A Case Study of Faculty Experiences and Perspectives on Mobile Technology Use in Teaching

at Northern Illinois University

Fahad Alenezi

Northern Illinois University

ETR 525-Fall2016

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 Introduction

The fast evolution of information and communication technologies (ICT) these days has

brought huge changes in the education system especially distance education. These technologies

are powerful and come up with many tools that provide a valuable support to learning and teaching

(Mac Callum, Jeffrey & Kinshuk, 2014). With the rapid growth of Mobile technologies, the Mobile

learning (m-learning) approach has become a trend in education (Al-Fahad, 2009; Al-Shehri, 2013;

Narayanasamy & Mohamed, 2013) due to the Pervasiveness of mobile technologies. M-learning

is a new approach to learning and considered the next generation of e-learning (Narayanasamy &

Mohamed, 2013). M-learning refers to the use of mobile devices that have Internet and wireless

technologies in education. According to Wilson & McCarthy, (2010), there is a remarkable

increase in the number of students who use and prefer to use mobile technologies in their learning.

Not only students use Mobile technologies. Faculty members also have their own mobile

technologies and know how to use the different features (Alali, 2015).

In higher education, mobile learning has become an important approach because it makes the

learning and teaching more flexible by providing easy access and wide availability (Narayanasamy

& Mohamed, 2013). With the rapid increase of using mobile technologies among people, m-

learning has become essential and useful tool in education (Jung, 2015).

In order to determine the impact of using m-learning, researchers have conducted numerous

studies that relate to the use of mobile learning by students (e.g., Wang, Wu, & Wang, 2009; Cavus

& Ibrahim, 2009; Kafyulilo, 2014; Derakhshand, 2012) and by instructors (e.g., Aljuaid,

Alzahrani, & Atiquil, 2007; Azizan; Bokhare, ; Ismail, 2013).

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Theoretical Framework

Due to the large amount of technologies that recently emerged in education, researchers

have shown a concern about how these technologies can be implemented effectively and

successfully, especially in the education environment. Thus, this study will draw from Rogers

well-known model of diffusion theory. Rogers model (2003) discusses diffusion of innovation for

individuals and organizations. The model examines the process of communicating an innovation

through certain channels over time among the individuals in a social system (Rogers, 2003). This

model has seen wide use to understand the adoption and diffusion of technology by individuals

and within organizations.

According to Rogers model (2003), when a person is faced with a new technology or new

use of technology, he or she goes through an adoption decision process in which he or she gathers

information, tests the technology, and then considers whether it offers sufficient improvement to

deserve the investment of time and energy required to add it to his or her range of skills. Then this

person decides to use or reject this new technology or the new use of it. Rogers (2003) proposed

an innovation five-stage decision process whereby people adopt new technologies: knowledge,

persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation.

This model will be used in this study to understand and explain the findings about faculty

experience in using mobile technologies in teaching at Northern Illinois University. The model

was selected because it provides a useful framework to understand the uses, obstacles, and

advantages regarding mobile technologies use in education.

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Statement of purpose

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the perspectives and experiences of the

faculty experience and use of mobile technologies in teaching at Northern Illinois University.

Specifically, the goal of this study is to provide an in-depth description of faculty experience and

perspective of mobile technologies (in terms of what promote (motivate) or limit the use of mobile

technologies, the extent to which mobile technologies are used, and the benefits and challenges of

using mobile technologies from faculty perspectives. In this study, semi-structured interviews

with faculty will explore the faculty experience and perspectives with using mobile technologies

in teaching. Rogers model of diffusion theory will help explain the results.

Research Questions

Central Question

What are the faculty members general experiences in using mobile technology in

teaching?

Sub Questions

What are the university instructors views towards the advantage and disadvantage

of using mobile technology in teaching?

How frequently do university instructors use their mobile technology in teaching?

What are the factors that promote or limit the use of Mobile technologies in

teaching?

