Taiwanese technical university faculty members' use of technology and perceptions regarding instructional impact

Digital instructional technology has made a strong impact on how students learn and how instructors teach at colleges and universities. Teachers play an important role in developing learning and teaching, it is pertinent to understand which obstacles faculty members encountered and how they believe technology could enhance instruction.;The purpose of this study was to investigate Taiwanese technical university faculty members' use of technology tools in the classroom and in lesson preparation, the factors that promoted or inhibited the use of technology tools, and the perceptions of instructional impact resulting from faculty members' use of technology. The population of the research comprised of 354 faculty members from a selected technical university in central Taiwan, with 197 surveys returned, for an overall response rate of 53.9%.;A 50-item survey was developed by the researcher. The survey used a five-point Likert scale to measure the factors that influenced faculty use of technology and participants' perceptions of impact on instruction. Inferential analyses, including t test, one-way ANOVAs, and descriptive analyses were used to determine the differences among faculty groups regarding the factors that promoted or inhibited the use of technology tools.;Findings which emerged from this study include the following. (1) In lesson preparation, searching tools, manipulating tools, processing tools, and computers were generally used by faculty. In class teaching, processing tools, manipulating tools, and computers were generally used by faculty. (2) Faculty perceived that faculty workload, educational resources, and administration inhibit the use of technology; faculty workload inhibits faculty use of technology and was influenced by gender, educational resources inhibit faculty use of technology and are influenced by age, and faculty perceived that faculty development inhibited faculty use of technology and is influenced by subject discipline. (3) To enhance student learning was the reason that faculty used technology in the teaching process. (4) Faculty perceived that lessons which applied technologies were more effective than traditional lectures, and faculty agreed technology can enhance student understanding of course content, student applying of course content to real life, and faster student's learning.