## 2 The Impact of New Technologies in Education
### Impact of ICT in Education  
Most of the goals of the works presented below are related to enhancing, engaging and improving education through new technologies. In [14], the authors describe a semester-long experimental study to determine whether Twitter can have a positive impact on college student grades and engagement. A sample of 125 students was considered for analysis: 70 of them took part in the experimental group, and 55 in the control group. Participants in the experimental group used Twitter for academic and co-curricular discussions. An interesting piece of data is that none of the students in the control group reported using Twitter during the study period. The percentage of students sending tweets and the number of tweets sent using the Twitter Application Programming Interface (API) were analyzed. An average of 48.20 messages were sent per student during the study. Following the data analysis, the experimental group had better grades and a greater increase in engagement than the control group. Therefore, using Twitter as an educational tool can have a positive impact on educational environments and help engage students, and motivate teachers into a more participating role. Another work on social networks is presented in [15], which focuses on how the use of Facebook is related to academic performance. The sample group was comprised of 1839 college students. The relationship between multiple measures of frequency of use, participation in Facebook activities, time spent preparing for class and the actual GPAs were the factors taken into account during the research. It is worth noting that using Facebook for collecting and sharing information was a positive predictor of the outcomes, but using it for socializing was a negative predictor. The most interesting finding was that time spent on Facebook was strongly and negatively related to GPA, while weakly related to the time spent preparing the class. In [16], the authors aimed to use ICT at a flexible learning center to engage students whose academic failure had placed them outside the mainstream educational system. They used new technologies to enhance students' engagement with the subject of science. As a result, young disengaged people showed a revitalized interest in the subject. Regarding STEM subjects, there are many works analyzing the impact of new technologies. Two examples are the works by [PERSON] and [PERSON]. In the first case, in [17], the authors use online chemistry simulations in a chemistry high school class in order to provide discussion of the factors that may affect students' academic outcomes. As main findings, there are statistically significant effects between control and experimental groups, highlighting that online simulations promote increased understanding. On the other hand, in [18], the authors use an online homework system to identify student performance. They are able to identify two clear groups: under-performing students who are good candidates for tutoring programs, and over-performing students who should be targeted in a different way. Technology was used to improve students' perceptions of the subject of electricity [19]. The use of interactive activities, visual experiments and animations was effective in overcoming students' initial negative perceptions about the subject. Ways to engage students within the field of engineering are explored in [20]. The study indicates that using technology helps students to better understand aspects of engineering design that are more qualitative than quantitative. In [21], the authors use technology to stimulate students' interest in STEM careers. They integrate two technologies--geographic information systems and information assurance--to stimulate students' interest in STEM careers. After the experiment, students showed a 9% increase in dispositions about STEM careers. Those who participated in an internship experience presented an additional growth of 10%. The objective of [22] was to enhance students' environmental awareness and activism.