14
16
30
27.2
Mobile Phone
53
55
108
98.1
Video Conference
40
44
84
76.9
Dropbox
54
52
106
95.8
YouTube
40
20
60
53.8
Table 2: Sample data showing the usage of various ICT tools on gender basis (Saleem and Batcha, 2013, p. 52).
Advantages
ICT tools play a vital role in the teaching and learning processes for both students and teachers. Therefore, the benefits of ICT tools are easily noticed especially in a digital classroom where ‘chalk and talk method’ is no longer widely applicable in teaching. ICT include web tools such as presentations and video resources that aid in the visual and detailed analysis of content. The PowerPoint software belonging to Microsoft package is a good example of such presentation tools aiding subject and content presentation among university students (Davitt, 2005, p. 24). ICT tools also give students a chance to acquire fully detailed ideas concerning particular topics. Here students have the freedom to use social media, search engines, blogs and video conferencing to research and discuss their findings with one another. ICT tools boost students’ innovation and creativity skills using the various activity guides, sample question papers and worksheets available online. Therefore, a student does not fully depend on the teacher to guide their study and grade them. Access to educational resources through ICT also help teachers prepare their lessons (Venezky and Mulkeen, 2002, p. 7). Digital diaries such as the blogs aid in expressing one’s views and thoughts. The blogs aid multiple access of information and peers can easily access these blogs using ICT tools.
Disadvantages
Despite all its benefits in teaching and learning field, ICT tools have some shortcomings to the students using it. Often, the continued use of ICT has an adverse effect on the language. Abbreviations have become more familiar with the students to the extent that they use them in their academic work. While chatting, students intentionally omit some vowels or write some names in short forms as a way of shortening the message and speed chat (Venezky and Mulkeen, 2002, p. 7). These forms of writings create a norm among the students making it easy for them to error in class writings. Secondly, ICT tools play a significant role in the reduced originality missing in students’ write-ups. The readily access and the easy availability of subject contents online make some students lazy. Instead of using the available resources to come up with their work, some students opt to label other individual’s work as theirs. The reduced originality promotes plagiarism and degrades the level of education offered in universities (Venezky and Mulkeen, 2002, p. 9). Additionally, ICT tools such as social media are addictive, and some students tend to spend much of their time accessing contents not beneficial to them and at the same time promote immorality.
Conclusion
The impact of Information and Communication Technology on the current generation is easily noticed even through their socialization. The older models of teachings are being replaced with advanced means that favor the young age. Therefore, the society has a role of ensuring that the current technology is embraced and directed towards knowledge acquisition. If the technology is not well controlled, then its shortcomings may outshine its benefits among the current generation.
References
Bangkok, U.N.E.S.C.O., 2004. Schoolnet toolkit. Bangkok: UNESCO Bangkok. Retrieved July 18, p.2005.
Davitt, J., 2005. New tools for learning: Accelerated learning meets ICT. A"C Black.
Punie, Y., Zinnbauer, D. and Cabrera, M., 2006. A review of the impact of ICT on learning. European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Working Paper prepared for DG EAC.
Saleem, A., SZ, S.T. and Batcha, M.S., 2013. Application and uses of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in academic libraries: an overview. International Journal of Library Science, 2(3), pp.49-52.
Venezky, R. and Mulkeen, A., 2002. ICT in innovative schools: case studies of change and impacts. Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD), Department for Education, Schooling for Tomorrow. URL: http://www. Oecd. org/site/schoolingfortomorrowknowledgebase/themes/ict/41187025. pdf.
