GENERAL

INTRODUCTION

In recent times, education has undergone a major paradigm shift, from traditional teacher- centered pedagogy to student centered pedagogy and one of the educational objectives of higher education institutions is enhancing students’ academic performances through teaching and learning to prepare them for the society of tomorrow. Educational technologies have been introduced in schools to transform teaching and learning process and improve strategies for academic achievement. But in most less developed countries especially Cameroon unfortunately, educational technologies are not utilized effectively during the teaching learning process. Especially with the restriction of movement and social distancing imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic that put a stop to classroom activities have exposed this weakness in the Cameroon education system. The problem in this study is the poor students’ academic performances. According to recent reports by UNESCO (2020), more than 1.9 billion students from 190 countries have been forced to shift from face-to-face to online learning and it is becoming increasingly difficult to impart knowledge to students due to poor availability and accessibility to technological facilities such as good smart phones and computers whose battery can store energy for more than two hours to support lectures. The unsatisfactory utilization of the instructional materials is equally linked to some reasons among which are low availability and less quality of educational technologies provided to school, lack of internet connection and teachers and students are not trained properly for the effective utilization of educational technologies for instructional process.

Despite the significant development in educational policy of Cameroon in the recent years, educational technologies are a new concept in Cameroon’s system of education. Educational technologies have been introduced in the primary, secondary and higher education. Educational technology has been dominating in Cameroon’s system of education for the past years and it is mandatory that learners are face with problem which they need to solve. With the use of educational technologies, learners do not only acquire knowledge but also use it in a meaningful way like solving of real life situation problems. The idea of Educational technology is a key factor in Curriculum Development and a driving force behind the process of the change. The have been a great change in the educational landscape in the developed countries as well as the less developed countries over the last three decades. For example, increasing access to higher

education has let to diversification of student population that comes with a wide range of learning styles and learning needs which are rather different from the traditional, student population. Higher education institutions are having the task to response to the demands of globalization and knowledge economy, to prepare students with 21^st century skills and competences for the labor market, which require changes in curriculum and teaching practices that facilitate a linkage with the world.

Educational technologies are seen as some of the tools to help manage some of these changes by some policy makers. Higher educational institutions are having a great challenge in how to prepare their students to meet the demands of the knowledge society. According to Figueiredo and Afonso (2005), the internet and communication technology are increasing and becoming more pivotal than ever as they take more roles as the leading information providers in the 21^st century. Technological development in computer applications since the last decades has now brought alternative concepts of teaching and learning reality with the coming of e-learning and this has lets to vital changes in education. In accord with Raja (2004), the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as the internet and the introduction of a broadband internet bandwidth to opt for e-learning as part of the efforts to meet the needs of the digital natives, enhancing the learning experiences and accelerating knowledge and skills acquisition. ICTs include internet, satellite, cable data transmission and computer assisted tools (Idegbekwe, 2019). The empowerment of individuals with educational technologies enhances student’s preferences of traditional and student-centered learning approaches.

Online communication includes the social medial which is a medium through which people create networks communities to share and collect information, ideas, messages and other content (Lee & Louis, 2016), Google Classroom and Mobile Technologies such as computers and smart phones. Social medial is a wide range of things such as facebook, whatsApp, telegram, instagram, linkIn, video portals such as YouTube and email client such as Gmail. Social medial is seen as technologies that facilitate social integration, make possible collaboration and enable deliberations across stakeholders. It is also a group of internet-based applications that allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content (Mensah, 2016). The concept of educational technology has moved across three phases of development. In 1967, it was termed as the audio visual aid. It was acknowledged as methods of materials and techniques till 1975. Then it was

referred as a system analysis by 1978. Therefore, the managers of educational technologies moved from technicians to specialists and then to group. At the first stage, the objectives were limited to technical and practical skills. At the second stage, these objectives were restricted to optimization of teaching learning process through the media. At the third stage, these were restricted to new attitude and approaches (Rashid, 1998).

The main objective is to examine the effects of educational technologies on students’ academic performances or better still to show how educational technologies influences students’ academic performances in the higher education context. To apprehend this problem, we divided our work in to two main parts; the first part is made up of three chapters and the second part is made up of three chapters.

Part one of our work is termed the theoretical framework, which is made up of the following chapters; chapter one titled the problematic of the study, chapter two, literature review on educational technologies and student academic performance and finally chapter three with title theoretical insertion on educational technology and student academic performance.

Part two on the other hand is equally termed the methodological part, made up of the following chapters; chapter four titled methodology of the study, chapter five, presentation and data analysis, and finally chapter six, data interpretation, discussion of results and suggestions.