The use of technology at Malaysian public high schools

Abstract

Technology use has become a basic issue in today's post-modern educational era. Therefore, Malaysia like any other country needs to sustain worldwide mastery in technology use at schools. As a result, this paper investigates the role of technology at the secondary education in Malaysia and also emphasizes the need for the inclusion of more technologies at Malaysian public high schools. The participants of this study included 30 public high schools in Johor, Malaysia in both rural and urban regions. The researcher observed the schools and interviewed 120 teachers and 120 students in total. In addition, using Nvivo to analyze the pieces of video recordings at the sample schools revealed the actual technology use at Malaysian public high schools. This data complemented the data analyzed by SPSS for the perceptions of teachers and students in using such facilities. The results interestingly showed that perceptions and the real practice do not really match. This research can give a true insight to Malaysian educational authorities to have an overview on the general perceptions of teachers and students on the technology use at schools and assist them to come up with effective solutions to get more benefits from technologies in education. The paper is concluded by reaffirming the need for increased digital access and awareness in the Malaysian context.