Staff View: Technology use and digital learning characteristics among malaysian undergraduates

Technology use and digital learning characteristics among malaysian undergraduates

Digital natives, the net generation or millennial generation are among the labels used to describe the characteristics of learners who are now in universities. They are assumed to be proficient in and use a wide range of digital technologies. In addition, they were posited to have different learning...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Hong, Kian-Sam, Norazila, Abdul Aziz
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	UTM Press. 2014
Subjects:	L Education (General) T Technology (General)
Online Access:	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/5236/1/Technology%20Use.pdf http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/5236/ http://www.sainshumanika.utm.my/index.php/sainshumanika/article/view/384
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

id	my.unimas.ir.5236
record_format	eprints
spelling	my.unimas.ir.52362022-01-26T01:03:43Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/5236/ Technology use and digital learning characteristics among malaysian undergraduates Hong, Kian-Sam Norazila, Abdul Aziz L Education (General) T Technology (General) Digital natives, the net generation or millennial generation are among the labels used to describe the characteristics of learners who are now in universities. They are assumed to be proficient in and use a wide range of digital technologies. In addition, they were posited to have different learning preferences. A number of studies have been carried out to determine and describe their knowledge, skills, understanding and purposes of using technologies. However, some researchers have begun to question some of the claims made about this group regarding their ability to use technology especially for learning purposes. Research and information on this group of learners in the Malaysian and Asian context regarding their use of technology and learning needs are limited. This paper reports a study that investigated the technology use and digital learning characteristics of undergraduates at a Malaysian public university. The cross sectional survey involved a random sample of 1059 undergraduates at the university. The results of the study showed that the students made use of digital technologies for their social activities and academic work. They regularly made use of a number of digital tools such as the mobile phone, laptop computer, Internet websites, Google, and Facebook/ MySpace both for their social activities and learning purposes. They perceive the digital tools used in their daily life to be useful for formal learning. They also appeared to have learning preferences similar to those posited for digital natives. These findings suggest a need for universities to further explore ways to harness common and applicable digital technologies to enhance students’ learning. In general, these findings further point to a need for higher education environments in Malaysia to evaluate their capacity to facilitate the learning needs of the technology-driven and multi-sensory new generation of students. It is suggested that further studies be undertaken to validate the findings of the present study and explicate reasons for students’ preferred use of digital technologies for formal and informal learning UTM Press. 2014 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/5236/1/Technology%20Use.pdf Hong, Kian-Sam and Norazila, Abdul Aziz (2014) Technology use and digital learning characteristics among malaysian undergraduates. Sains Humanika, 2 (1). ISSN 2289-6996 http://www.sainshumanika.utm.my/index.php/sainshumanika/article/view/384
institution	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
building	Centre for Academic Information Services (CAIS)
collection	Institutional Repository
continent	Asia
country	Malaysia
content_provider	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
content_source	UNIMAS Institutional Repository
url_provider	http://ir.unimas.my/
language	English
topic	L Education (General) T Technology (General)
spellingShingle	L Education (General) T Technology (General) Hong, Kian-Sam Norazila, Abdul Aziz Technology use and digital learning characteristics among malaysian undergraduates
description	Digital natives, the net generation or millennial generation are among the labels used to describe the characteristics of learners who are now in universities. They are assumed to be proficient in and use a wide range of digital technologies. In addition, they were posited to have different learning preferences. A number of studies have been carried out to determine and describe their knowledge, skills, understanding and purposes of using technologies. However, some researchers have begun to question some of the claims made about this group regarding their ability to use technology especially for learning purposes. Research and information on this group of learners in the Malaysian and Asian context regarding their use of technology and learning needs are limited. This paper reports a study that investigated the technology use and digital learning characteristics of undergraduates at a Malaysian public university. The cross sectional survey involved a random sample of 1059 undergraduates at the university. The results of the study showed that the students made use of digital technologies for their social activities and academic work. They regularly made use of a number of digital tools such as the mobile phone, laptop computer, Internet websites, Google, and Facebook/ MySpace both for their social activities and learning purposes. They perceive the digital tools used in their daily life to be useful for formal learning. They also appeared to have learning preferences similar to those posited for digital natives. These findings suggest a need for universities to further explore ways to harness common and applicable digital technologies to enhance students’ learning. In general, these findings further point to a need for higher education environments in Malaysia to evaluate their capacity to facilitate the learning needs of the technology-driven and multi-sensory new generation of students. It is suggested that further studies be undertaken to validate the findings of the present study and explicate reasons for students’ preferred use of digital technologies for formal and informal learning
format	Article
author	Hong, Kian-Sam Norazila, Abdul Aziz
author_facet	Hong, Kian-Sam Norazila, Abdul Aziz
author_sort	Hong, Kian-Sam
title	Technology use and digital learning characteristics among malaysian undergraduates
title_short	Technology use and digital learning characteristics among malaysian undergraduates
title_full	Technology use and digital learning characteristics among malaysian undergraduates
title_fullStr	Technology use and digital learning characteristics among malaysian undergraduates
title_full_unstemmed	Technology use and digital learning characteristics among malaysian undergraduates
title_sort	technology use and digital learning characteristics among malaysian undergraduates
publisher	UTM Press.
publishDate	2014
url	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/5236/1/Technology%20Use.pdf http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/5236/ http://www.sainshumanika.utm.my/index.php/sainshumanika/article/view/384
_version_	1724078441272180736
score	13.211869

Technology use and digital learning characteristics among malaysian undergraduates

Similar Items