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 The finding of this study will provide information that will help institutions and

policymakers overcome the obstacles and challenges they might face when adopting and

integrating mobile technologies in education. In addition, it will show them more of the potential

benefits, impacts, and outcomes of using mobile technologies. The findings of this study will also

help universities, institutions, and schools learn how to implement and improve mobile

technologies use based on faculty perspectives and experiences. Instructors will profit from the

finding of this study by learning how to use mobile technologies effectively and get comprehensive

information for best practice with their students. Students will also be more informed about the

use of mobile technologies and its advantages.

The results of this study will inform Northern Illinois universities about the potential

benefits, impact, and outcomes of mobile technologies in education. Furthermore,

recommendations will be provided to Northern Illinois universities and other universities about

the implementation of mobile technologies.

Literature Review

The researcher conducted extensive search to gather research using electronic databases

such as ProQuest, EBSCO and Google Scholar. Various keyword combinations were used to

identify relevant empirical studies including the following: mobile learning, mobile technologies,

handheld devices, faculty members, and teachers. Five empirical studies related to faculty

members use of Mobile learning were found.

Due to the importance of utilizing and implementing technologies in teaching and learning,

especially m-learning, researchers have conducted numerous studies about this topic. In this

section, the researcher is intending to review studies related to the topic of m-learning and how

faculty members use mobile technologies in higher education in general

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 The actual use, access and perceptions of instructors towards mobile learning were also the

focus of a study by Kafyulilo (2014). The author conducted a mixed method study to investigate

students and teachers access, use and perceptions of mobile phone as a tool in learning and

teaching. The result of the study revealed that most of the students (60%) owned mobile phones,

while all the in-service teachers, instructor and pre-service teachers had mobile phones. The

finding is similar to what Alali (2015) reported in his study about the accessibility of mobile

technologies among lecturers. In contrast, in (Kafyulilo, 2014) study, teachers and instructors

reported that they own mobile phones, but they do not know how to utilize and implement this

technology in order to facilitate teaching and learning. Interestingly, a mobile phone was found to

be the most accessible technology in educational institutions. Regarding the teachers and

instructors perceptions toward mobile phones, the study found that teachers and instructors had a

negative attitude toward mobile phones, which negatively affected the acceptance of mobile phone

as learning and teaching tool in schools. This finding is similar to what Mac Callum, et al., (2014)

found in their study. They both found that lecturers and teachers resist the integration of technology

in teaching and learning, which might be caused by their attitudes towards the technology and the

perceived value of it.

Regarding the use of mobile technologies in higher education, (Santos & Bocheco, 2010) stated

that many universities has already implemented mobile technologies as a teaching and learning

tools to keep up-to-date with the new trends of technology and communication. According to

Santos & Bocheco, (2010), educators and students have been used the mobile technologies and the

services that provided by this technology in education such as sending SMS and accessing social

media through these technologies.

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 Methodology

The purpose of this section is to describe and discuss methods that will be used in this

study. It will address the study design, instrumentation, a description of the studys participants

and data collection methods. It also offers an overview of the data analysis procedure and addresses

the ethical issues that will be considered.

Research Design

The goal of this study is to provide an in-depth of faculty experience and perspective of

mobile technologies (in terms of what promote (motivate) or limit the use of mobile technologies,

the extent to which mobile technologies are used, and the benefits and challenges of using mobile

technologies from faculty perspectives. This study will used a qualitative case study approach to

answer the proposed research questions. Qualitative research provides a rich and comprehensive

description of the research topic in the form of a narrative report (Creswell, 2007). In general, as

noted by Ary, Jacobs, Sorensen, and Razavieh (2010), qualitative research is used to contextualize

findings, interpret behaviors and intentions, and understand perspectives.

The general goal of case study research is to provide a detailed description and

understanding of the entity (Creswell, 2015). A case study is a type of qualitative approach that

focuses on a single entity, which could be one individual, group, organization, or program

(Creswell, 2015). A case study produces an in-depth, rich, holistic description of a context or issue

(Creswell, 2015); it also provides great advantages in understanding human behavior in terms of

individuals past, present, and future actions; environment; emotions; and thoughts.

