Modelo V de Verificación y Validación

The teachers provided comments on student-related factors in relation to students’ prior experience, and students’ technical and skills.

Students’ prior experience

For the most part, the teachers commented that differences in students’ prior experience with ICT had little impact on them, as shown in these comments:

I think that there is a small impact by my students [technical skills] because the subject that I am teaching does not require me to use much ICT. As stated earlier, I use ICT applications such as email or chat software for correcting and marking students’ writing work. I think 99% of the students could use those applications, even at the expert level (Helen).

Actually at Hanoi University, the application of ICT into teaching is not too hard for teachers. For example, before using the courseware EDO (English Discovery Online), students and teachers participated in an EDO introductory course. Furthermore, in my lectures on Culture of English- speaking countries, if my students need to use projectors for their presentation, they can have weeks of preparation for their presentation, so they can seek technical assistance from me or from the technicians immediately… thus [the impact of their prior experience to ICT use] is not very considerable (Judy). Students’ technical knowledge and skills

The impact of students’ technical knowledge and skills on the EFL teachers’ ICT use was perceived by two teachers (Mark and Cindy) as depending on who were the users of ICT in the class. If teachers were the sole users of ICT in the class, then students’ technical knowledge and skills appeared to have no impact. However, when both teachers and students were ICT users in the class, students’ technical knowledge and skills appeared to matter. If students lacked technical knowledge to complete ICT-related tasks, there was a greater reliance on the teacher (Mark).

Moreover according to these two teachers, the extent to which students’ ICT skills and knowledge levels is an influencing factor seemed to depend on the teaching styles the EFL teachers adopted. They both gave examples on teacher-centric ICT use and student- centric ICT use to illustrate the impact of students’ ICT skills and knowledge:

125 If a teacher integrates ICT to the extent that he/she just uses ICT to display information, then students’ technical knowledge and skills does not have any influence at all. If a teacher uses Web-based activities in teaching, students will then need to master certain basic skills such as turning on/off the computer, logging in and off some software and information literacy skills. In classroom teaching, if a student is without those skills, then teachers would need to help. (Mark)

For example, if I need to find teaching resources from the Internet and modify them to use in my Listening class through laptop and loudspeaker, students’ technical knowledge does not seem to influence, because teachers are the only users of ICT in that class … In other lessons, if teachers use Power Point to model a good presentation, and later students are the ones who use the software for their individual presentations, it would be an impact if students could not use computers. Or in a

pronunciation lesson, if students need to use ICT to record their practice, it would be very hard for them to do so without knowing how to function the software properly, that is when there is an impact and when they need their teachers’ assistance (Cindy).

Notably, the teachers were not bothered if the students’ levels of technical skills were higher than their own. On the contrary, they saw this as a benefit. In this case, the

teachers tended to use students with better technical skills as an aid in their classes. The following comment by Mark is typical in this regard:

… If teachers could ask students who are better technically to assist those who are weaker, or to teach their teachers some tricks to use ICT, I think students would be willing to do so because their skills are highly appreciated ... Teachers should not think that they must always be better than their students, especially when it comes to ICT (Mark).

Indeed, Cindy thought that if students had better technical knowledge and skills, this could even become a motivation for teachers to learn more about ICT. As she elaborated, she would be “happy to learn from her students” and thought that this would be “a good chance for her as a teacher to know these students’ learning needs”, so she “could design lessons with ICT to meet their expectations”. Another teacher (Judy), however, raised concerns about “losing her managerial position in class,” if students were technically better, but later acknowledged that if that was the case, she would need to learn more about ICT to catch up with her students.

Finally, three teachers acknowledged that there was a gap in students’ technical knowledge and skills, which had certain level of impact on their use of ICT. According to what they reported, the students who came from a metropolitan area appeared to be better than students who came from the rural setting in terms of technical knowledge and skills:

126 Students could have access to computers and the Internet in high school, so they could use computers, the Internet and software fairly well. However, for those who come from the rural or remote area, they still have difficulties. Some of them might not know how to use Word or Excel (Mark).

Students who come from the city have better access to ICT and can keep themselves updated, yet there are a big number of students who come from other areas, some of which do not have Internet coverage, so it is not surprising that these students have never touched a computer or used the Internet (Mary). There is a certain gap in technical skills between students who come from Hanoi and those who come from other provinces (Valerie).

Although the teachers did not think that this gap was a barrier to their ICT use (Mary), they did indicate that this gap made the students puzzled for a few weeks at the beginning (Valerie). They also reported that they needed to provide technical assistance to students who were in need. As commented by Mary, she needed to spend the first 15 minutes of the lesson instructing students on how to use some technical features.