Connecting to the digital age: using emergent technology to enhance student learning

In classrooms, the use of newer technology—particularly laptops, tablets, and smart-phones—in the teaching-learning process is a relatively new phenomenon with little investigation. The purpose of this study was to investigate student perceptions and experiences regarding the emergent technology used to achieve learning in a high school setting. The participants were eight high school graduates from Northern Colorado, where a homogenous sampling procedure was used to gather participants. In this study, we used a generic qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews, and NVIVO was used to manage and analyse participant response data. Findings indicated a consensus in support of using emergent technology for learning from the students’ perspective. The results revealed a significant difference between the perceptions of participants who used emergent technology in their classrooms as a tool to enhance learning and those who used emergent technology as a distraction. Therefore, most of the participants believed that there was an urgent need for instructors to learn how to increase the effectiveness of using emergent technology in the classroom setting and make instructors more effective.