Page 193 - International Perspectives on Effective Teaching and Learning in Digital Education

University Faculty Digital Literacy and Technology Integration

technology, while others questioned its categorization due to its widespread
adoption. Consequently, student responses regarding the extent of digital
technology use varied. Some students took a broader approach, considering
any use of MS PowerPoint as sufficient for modern digital technologies. Oth-
ers, with a more critical perspective, believed their instructors primarily re-
lied on MS PowerPoint with little to no use of other modern digital tools. This
sentiment was expressed in many ways by 3 students. Only four students
felt that using MS PowerPoint and uploading PPTs and other documents to
the e-learning platform was a completely satisfactory approach to modern
digital technology use.
Students in the study heavily favoured Microsoft Office for studying. They
used Word for notetaking (mentioned 34 times) and PowerPoint for presenta-
tions (45 times), both in class and for creating seminar assignments. Power-
Point was also valued for taking lecture notes. For group projects, some stu-
dents mentioned using Office 365 for collaborative work.
Less frequently mentioned were the digital tools such as Kahoot (5 men-
tions), Padlet ( mentions), Wordwall ( mentions), and Quizizz (1 mention),
which were introduced in a first year ‘Educational Technology’ course.
Canva emerged as a popular alternative to PowerPoint (1 mentions), offer-
ing superior design capabilities for creating engaging learning materials. Pre-
zi was mentioned for its ability to create dynamic presentations (1 mention).
Some students also used Pinterest and Google Scholar to find ideas (both
mentioned twice), while others mentioned Google Drive, Goodnotes, online
calendars, and quizzes (all mentioned two times each). A variety of other pro-
grams, websites, and similar tools received one mention each.
In addition to Microsoft Office programs, students frequently mentioned
using videos, primarily from YouTube channels, to aid their understanding
of course material (1 mentions). Artificial intelligence, often in the form of
ChatGPT, was equally popular for idea generation and explanations (1 men-
tions).
The study underscores some notable absences: LibreOffice, including Li-
breOffice Impress as a PowerPoint alternative, was not mentioned by any stu-
dents. Similarly, Apple’s Pages was absent from the discussion, even among
students who likely use Apple devices. Google Slides, a free alternative to
PowerPoint, was only mentioned once.
The dominance of PowerPoint is driven by a few factors. First, it is widely used
in education at all levels, from kindergarten to university. Second, some stu-
dents perceived it to be superior to free alternatives. There was also a surprising
underutilisation of Google tools, despite students having Google accounts.

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