The influence of generational differences on the integration of educational technology in higher learning institutions

Abstract

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) influences most aspects of life and work, and the education sector, especially higher education, is not an exception to this. The higher education environment has a range of generations working in it, as it is the environment keeping and retaining lecturers up to an older age than most sectors. Under this premise, this study contributes to an understanding of the influences of generational differences amongst lecturers and how it affects the way they integrate technologies into the classroom for teaching and learning. The main aim of this research study was to determine the influence of generational identities and how they affect different lecturers in the way they integrate technology into the classroom for teaching and learning. To explore this influence, lecturers from three higher learning institutions from two Southern African countries were engaged in how they integrate and use technology in class. A qualitative research design was followed for this interpretive research inquiry, and data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 34 lecturers from the three higher learning institutions. Transcripts of the interviews were analysed using a computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) tool called Leximancer. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) was also used as an analysis framework. Literature reviews and strategic plans of the three institutions were used as secondary data. The findings indicate that belonging to a certain generation does not influence the way a lecturer integrates and uses technology in the classroom. Other prominent factors, such as students, use, and technology, emerged as factors of importance that influence a lecturer to integrate and use technology in the classroom. The study contributes to the body of knowledge with the findings from the empirical evidence as well as proposing the generational technology integration framework that covers aspects of technology integration based on generational identity aspects of the lecturers. The framework is based on the tenets of ANT’s moments of translation and fused with the main tenets of the Generational Theory, which informs the framework on the typical features of a generation.