6th European Conference - Academic Conferences

The Acceptance and use of Educational Technology in
Kingdom of Bahrain
Jaflah Al-Ammary
University of Bahrain, Bahrain
Jaflah@itc.uob.bh
Abstract: In 2004, King Hamad Schools of Future Project (KHSFP) has been launched by the ministry of education
at Kingdom of Bahrain with a goal of establishing a fundamental change in the way teaching and learning take place.
The main objective of the project is to change the way in which students and teachers communicate, work and learn
by transfer the traditional classroom into an open, interactive environment based on adopting new and more advance
technologies. In fact at Kingdom of Bahrain, adopting technologies such as computers, smart board, or interactive
board will increase the pressure on the schools to accommodate to these new conditions. This is because there are
some schools in particular the elementary schools were only getting access to the technology and many teachers
lack the required IT skills and capabilities. As a result, many efforts have been initiated to enhance the necessary
skills and facilitate the functional development of the teachers. However, there is still a need to understand the
teachers and student’s acceptance of the new technology to cope with KHSFP. Thus, to achieve a technological
enhancement of the education system, students and teachers should accept the IT as an effective tool. The current
research aims at investigating the acceptance and use of the new educational technology such as computer,
interactive board and smart board, by teachers and students in the schools of future at Kingdom of Bahrain. Through
an extension of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), five factors that influence the behavioral intention to
accept and use education technology were examined. These factors include: subjective norms, motivation, computer
self efficacy, previous experiences, and computer anxiety. Moreover, previous experiences was investigated to has
an indirect effect on perceive ease of use through the computer anxiety. The results show that the computer self
efficacy, previous experience, and motivation are the most critical factor for accepting and use educational
technology at Kingdom of Bahrain. By considering these factors and investigating other factors, Ministry of Education
at Kingdom of Bahrain can enhance the acceptance and use of the new educational technology by both teachers and
students among the Kingdom schools.
Keywords: acceptance technology model, computer anxiety, educational technology and previous experience
1. Introduction
In order to get benefit from the opportunities offered by the digital revolution and the big technological
innovations in the field of education; the ministry of education at Kingdom of Bahrain decided to draw a
strategy to employ ICT in education (Shaker, 2008). This strategy aims at developing a new environment
for e-learning, not just providing computer laboratories with equipments and teaching computer as
subject matter (ICE47, 2001). Having such action, future generations will be prepared to establish
information society and be empowered with the basic skills necessary to transfer the kingdom into a
knowledge based economy (Shaker, 2008, ICE47, 2001). The ministry of education is making its efforts
to achieve its objective through the implementation of big projects that deal mainly with enhancing and
improving the quality of education at Kingdom of Bahrain (ICE47, 2001). One of these projects is KHSFP.
In 2004, King Hamad Schools of Future Project (KHSFP) has been launched by the ministry of education
at Kingdom of Bahrain with a goal of establishing a fundamental change in the way teaching and learning
take place. The main objective of the project is to change the way in which students and teachers
communicate, work and learn by transfer the traditional classroom into an open, interactive environment
based on adopting new and more advance technologies. (Al-Ammary et al. 2010a,b). Moreover, the
project will reform the education system in Kingdom of Bahrain to prepare the citizen to invest in the ICT’s
potentials to achieve the education quality and attain the curricula capabilities at all educational levels
(ICE47, 2001). KHSFP includes an integrated systems comprise of an educational portal to achieve the
qualitative turning point in the educational performance under a contemporary educational environment,
supported by a modern educational and information technology (ICE47, 2001). This project has been
implemented by first, establishing a website for the project, second, disseminating information about the
project in the target schools and third, establishing a scientific documentary library for the project
(ESCWA, 2005). The project will be executed by connecting the targeted schools (primary, elementary,
and secondary level), with a speedy communication network via the central educational portal (ESCWA,
2005).
In fact at Kingdom of Bahrain, adopting technologies such as computers, smart board, or interactive
board will increase the pressure on the schools to accommodate to these new conditions. This is
because there are some schools in particular the elementary schools were only getting access to the
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