Instrumentation

The researcher conducted in-depth, open-ended interviews with four faculties at the

educational college at Northern Illinois University. The researcher interviewed the faculty

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individually. According to Patton (2003), the three kinds of data collection in qualitative methods

include in-depth, open-ended interviews, direct observation, and written documents.

There are three basic approaches with which to collect qualitative data through open-ended

interviews. These include the informal conversational interview, a general interview guide, and

the standardized open-ended interview (Patton, 1990). The standardized open-ended interview

approach was followed in this study, in which the interview consists of a set of questions that will

were asked of each interviewee through the same sequence and words. The standardized open-

ended interview allows the questions to be evaluated as it also guarantees time efficiency (Patton,

1990).

This qualitative study used 13 questions to gather the data. The structure of the interview

was the semi-structured, or partially structured, interview in which the interview questions are

formulated prior to the interview. The interview questions were carefully designed and formulated

to address the purpose of the research. The interview questions were divided into three categories

to explore types of Mobile technologies used, the extent to which Mobile technologies are used,

and the benefits and challenges of using Mobile technologies from faculties perspectives.

Participants

This qualitative case study used a purposeful sample of four faculties at the educational

college at Northern Illinois University. According to Creswell (2015), individuals and sites of the

research can be applied as a purposeful sampling. As the prospective participants should be using

or have used mobile technologies, a homogenous sampling design was the best suited to collect

the appropriate data from the appropriate participants. The focus of this research was faculties at

the educational college at Northern Illinois University. Those faculties were working as a faculty

at Northern Illinois university teaching different kind of classes to undergraduate and graduate

students. The interviews took place at the faculty office and lasted between 30 to 40 minutes.

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 Data collection Procedure

The researcher visited the website of the ETRA to collect the potential names and email

addresses of the faculty members to send them the invitation. Then, an invitation email was sent

to each prospective participant to ask for their participation. Then, the researcher selected the first

four participants willing to participate. The researcher provided the participants with a consent

form that made it clear participation in this study is voluntary and participants are under no

obligation to be involved with the effort. Each participant was interviewed on an individual basis.

Each interview lasted between 30 to 45 minutes and was audio recorded after receiving the

participants permission.

Ethical Issues

This research study was designed with careful attention to the ethical issues. According to

Patton (1990; 2003), several ethical issues must be considered in designing a qualitative study.

The related ethical issues to this research study include explaining the purpose, confidentiality,

informed consent, and data access and ownership. For this study, the researcher provided the

participants with an explanatory statement that states the purpose of the research, the possible

benefit, and the time required of the participants, as well as addressing expected

inconvenience/discomfort concerns. The researcher provided the participants with a consent form

that makes it clear participation in this study is voluntary and that participants are under no

obligation to be involved with the effort. To preserve confidentiality in this research study, none

of the names of the participants were revealed or identified when analyzing data. The researcher

used different names to present the result of the study.

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 Methods Data Analysis

For analyzing the data gathered in this study, the researcher followed the guidelines

presented by Patton (1990) and Ary, Jacobs, Sorensen, and Razavieh (2010) for qualitative data

analysis. The data analysis will go in three stages (organizing and familiarizing, coding and

reducing, and interpreting and representing) (Ary, Jacobs, Sorensen, & Razavieh, 2010). Once the

individual interviews conclude, the researcher will transcribe the tape recordings interviews and

take reflective notes regarding the data. After that, the researcher organized the data according to

the source (the four participants). In the coding and reducing stage, the researcher sorted the data

for each participant into units of meaning, where the researcher coded and labeled each unit with

a meaningful title. Then, the researcher placed all units with the same code into a single category.

The researcher linked similar and related categories into themes. Then the researcher merged the

categories and themes of each participant together.

The final stage of data analysis was interpreting and representing the stages, in which the

researcher extracted meaning, relationships, and insights from the data. Finally, the researcher

reported the major findings and implications of the study.

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 Finding

Descriptive Findings

I have a good experience in doing a quantitative research since I already took different

courses in statics. However, this is the first time I collect and analyses a qualitative data. Before I

took the class, I though dealing with a qualitative data is much easier that dealing with numbers.

