A postphenomenological study of the digital experience of Islamic boarding school graduates transitioning to university education

This study investigates how graduates of Islamic boarding schools with less exposure to digital technology adapt to the new digital conditions of university life. Islamic boarding schools foster an educational culture which restricts students’ access to digital technologies. Graduates who have experienced this culture may represent a distinct group when compared to their peers from other formal educational institutions who have benefited more from exposure to digital technology upon entering university-level education. For university students, digital skills are essential in academic and social life. Due to their background, however, Islamic boarding school graduates’ digital journey may thus be far more difficult, and their digital literacy may be less accomplished than that of their peers upon entering university life. To investigate this phenomenon, this study will explore in-depth the digital experience of Islamic boarding school graduates as they commence their university education through a postphenomenological study of 8 participants in order to determine how they adapt to the digital aspects of university life. The results reveal the unique digital experience of each research participant both while studying at the boarding school and when commencing university education. The study also represents this digital experience under three different analytical themes: exposure, adaptation and experience. There was a distinct difference between their lifeworld in their boarding school when contrasted with their university, which was influenced by technological exposure. It also highly affected their adaptation to technology when commencing their university. Technology is also shown to significantly shape and influence the students’ behaviours and assumptions about the digital.