Student use of, and engagement with, information technology

The emergence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has changed the nature of the learning environments experienced by school students. ... The connection between the learner and the learning environment is central to understanding how virtual learning environments motivate or engage students... The research literature on engagement in general has distinguished between three forms of engagement; behavioural, emotional and cognitive. These distinctions provide a means by which students? engagement with information technology can be described. Behavioural engagement refers to participation (both how much and in what forms) in technology-related activities. In this context behavioural engagement pre-supposes opportunities to engage with information technologies. Emotional engagement refers to the ways in which students respond to the use of information technologies and can be considered in terms of their attitudes towards the technologies and their motivation to learn with those technologies. Cognitive engagement refers to the ways in which the interaction with information technology influences approaches to learning, investment of effort in learning and outcomes of learning. This paper considers the use made of, and engagement with, ICT (mainly in the form of computer technology) by Australian school students. [p.1, ed