2. Australian Technology Acceptance

Australian Technology Acceptance
Annotated 2:

Beverley Oliver and Veronica Goerke, 2007, Australian undergraduates' use and ownership of emerging technologies: Implications and opportunities for creating engaging learning experiences for the Net Generation, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 2007, 23(2), 171-186.

In the article Oliver and Goerke suggest that Australian undergraduates, especially Net Generation (born between 1982 and 1991), have a high level of access to the Internet off campus, and use web resources for learning like their American Peers. Their high level of ownership of mobile phones and laptops can make "on the go" for interactivity possible through instant messaging, blogging and podcasting as well as a host of other Web 2.0 applications. Those devices appear to be getting smaller and smarter, and more prevalent and iPhone is one of top choices for students. Emerging technologies owned and used by students, and incorporated wisely into university curricula, can go some way towards enhancing high quality, face to face learning experiences.


The study examined beginning undergraduates' levels of Internet access, device ownership and use of emerging tools for social as well as for study purposes in Western Australian in two cohorts with a questionnaire as part of an initial data gathering exercise: the first (Business and Engineering students) in 2005, and the second (Engineering students) in 2007. The analysis of results notes changes in student behaviour in the two cohorts to negotiate how teachers of first year undergraduates can incorporate these tools and devices into extramural learning experiences in order to increase engagement and exploit the Net Generation's desire for 'connectedness'.

The two cohorts were rather different. In 2005, 413 students completed the survey; three quarters (76.8 %) were enrolled in a Business unit and the remainder were enrolled in an Engineering unit. The result shows nearly two-thirds were male (62.3%), just over two-thirds (69.5%) said their first language was English and the vast majority (88.6%) were between 17 and 25 years. In 2007, 290 engineering students completed the survey. Once again, the cohort was predominantly male (85.2%), just over three quarters (77.6%) said their first language was English and the vast majority (97.9%) were between 17 and 25 years. The majority of students in 2005 used instant messaging (>82%), with significant growth (p < .05) in the use of blogs and podcasting by 2007 (29.8% of students using blogs and 21.5% using podcasts). The 2007 students were also asked how often they used these tools and whether they used them for study purposes. The result shows that over half the students (57.4%) were frequent users of instant messaging and 44.4% used it often or occasionally for study purposes

The report focused on WA first year undergraduate student characteristics in three main areas: (1) their access to the Internet outside university and whether they used online resources to help with learning; (2) their ownership of laptops, handhelds, mobile phones and music devices; and (3) their use of emerging communications tools such as Short Messaging Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), instant messaging, blogging, mobile blogging, VoIP and podcasting. Similar results come from American students in larger scales.

This article is very helpful in my study of iPhone integrated with future m-learning as iPhone has quietly become the most profit product Apple has even produced and made Apple the 7th biggest mobile phone provider in front of Motorola (Apple report) and contributed %70 percent of smart phone market in Japan (another report from links before. The Net Gen students behaviour still the same as in 2007

The main limitation of the article is that the Sample data taken in 2005 and 2007 in two different demographic groups, it might alter the final finding a bit. Because the surveys were administered in different circumstances, the two cohorts were rather different. In 2005, 413 students completed the survey; three quarters (76.8 %) were enrolled in a Business unit and the remainder were enrolled in an Engineering unit. In 2007, 290 engineering students completed the survey. Thus the further and mega data analysis may be needed in the future if we like to exam the accuracy of the report.

From the article it also suggested that there is a gap to be bridged in this matter: even though undergraduate students own and use emerging technologies and tools, their university teachers are less likely to do so and university adoption of institution-wide technologies is rarely a hasty process. The similar result came from Tunku Badariah Tunku Ahmad al et. Faculty’s acceptance of computer based technology: Cross-validation of an extended model Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 2010, 26(2), 268-279 the present study is to validate an extended technology acceptance model (TAME) on the data derived from the faculty members of a university in an ongoing, computer mediated work setting. And the data were collected from a self reported questionnaire administered to 731 faculty members of a public university in Malaysia and it suggested that Although the TAME’s causal structure was applicable to both male and female staff, age group appeared to moderate the structural relationships among the constructs of interest, and instructional support from the university management in terms of incentives and infrastructure is a crucial element that will influence faculty members to adopt new technology in their teaching.

The article valid the argument that while the students acceptance of the technology is not limited by age/gender but age could be the dividing point for instructor/students so for the instructor to become familiar with the latest technology, the faculty ‘s support is necessary – like the ACU example and the program was successful because that faculty is behind them….