Abstract—Student life in college revolves around technology as their teachers engage them with learning activities to complete their assignments, presentations, coursework and many more activities in order to promote meaningful learning. While trying to establish such meaningful learning, it is important to look into various attributes, such as, how students engage themselves with technology and their learning style preferences. Also, there seems to be extensive evidence to show that such engagements and motivations are critical elements in students’ success and learning. Technology is one of such factors which play a major role in student engagement. This research is an attempt to capture students’ technology engagement that fosters meaningful learning among students enrolled in Cambridge A-Level programs. Three hundred and ninety students were asked to answer an online questionnaire, which was designed using Google docs and the results generated were further interpreted using SPSS 11.5. The results showed that, overall, computers were significantly important in the learning process of majority of the surveyed students during college hours. Also, hypothetical testing showed no significant difference in the usage of computers in leisure activities, such as Facebook, blogging, electronic mail and internet browsing at home and in college. Additionally, results showed that majority of the students make good use of the internet and electronic mail facilities. However, the proportion of students who agreed or disagreed that computers were accessible to them whenever needed was observably equal. Index Terms—Engagement, learning, students, technology. I. INTRODUCTION Student life in college revolves around technology as their teachers engage them in learning activities to complete their assignments, presentations, coursework and many more activities in order to promote meaningful learning. In order to establish meaningful learning, it is important to look into the variables that engage students. There is sufficient research evidence to show that student engagement in school is important in promoting meaningful learning. However, there are number of factors in the school environment that foster high levels of student engagement. These engaged students, seek out activities inside and outside the classroom that leads to success or learning. They also display curiosity, a desire to know more and positive emotional responses towards learning [1]. However, it should be clearly noted that Newmann‟s assertion [1] was the outcome of his research findings in the year 1992, which had very little scope for technology usage among students as against the currently available jet age, technological opportunities. As such, in the Manuscript received July 20, 2012; September 20, 2012. Ravichandran Purushothaman is with the Kolej Yayasan UEM, Malaysia (e-mail: computerravi@hotmail.com). light of all technological support provided by schools, it is in the interest of this study, to know how well the current student community is able to engage in meaningful learning. II. BACKGROUND This study examines the perceptions and preparedness of A-Level students at Kolej Yaysan UEM, Malaysia, by capturing the students‟ engagement with technology in their learning activities. Extensive published evidence affirm that engagement and motivation are critical elements in student success and learning. Researchers agree that engaged students learn more, retain more, and enjoy learning activities more than students who are not engaged [2]- [4]. Many school-level studies have identified higher levels of student engagement as important predictors of scores on standardized achievement tests, classroom learning and grades, and student persistence [5]. Therefore, based on these research notions, students‟ technology engagement is conclusively defined as the level of students‟ technology ability that foster students‟ participation and intrinsic interest in their meaningful learning activities within a school environment. Thus, a conceptual model design of students‟ technology engagement in the context of this study is shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 1. Student‟s technology engagement. Thus, this study attempts to capture students‟ technology engagement that fosters meaningful learning activities. III. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The researcher had observed from his interaction with the Senior Management Team (SMT) of the college, teachers and An Insight of Students‟ Technology Engagement in an A-Level College in Malaysia Ravichandran Purushothaman International Journal of Computer and Communication Engineering, Vol. 2, No. 2, March 2013 184