THE UBIQUITY OF INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES AND HOW NEW GENERATIONAL DIGITAL PLATFORMS' ATTRACTIVENESS INFLUENCE ACADEMIC EXPERIENCES AND KNOWLEDGE ATTAINABILITY
A. Pearce
The use of digital technologies continues to be attractive as new versions of digital platforms and apparatuses are released. These evolutionary and most sought-after technologies are impacting academic experiences and knowledge attainability.
Existing literature has investigated the intersectionalities between digital technologies and academic experiences. However, many researchers failed to demonstrate how the omnipresence of innovative technologies and digital platforms' attractiveness conjunctively impact academic experiences and knowledge achievability. Therefore, this study explores how the ubiquity of innovative technologies and generational digital platform attractiveness influences academic experiences and knowledge fulfillment. The intrepidness of technology inconsequentially results from its newness and wanting to be the first to use such innovative technology before others, social presence, the metaverse of evolutionary social connections and communications, self-validation, and validation of others, access to limitless information and knowledge, entertainment, the thrills and cognitive stimulation of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, gamification, EdTech, and the ability for individuals to promote the health of their individual lives and well-being. The Technology Attraction Model (TAM) research model grounding this study identifies four attributable attractions: social, physical, academic experiences, and knowledge attainment attractions in the context of academia. The current study tests the relationships between technology attractiveness, education experience, and knowledge attainability.
The results of this empirical investigation exhibited that while there continued to be digital disparities and divides academically, geographically, and generationally, the newness and innovativeness of technologies and digital platforms are attractive and are highly sought-after digital apparatuses and educational tools. Moreover, such digital platforms have positively impacted academic experiences and knowledge attainment.
The use of technology successfully contributes to the academic experiences of individuals who:
(1) find new technology physically and socially attractive and embrace its newness,
(2) find the technology to be less cumbersome, useful, or valuable, and easy to use and navigate,
(3) have the needed technical and social support,
(4) have access to vital materials and resources needed to effectively and efficiently use digital technologies for academic purposes,
(5) have developed positive attitudes and perspectives toward technology to suggest that such digital platforms are cognitively stimulating and have successfully contributed to their education and knowledge and attainability, especially as they have a wealth of information at their fingertips.
Keywords: Innovative Technology, Digital Platforms, Attractiveness, Academic Experiences, Education, Knowledge Attainment.