Later, I realized that qualitative research is not that easy. As this was my first experience, I learned

a lot of things starting with building relationship with the potential participants and ending with

analyzing and interpreting qualitative data.

After I obtained the required permission and the participants agreement to volunteer in my

research, I have set a specific time with each of the participants. Prior to the first interview, I

prepared my audio record along with a pen and a notebook. I met with the first participant at his

office at 1:00pm. I asked the participants to record the interview, at this time he was little bet

worry. He told me that I though you only going to take a note. I told him, this record will only be

used for the purpose of this research and I am the only one who get access to it, and once I finished

my research the recorded audio will be destroyed. After this short conversation, he was more

comfortable and gave me the permission to record the interview.

I think I did not organize and guide the first interview very well. First of all, I noticed that

the participant was telling me answers that is really not related to the question that I asked him. In

addition, I noticed that the participant answer a q question that I did not ask him yet. This was kind

of a challenge to me. Another challenge I faced in the first interview was that the participant was

telling me a very long story about himself that I do not need. Thus, I ended with more than 50

minutes of recorded audio and more than ten pages of transcribing.

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 Overall, I learned a lot in the first interview as it was my first-time interviewing participant.

The first experience helped me in how to organize the interview and guide it to the way that I can

get reliable and valuable information about my topic.

Analytical Findings

Based on the finding of the data collection, four themed were emerged namely (Facultys

Views of Mobile Technologys Advantages, Facultys Views of Mobile Technologys

Disadvantages, Nature of Participants Use of Mobile technologies, Factors that Promote

Participants Use of Mobile Technologies and Factors that limit Participants Use of Mobile

Technologies).

Facultys Views of Mobile Technologys Advantages.

Most of the participants showed a positive attitude toward the use of mobile technology in

their teaching because of its advantages. They all agreed that using mobile technology provides

tremendous benefits and advantages for faculty and students. Participants mentioned different

kinds of benefits of the use of mobile technology, such as saving time, effort, and money and

improving interactivity and connectivity. Other benefits mentioned were ease of use, low cost, and

flexibility. For example, Ali stated:

Using mobile technologies such as my smartphone helps me to save my time, and it also

saves the students time. For example, I can simply send an email to my students about the

due date of their assignment using my smartphone in just a minute. (interview excerpt,

October 23, 2016).

Another advantage of these great technologies is that it keeps me up-to-date about the new

technology that can be used in teaching and what benefits can be gained from this technology for

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students (interview excerpt, October 23, 2016). Yousef explained:

I am using my Apple laptop every day to do tasks related to my job as a teacher. This

technology has great value, and it has helped me a lot to accomplish my duty as an

instructor in a very short time because I can use it anywhere I am free. (interview excerpt,

October 24, 2016).

Another advantage of the use of mobile technologies mentioned by the faculty was

mobility. Participants confirmed that the main reason that mobile technologies are commonly used

is the size. Yousef stated, One of the first advantages of using the laptop is its size. As you see,

this is my laptop. Its small, easy to carry, and I can do many things in this small technology

(interview excerpt, October 24, 2016). Ali stated:

One of the biggest advantages of mobile technologies is mobility. For example, I can use

my laptop anywhere and anytime. However, if I use my desktop, I need to stay at my office

or at home or at the university, because it needs to be connected to electric power.

(interview excerpt, October 23, 2016).

One of the main advantages mentioned by the faculty was that mobile technology is not

only for entertainment. They mentioned that it can be used in teaching and learning. For example,

Yousef stated that sometimes, when I am not in my office, I use my laptop to grade my students

assignment, prepare lessons for them (interview excerpt, October 24, 2016), and Ali mentioned

that I can do different things using this technology, such as in my personal life or tasks that related

to my job, such as teaching or doing research (interview excerpt, October 23, 2016).

Participants have different views on the price of mobile technologies. Some of them

mentioned that new mobile technologies are very cheap compared to the last eight years. The

existence of different brands in the market reduced the price of mobile technologies, such as

laptops, smartphones and iPads. Ibrahim explained there are many benefits of using mobile

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technology in teaching. For example, most of the mobile technologies are cheap compared with

other technologies. For example, I bought this iPad for $500 and I can do a lot of tasks using it.

