Information and communication technology use in instructional management in primary teachers' colleges in northern Uganda.
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to find out the extent to which ICT is used by tutors in instructional management in the Primary Teachers' Colleges in Northern Uganda. The following were the objectives: to identify the major ICT resources that exists in the PTC, establish the extent to which ICT is used in instructional management by tutors in the
PTCs, establish the student teachers perception on the use of ICT by their tutors in instructional management and suggest recommendations to improve access and use of
ICT in instructional management. A cross-sectional survey study design was adopted.
Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. The study used 142 participants.
Descriptive statistics were used to determine the distribution of respondents on personal information and on the questions for each of the variables. Qualitative data from interviews was reviewed, sorted and classified into themes and categories, in order to support the quantitative data. Findings revealed a very low availability of ICT resources in PTCs in Northern Uganda. The time spent using ICT in a week at work place in PTCs in Northern Uganda was very low. Tutors used ICT mainly to foster student ability to use ICT in learning, surf for information, access internet, make scheme of work, prepare lessons and for personal learning. Using ICT mainly increased students' motivation, made lesson more interesting, tutors more informed, rendered teaching easier and improved presentation of materials. The study further revealed that in Northern Uganda, PTCs encountered a lot of problems in utilizing ICTs in teaching and learning. This study found out the major obstacles and challenges that affected the use of ICT in teaching and learning in PTCs in Northern Uganda. These were ICT room, which accommodated very few students, inadequate computers, power failure, lack of interest in using ICT, hardware and software problems disrupting the lesson and tutors lack of knowledge and skills. The major conclusions of the study were that: ICTs were mainly used in teaching general knowledge in the PTC, ICT use was constrained by many challenges like electricity supply and the level of tutors' own education, literacy rates and access to professional development. The study recommends addressing the challenges of infrastructure, connectivity and pedagogical integration of JCT into the curriculum of PTCs including institutional issues of availability, access and use of facilities and develops capacity especially of the leaders to guide the integration of ICT in education.