Utilization is the noun for the act of using something — especially using it fully, well, or for a definite purpose. It is the formal cousin of 'use' (the noun). Compare: 'the use of computers in schools' and 'the utilization of computers in schools' mean the same thing, but the second sounds like a report. That formality is the whole character of the word. Where it genuinely earns its place is in talk about how much of a resource is actually being put to work — a rate, a percentage, a level. Hospitals speak of bed utilization, factories of capacity utilization, companies of the utilization rate of their staff or servers. Here 'utilization' carries an idea that plain 'use' does not: how much of what was available did we actually get value from? Low utilization means something is sitting idle and money is being wasted. In this measuring sense the word is not showing off; it is the right technical term. Outside that, in ordinary sentences, it is often just a longer way to say 'use', and good writers in English will cut it. Teachers of writing complain about it a lot — 'the utilization of' is a classic mark of stiff, official prose. British spelling can be 'utilisation'; American is 'utilization'. Both are correct, so just be consistent. It is almost always followed by 'of'.