However, John stated that yes, mobile technology is very helpful and makes our life easier but

its not easy to have new and modern mobile technology because of the price (interview excerpt,

October 27, 2016).

Facultys Views of Mobile Technologys Disadvantages.

When I asked about the disadvantages of using mobile technologies in teaching,

participants mentioned a few disadvantages of using this technology. These disadvantages include

technology addiction, complexity of some applications, and information security.

As mentioned by the participants, the new generation of mobile technology, such as

smartphones and iPads, allows people to access the entirety of the Internet on the go. This

motivates people to spend much time on social networks, reading newspapers, and playing games

rather than using these technologies for teaching or learning. It was obvious that faculty members

were concerned about this issue. For example, Ali complained about the time he spent using this

kind of technology. He said, Its funny, sometimes the advantage of something becomes a

disadvantage. He explained, because I can use this kind of technology anytime and anywhere, I

found that I spend more time than needed using this technology for different purposes, it is really

becoming waste of time sometimes. Ibrahim also has the same concern. He stated, recently I

noticed that I spend much time using my Androids to check my email, reading new posts in

Facebook.

The complexity of mobile technologies was mentioned by Yousef as a main disadvantage

of mobile technologies. The complexity ranges from a technical issue to a social issue (interaction

between faculty and his/her students). Yousef stated that mobile technologies are not always easy

to use. He said that some of mobile technologies that have recently emerged such as iPad and

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smartphone are to some extent difficult to use. He continued, For example, I tried a few times

to connect my iPad to the projector in my class, and every time I failed and every time I needed to

call the technical support to help me. Yousef stated that this complexity will be an obstacle to the

use of mobile technology in education.

Ibrahim raised an important issue about the use of mobile technology in education

distraction. Ibrahim mentioned a concern about allowing students to use their mobile technology

in the class, because students can become distracted. He said, Students cannot focus on the lesson

if they are allowed to use their mobile technologies such as laptops or smartphones, because they

will use them for different purposes, such as receiving or sending emails or playing video games

during the class. John also stated that nowadays as you can see people spend much time using

their iPhone playing games or chatting with friends, if I as a teacher allowed my students to bring

their mobile phones to class, they would simply start playing games and chatting instead of using

their mobile to access the lesson materials or participate in an online discussion.

Nature of Participants Use of Mobile technologies

All the participants reported using mobile technologies for personal and educational

purposes. Participants reported that they use mobile technologies for three educational purposes:

teaching activities, administration activities, and research activities. In teaching activities,

participants use mobile technologies to supplement and facilitate traditional ways of teaching. The

uses of mobile technologies for teaching activities include presenting educational content,

checking e-mail, responding to students questions, sending educational materials to students,

browsing research sites, downloading research studies, preparing lectures, viewing computer

programs, searching the Internet for new information in their field, developing video clips, creating

tests and lecture reviews, and working on research or assignments.

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 Ali stated, I usually use SMS in my phone to remind my students about the due dates of

their assignments, and sometimes I send them text messages about any update in my course.

Ibrahim mentioned that he uses his tablet to read electronic books that relate to his major. He

explained, Some book is very expensive to buy a hard copy, and some books is very difficult to

carry, so instead I usually buy an electronic book because its cheaper, and use my tablet to read

it.

Factors that Promote Participants Use of Mobile Technologies

One of the factors that promote the use of mobile technologies in higher education is

personal motivation or desire. Ibrahim reported that motivation or desire, whether on the part of

the teacher or on the part of the student, is the main motivation for using mobile technologies.

However, faculty members personal motivation and desire to use mobile technologies are directly

related to their beliefs on the benefits associated with integrating these technologies into higher

education.

