PEDAGOGICAL INTEGRATION OF ICTS IN UGANDAN EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS By

PEDAGOGICAL INTEGRATION
OF ICTS IN UGANDAN EDUCATION
INSTITUTIONS
By
Alice Ndidde, Jude Lubega
Daniel Babikwa & Grace Baguma
Makerere
University
Background, Aim and Objectives
The PanAfrican Research Agenda Project is a multi-institutional
partnership project with a focus on tertiary level research institutions,
attached to universities in participating countries.
It aims to better understand how the pedagogical integration of ICTs can
improve the quality of teaching and learning in Africa.
Specifically
The objectives of the research in Uganda were:
• To generate baseline data on the research indicators (Equipment,
access and connectivity; Teacher training; ICT Use for teaching and
learning; Impact of ICT on educators and learners; Institutional
Management, e.t.c.)
• Recommend policy and practical responses to the identified gaps and
challenges
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Methodology
• The design was both quantitative and qualitative:
• A mixed methods approach was used in the collection of data which
consisted of:
– self administered questionnaires,
– one on one interviews,
– focus group discussions
– observation and review of documents
• Eleven educational institutions were included in this study of which;
– five (5) were primary schools,
– four (4) secondary schools and
– two (2) teacher training institutions
• All the institutions were of mixed gender except one which was a girls’
only secondary school
• The institutions were purposively selected from rural, semi urban and
urban areas of Uganda.
• Eight of the institutions were public and only three private
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Research Results
National ICT Policies and pedagogical integration
Several ICT policies exist:
• Broadcasting 2007, Communication 2007, East African e-Government
Strategy 2005, National ICT Master Plan Final Report 2006, Uganda
Country-based Research, Policy Support and Advocacy Partnerships for
Pro-Poor ICT
The above do not have a direct relationship on education improvement.
However, the draft ICT Policy for Uganda (2008) was found to have a direct
relationship on education improvement.
In the areas of:
• Teacher training , making the use of IT mandatory at all levels of
educational Institutions, developing relevant IT curricula for the primary,
secondary and tertiary institutions.
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Research Results Contd..
Equipment, access and connectivity
The study established that:
• The studied institutions were trying their best to provide the necessary ICT
equipment and infrastructure,
BUT
The ratio of students to computers was still very high especially in public
primary schools with none below 1:15
•
Access to computers by educators and administrators was also limited
•
Educators in particular had to share computers with learners in all
institutions apart from one tertiary institution (DAECS) where all lecturers
had access to computers in their offices
However, in schools where cyber schooling and computer clubs existed,
science students and club members often enjoyed greater access to the
computers
•
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Research Results Contd..
Equipment, access and connectivity Contd..
Student to Computer Ratio
Buganda Rd
St Peters Nsambya
160
140
Kisowera
120
St. Anthony PS
100
St. Kizito Primary School
80
Kibuli Secondary
60
Kings College Budo
40
St Kizito Secondary
20
0
Buganda Rd
St. Kizito
Primary School
Nabisunsa Girls
Nabisunsa Girls
Kyambogo University
Department of Adult and
Communication Skills
Ratio of Computers to Educators
Kisowera Primary School
Kibuli Secondary School
14
St Pet ers Primary School Nsambya
12
DEPARTM ENT OF ADULT EDUCATION AND
COM M UNICATION STUDIES M AKERERE
UNIVERSITY
10
Number
St Kizit o Primary School Bugoloobi
8
ST.KIZITO SECONDARY SCHOOL BUGOLOBI
6
King's College Budo
4
St Ant hony Day and Boarding Primary School
2
Buganda Road Primary School
0
1
Institution
Nabisunsa Girls School
KYAM BOGO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF
EDUCATION
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Equipment, access and connectivity contd..
