As digital technologies form an inextricable part of young people's everyday lives, some commentators claim that the current generation of learners think and learn differently from their predecessors. This study investigated the validity of this claim by surveying 799 undergraduate and 81 postgraduate students at a large research-intensive university in New Zealand to document their use of digital technologies on university and social activities and comparing three age groups of students (under 20, 20-30 and over 30) to see whether there were any differences in their learning characteristics. The findings of the study showed that while students spent a large amount of time on digital technologies, the range of digital technologies they used was rather limited. There were also no practical generational differences in the technology use pattern and learning characteristics found in this study. The results of this study suggest that generation is not a determining factor in students' use of digital technologies for learning nor has generation had a radical impact on learning characteristics of higher education students.
As in the developed nations, developing countries in the Southeast Asian region increasingly are recognising the important role higher education plays in enhancing the human resources of a nation for promoting its development in a world of depleting natural resources. Advances and pervasiveness of ICT in the society mean that higher education systems in the region are increasingly leveraging ICT in handling the many arising challenges faced by higher education systems in Southeast Asia. Some of the possible roles of ICT in higher education in the face of these challenges discussed in this paper are what and how students learn, when and where students learn, who the new faces of students and lecturers are, and ways to reduce the cost of education. However, research-based knowledge on how ICT has been and can be used to enhance the design, delivery and management of higher education programs in the Southeast Asia region is not readily available. Furthermore, countries in Southeast Asia are at different stages of development in the use of ICT in education. Thus, success stories, experiences and lessons learnt from the use of ICT in higher education will be of immense importance for educators and administrators who are at the forefront of integrating ICT for higher education in countries in the region.
We compared the equation approach and unitary approach in helping students (n = 59) learn percentage change problems from a cognitive load perspective. The equation approach emphasized a two-part learning process. Part 1 revised prior knowledge of percentage quantity; Part 2 integrated the percentage quantity and the original amount in an equation for solution. Central to the unitary approach is the concept of unit percentage (1%). The unitary approach would expect to incur high element interactivity because of the intrinsic nature of its solution steps, and the need to search and integrate quantity and percentage in order to act as a point of reference for calculating the unit percentage. Test results and the instructional efficiency measure favored the equation approach. It was suggested that the equation approach reduced the intrinsic cognitive load associated with percentage change problems via sequencing and prior knowledge.
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