“Thank you, Google™" The impact of students’ information-communication technology use on their learning in active learning contexts

One of today’s central educational concerns is how to combine the contemporary students’ ability to control their information needs using Information-Communication-Technologies (ICT) and their ability to manipulate ICT with active-learning (AL) curricula which were clearly not designed to accommodate ICT. Especially the potential negative impact this has on students’ learning is a cause for concern. AL pedagogies routinely presume students activate their biological memory to retrieve knowledge, not their smart ICT devices’ memory. Yet, the ubiquitous access to vast amounts of information via ICT devices has pervaded all levels of our lives, and education is no exception. It is these ICT-afforded students who are now undertaking higher education formal AL courses. University education seeks to guide students from novices to experts and proficient, lifelong learners in their chosen field of study. Current students are the academics, researchers, and professionals of the future and have to become competent medical practitioners. Medical students need help to navigate seemingly endless pre-requisite medical information and understanding from the pervasive resource of the ICT environment. Students must master a great deal of information, understand how to learn, become lifelong learners, be problem solver, gain medical skills, and integrate all these requirements into an empathetic, competent practitioner. It was against this backdrop that this research was conducted.