Other factors were related to the university. All participants reported the integral role of

the university in promoting the use of mobile technologies. To encourage faculty members to use

mobile technologies, the university should make these technologies available. All the participants

indicated that the availability of these technologies, particularly in the classroom, would encourage

them and the other faculty members to use mobile technologies. Participants reported that mobile

technologies such as laptops and iPads that support some applications not available on a desktop

computer should be provided in the classroom. However, the availability of technologies does not

guarantee their use. Participants reported that the university should provide training, technical

assistance, and financial incentives to all faculty members.

In addition, it appears the university should monitor faculty members use of mobile

technologies throughout the whole educational process. In addition to that, some participants

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reported that there should be a change in policy to encourage the use of mobile technologies.

Yousef stated:

The university should make the faculty members feel that the use of mobile technology is

a crucial skill for them and they have to use it. Using mobile technology must be one of

the evaluation criteria for faculty members. This is the role of the university; it must

promote the technical culture and provide training, especially in the use of new mobile

technology such as iPads or tablets. The administrative side should create, stimulate, follow

up, and evaluate your use of the technology. (interview excerpt, October 24, 2016)

Factors that Limit Participants Use of Mobile Technologies

Participants have mentioned some factors that limited their use of mobile technologies in

their educational activities. One of the factors that was reported by participants was perceived ease

of use. Participants mentioned that some of the new mobile technologies are complicated when it

comes to using them in the classroom. For example, John reported trying to connect his smartphone

to the projector in the classroom to present slides he prepared for the students, but he mentioned

that he could not do it. In addition, Ali reported that most of the new mobile technologies are not

compatible with the devices available in the classroom. Another factor that limits the use of mobile

technologies was reported by Ibrahim. He mentioned that some students, especially older students

who are taking graduate courses, are not ready to use mobile technologies. Ibrahim stated that in

one of the courses that I was teaching, students were required to create an instructional

video using one of the very common applications that are being used to create video. I was

surprised when one of the students told me that she does not know how to use this

application because she never uses an iPad or smartphone before.

Ibrahim suggested that students and faculty should be trained on how to use the new emerging

technology that being used on the education context (interview excerpt, October 27, 2016).

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Validity Threat

Validity is a very important issue in research in general and more importantly in qualitative

research. The most important threat to the validity of my research conclusion that I am concern

about is the researcher bias. One of the validity threat is that I mistakenly or without any purpose

select the data (from the interview) that I like or that is more fit to the theory that I am applying in

my research and neglect the other data that do not met my expectation or assumption. I tried to

avoid this treat by isolating myself and this as I do not have any opinion regarding the topic.

Another possible threat to the validity of my research conclusion is that during the interview, I as

a researcher might influence the interviewee answers to the interview questions. For instance, As

I purposively select the sample of my research and they know me as we are working in the same

department, interviewees might know about my perception or prospective about the topic that I

am studying. Consequently, participants might tend to say what I like to hear. Another threat to

the validity is that as a researcher, I might misunderstand or misinterpreted the data that

participants provided. I think it is not easy to avoid the negative consequences of this threats.

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Answer to the Research Question

Research questions 1: What are the university instructors views towards the advantage and
disadvantage of using mobile technology in teaching?

The result of the study indicated that the participants are convinced of the relative

advantages of mobile technologies in general. Overall, the reported benefits of mobile technologies

were saving time, effort, and money; improving interactivity and connectivity. Other benefits cited

were ease of use, low cost, and flexibility. in addition to the advantages of using mobile

technologies in teaching, participants reported some disadvantages. The most common

disadvantages that were reported by the participants were technology addiction, the complexity of

utilizing some applications, and the potential for distraction.

Research questions 2: How frequently do university instructors use their mobile technology in
teaching?

The result of the study indicated that faculty are using mobile technologies for personal

and educational purposes. Participants reported that they use mobile technologies for three

educational purposes: teaching activities, administration activities, and research activities. In

teaching activities, participants use mobile technologies to supplement and facilitate traditional

ways of teaching. They uses of mobile technologies for teaching activities include presenting

educational content, checking e-mail, responding to students questions, sending educational

materials to students, browsing research sites, downloading research studies, preparing lectures,

viewing computer programs, searching the Internet for new information in their field, developing

video clips, creating tests and lecture reviews, and working on research or assignments.

