Technology Acceptance Research in Education

Abstract

Technology acceptance can be defined as a user’s willingness to employ technology for the tasks it is designed to support. Over the years, acceptance researchers have become more interested in understanding the factors influencing the adoption of technologies in various settings. From the literature, much research has been done to understand technology acceptance in the business contexts. This is understandable, given the close relationship between the appropriate uses of technology and profit margin. In most of the acceptance studies, researchers have sought to identify and understand the forces that shape users’ acceptance so as to influence the design and implementation process in ways to avoid or minimize resistance or rejection when users interact with technology. This has given rise to the identification of core technological and psychological variables underlying acceptance. From these, models of acceptance have emerged, some extending the theories from psychology with a focus on the attitude-intention paradigm in explaining technology usage, and allowing researchers to predict user acceptance of potential technology applications.