Implications of UTAUT and High School Students

Last post, I had mentioned that I used a TAM instrument (specifically something called the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model (UTAUT) with high school students to measure their acceptance of a technology, namely a WIKI page.  My findings were interesting (see above); I do also want to mention that I have done the same research this year again (without a publication hanging over it - just some simple in-class research done by the classroom teacher - and so far, my findings are replicating themselves (this is very exciting!).  What I have found this year is that it is the ease-of-use that is driving the actual usage of the technology, not the usefulness.  Also, there is again a gender bias (girls used the WIKI a bit more than boys). 

So, what does this suggest and how do I use this information in a classroom?  Well, firstly using a WIKI should not be a one shot deal, as experience with it will definitely change their usage (true, in this study the people who were more apprehensive actually used it more, but it was not clear if that was gender or GPA as it was the girls who were more apprehensive, used the WIKI more, and had the higher GPA overall); this should put the students at ease a bit more.  Also, because of the  difference in confidence levels for each gender, “This may indicate that different forms of intervention are necessary to encourage the interests of male and females with respect to IT” (Forssen et. al., 2011, p. 55).  Secondly, group work is an issue with high school students that needs to be addressed; they need to be taught how to work in groups and it needs to be practiced.  In my study, fear of group work came out loud and clear in  the focus group discussions after the WIKI unit was implemented, with many students mentioning how worried they were about working with other people that they had not worked with before. It is possible that nervousness about group work could be playing a role in how effectively students will use a WIKI for collaborative work.  Strategies for this might include keeping groupings of students together for more than one project, thus allowing students to get used to the partners they have in the groups.  As well, previous research suggests that having students assessed both individually and as a group can decrease “any resentment among members that can be created when an individual or small number of people completes a large amount of the work” (Vaca, Lapp, & Fisher, 2011, 273); assessment should therefore include these two views, something that the inherent user tracking system in a WIKI easily allows for.

My next blog post will deal with something that I implemented last year during my Science 8 class, called Understanding By Design.  To be honest, this was one of the most exciting things I have done in my educational experience and allowed me to change my assessment strategies to better fit students needs. Stay tuned!

On a different but connected note...
Tomorrow I will be talking about this study at Thompson Rivers University during their Language, Culture and Community Research Symposium. The website for this event is www.tru.ca/lcc and the Twitter hashtag is #lcctru for those who are interested.  As well, one of the projects I have for this summer is to get my thesis converted into a journal paper for publication, which I will be doing with my supervisor Dr. Carol Rees.  I will give you more information on this as I go.