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Research questions 3: What are the factors that promote or limit the use of Mobile technologies
in teaching?
The result of the study indicated few factors that might promote or limit the use of mobile

technologies. One of the factors that promote the use of mobile technologies in higher education

is personal motivation or desire. Ibrahim reported that motivation or desire, whether on the part of

the teacher or on the part of the student, is the main motivation for using mobile technologies.

Other factors were related to the university. All participants reported the integral role of the

university in promoting the use of mobile technologies. One of the factors that was reported by

participants was perceived ease of use. Participants mentioned that some of the new mobile

technologies are complicated when it comes to using them in the classroom.

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 Discussion

Some of the findings of this study of the factors that would promote and limit the use of

mobile technologies were similar to those of Asmari (2005), who pointed out that barriers to the

use of mobile technologies were lack of training programs on the job and insufficient availability

of adequate infrastructure in the classroom. The current study found that most of the new mobile

technologies are not compatible with the technologies provided in the classroom.

Some common barriers to mobile technology use reported in Husseins (2011) study and

this study are the lack of technical support for faculty members and the lack of adequate support

from the administration. The findings show that participants are looking for more support in their

mobile technology adoption, which puts them in the confirmation stage of the innovation decision

process (Rogers, 2003).

Regarding faculty attitudes and perceptions toward the use of mobile technology, the

current study found that faculty members have a positive attitude toward the use of mobile

technologies. They believe that these technologies facilitate learning and teaching. However,

previous studies found contradictory results. The study of Kafyulilo (2014) indicated that teachers

and instructors had a negative attitude toward mobile phones. Kafyulilo (2014) stated that this

perception negatively affected the acceptance of the mobile phone as a learning and teaching tool

in schools. Another study that found inconsistent results was conducted by Mac Callum, Jeffrey,

and Kinshuk (2014). Mac Callum et al. found that lecturers and teachers resist the integration of

technology in teaching and learning, which might be caused by their attitudes toward the

technology and the perceived value of it.

The result of the current study indicated that faculty members use mobile technologies in

three educational areas: teaching activities, administrative activities, and research activities. For

example, faculty members use SMS for administrative activities, such as reminders about

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assignments, and for research activities, such reading electronically published articles using

handheld devices. This finding is similar to what Santos and Bocheco (2010) reported in their

study. Santos and Bocheco (2010) reported that educators and students have been using mobile

technologies and the services they provide for educational purposes, such as sending SMS and

accessing social media.

Recommendations for Further Research

As this study applied only qualitative method to collect and analyze the data, it is

recommended that future research use mixed methods designed to generate more data on facultys

experience with and perspectives on mobile technology at Northern Illinois University. This study

should be replicated with a larger number of participants and with wider representation of faculty

members in various disciplines. Also, similar qualitative and quantitative research studies,

extended to include students, administrators, and staff, should be conducted.

Suggestions for Northern Illinois University

Based on the findings of this study and the related conclusions, a set of suggestions can

be presented in relation to the policy and practice. These suggestions are:

The university administration should provide faculty members with high quality

technologies and services such as high quality projectors that compatible with mobile

technologies and reliable wireless Internet connection.

Training programs are required to meet faculty members mobile technologies use needs.

However, several considerations are required in designing such programs in terms of time

and nature. These training programs should be hands on experience type of training rather

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 than theoretical training. These training programs should combine the introduction of any

new mobile technologies and services.

Financial stimulus should be provided for all the faculty members. Instant technical support

should be available. University administration should encourage and follow up faculty

members uses of mobile technologies through confirming the importance of this issue.

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Al-Asmari, A. M. (2005). The use of the Internet among EFL teachers at the Colleges of

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Columbus, OH.

Aljuaid, N., Alzahrani, M., & Atiquil, A. (2014). Assessing mobile learning readiness in Saudi

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Educational Technology, 2(2), 114.

Al-Shehri, S. (2013). An outlook on future mobile learning in Saudi Arabia. QScience

Proceedings (12th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning [mLearn

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