Acceptability and Satisfaction of an ICT-based Training for University Teachers

Introduction For more than twenty years, the U.S. Department of Education has been proposing an educational change in order to create a more effective system. In this sense, the field of affective neuroscience has drawn attention to the critical importance of motivation in how the brain learns (Wolfe & Brandt, 1998). Motivation is a key concept in the academic performance (Porter, Bigley, & Steers, 2003). People learn to pay attention on what interests them, which can vary from learner to learner. Each student wishes to know and acquire a specific range of knowledge, skills, and competences. Therefore, an effective learning experience has to be individualized to satisfy the interest of each learner. In their recommendations, the U.S. Department of Education proposed an education program mediated by a set of learning tools designed to personalize the learning. In this sense, the use of educational technologies is suggested as an important innovation to enhance the current system and achieve this goal (U.S. Department of Education, 2010a, 2010b; Uzunboylu, 2006). Everywhere we look, information and communications technologies (ICT) are increasingly surrounding us. They are inside every area of our life, generating several changes in the way that we behave. In this sense, education is not an exception, and the change in education has come from two directions. On one hand, the changes generated in education come from outside, generated by demands from the society, as with, for example, those companies seeking for skilled workers. A decade ago, the instruction on technologies and the expertise in the use of these technologies were considered an advantage in which a candidate could choose to increase the importance of his or her education. Nowadays, this knowledge is mandatory, a prerequisite, where those in low-qualification jobs still need this instruction to carry out even basic tasks. However, on the other hand, the demand also come from inside. The relevance of technologies being introduced in the educational field is not only about updating the knowledge needed by the students for their future or using the potential that technology adds. It is also about speaking in the same language that students speak. We live in a highly mobile, globally connected society in which the younger people have grown up as "digital natives" (Hansen, 2003; Prensky, 2001, 2009). As digital natives, the way in which they interact with information and communicate between each other is very different from the ways that the traditional schools propose (Bennett, Maton & Kervin, 2008). In this sense we need to prepare students for this new world. We must change what and how we teach in order to match what students need to know and where and when they learn. We need to bring technology into learning in meaningful ways so that we engage and motivate learners to achieve the required knowledge and expertise. In the present day, the education system depends on the relationship between teachers and their students, and it mainly supports learning from textbooks and, in some cases, through the use of technologies, although in a quite limited way. This is mainly based on the use of videos, PowerPoint presentations, or through a limited use of the Internet. However, technology also provides access to a much wider and more flexible set of learning resources. Nowadays, we have different technological devices that enable and enhance communication and knowledge transfers. Their potential utility in the field of education is considerable. Moreover, the challenge to the education system is to incorporate technology to create relevant learning experiences that mirror students' daily lives and the reality of their futures (Bransford et al., 2006). The use of technologies is not generally well exploited or at least not fully exploited. E-learning can be defined as learning facilitated and supported through the use of ICTs. …