Topical Collection on "Applications of Emerging Technology in Education" of Journal of Intelligent Communication(JIC)-Scilight

A topical collection of Journal of Intelligent Communication (JIC) (E-ISSN: 2754-5792).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 December 2024

The use of technology in Higher Education is now routine across global education, though actual practice around that use varies widely. The use of Virtual Learning Environments to support campus and distance learning is near standard, though again, the use of these can range from essentially document repositories to platforms that manage student interaction, to fully interactive environments to support students learning and assist staff in managing students and their assessments. These environments can support campus-based education, with blended learning where the digital technologies enhance provision, through to fully distance online learning with traditionally managed classes through to the computer-managed Massive Open Online Courses.

Emerging technologies, such as virtual reality, the Internet of Things, and generative AI, offer new opportunities and new challenges. They allow the potential for new interaction metaphors for education, enabling inclusivity and addressing some of the global challenges in education. They also raise new ethical and practical dilemmas, with generative AI potentially changing the nature of assessment and the focus of teaching and learning.

Technology can also offer new insights into students' learning, and enable interventions and support to aid student engagement, retention, and attainment. This falls into the area of educational data mining, or learning analytics. Whilst data mining is an established computer science area, the emergence of effective Machine Learning and analytical tools means that there are new opportunities to analyze, understand, and act on the huge volumes of data our students are now generating as they interact with modern learning environments.

Lastly, another aspect of technology is in the validation and certification. With digital credentials and technologies such as blockchain, there is new scope for reliable and authenticated recording of learning enabling truly global education.

This collection aims to bring together established, current, and developing good practices and exemplars of how to effectively utilize technology in education. Papers may focus on pedagogy and practice, or the underpinning technologies and approaches.

Please visit the Submissions Guidelines page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Manuscripts should be submitted online through the online manuscript submission and editorial system. Additionally, please include a cover letter specifying that the manuscript is intended for the Topical Collection "Applications of Emerging Technology in Education" when submitting it online. Manuscripts can be submitted until the submission deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal and will be listed together on the Topical Collection website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract can be sent to the Editorial Office jic@ukscip.com for announcement on this website.

The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 300 USD. Authors who are unable to cover this cost or those who are invited to submit papers may be eligible for discounts or waivers.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process.

Article

Predicting University Teachers' Behavior Intentions Toward Digital Technologies: An Extension of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology Model (UTAUT)

by John Demuyakor, Vivian Adjeikaa Doe, Christian Tachie-Djan, Muhammad Arshad Bhatti, Stevens Justice Avenyo, 25 March 2024

Information and Communication Technologies over the past decades have enhanced University Teachers’ ability to provide effective and prompt teaching and learning. Therefore, this study explored University Teachers' behaviour intentions toward the use of digital technologies for teaching and learning in higher educational institutions in Ghana. We grounded our study on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) by testing the contributions of two key variables, the Cost of Internet Data and the Cost of Smart Phones to predict Behaviour Intentions (BI) of university teachers in three higher educational institutions towards the use of Digital Technologies (DTs) for online teaching and learning. We applied Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling for data analysis. Hypotheses testing on how the Cost of Internet Data and the Cost of Smartphones influence university teachers' Behaviour Intentions (BI) toward the use of Digital Technologies (DTs) were supported. The findings of our study further showed that university teachers’ intentions to use DTs are influenced by determinants such as social influence, personal experience, and facilitating conditions. The study concludes that the polarity in the findings could help the university authorities to understand the factors to consider in selecting appropriate digital technologies for teaching and learning in universities. The findings from this study are a template for University teachers to get governments to change policies that affect the introduction of digital technologies in higher educational institutions.