Connectivity:
• Internet Connectivity was found in only 8 out of 11 institutions studied and
in all, connected to just a few computers
• Institutions subscribed to different Internet providers (no policy/support,
institutions depend on good will)
• Bandwidth used was too low for majority of institutions and costly
• 3 out of the 5 primary schools did not have internet connectivity at all
Institution Connectivity type
9%
27%
None
27%
VSAT Connection
Broadband Connection
Dialup Connection
37%
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Equipment, access and connectivity contd..
Factors limiting Access and Connectivity:
• Government policy of not charging fees in primary schools makes it
difficulty for public schools to generate resources to set up the
necessary infrastructure
• School Governance and Administration attitude towards computers
and Internet
• Connectivity access rates are very high
• Absence of a policy that governs all educational institutions in the
country on how they integrate ICT in education
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Research Results Contd..
Teacher training
The study revealed that:
•
Majority of teacher trainers reported to be computer literate, had competencies in
applications like Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint, Internet explorer and
Email
•
Despite the above, Teacher trainers lacked attitude and motivation to fully
integrate ICT in their training of teachers
•
This could be as a result of inadequate capacity pedagogical integration of ICT,
limited ICT equipment, lack of incentives from both institutions and government to
encourage to use ICT, or the design of the teacher training curriculum
•
At secondary level (in-service), majority of educators had participated in less than
50 hours of professional development which included ICT integration.
•
It was only in one secondary school where 62% of educators were reported to
having participated in more than 50 hours of professional Development including
ICT Integration.
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ICT Use for teaching and learning
Findings indicated that:
• In 9 out of 11 institutions, educators and learners used ICT for academic
purposes with variations in frequency, type of use and course taught
using ICT
• Tertiary institutions and secondary schools used ICT more frequently
compared to the primary schools
• 3 Secondary schools had Cyber rooms connected to internet where
teachers and students undertook teaching/learning esp. science
subjects
• Male educators on average used more hours per week on the
computers for academic purposes than females
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ICT Use for teaching and learning Contd..
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ICT use for learning by learners Contd..
Results indicate that:
• There are variations in the ICT use for learning by students and the
variations are as a result of levels of access to computers, institutional
rules and regulations and the level of ICT skills by the learners
• At primary school level, students used the computer labs only once a
week for about thirty (30) minutes.
• In two public primary schools, students reported that they rarely used
computers
• At secondary level, students’ use of ICT for learning varied according to
school and instruction by educators, class level and whether they
belonged to the computer club or not.
• Students that had access to and used ICT regularly were those who
were taking computer studies as an examinable subject at ‘O’ level
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ICT use for learning by learners Contd..
Challenges to the use of ICT as stated by the learners included:
• High student Computer Ratio
• Intermittent power supply,
• Unstable and slow internet facilities,
• Regular computer breakdowns and viruses,
• Limited time for practice,
• Congested computer labs,
• Absence of ICT teachers,
• Limited skills in ICT for most learners,
• Absence of printing services,
• Very old computers with outdated operating systems
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RESULTS Contd..
Impact of ICT on Educators and Teaching
Impact on Lesson planning
• There was no reported impact as yet by most of the
educators because they heavily rely on pens and books
to do that.
• Even where there was effort, issues of access, skills,
power supply and the necessary time to do that was still
a challenge.
• In schools where educators reported an impact on
lesson planning, ICT helped them in the efficient use of
time and coming up with appropriate diagrams and
illustrations.
• In schools where there was the internet connectivity,
educators reported that ICT had helped them in updating
their teaching content
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Impact of ICT on Educators and Teaching Contd..
Impact on in-class Teaching
Most educators reported that the impact is not yet felt mainly because:
• They do not have the necessary ICT equipment (e.g. LCD Projectors,
Beamer Boards, Laptops) and the computers are not in class, but in
centralized computer labs
• Lack skills in ICT integration in their subjects
• Most teachers have not under taken ICT training courses
However, in DAECS, St. Kizito secondary school and other institutions where
ICT is integrated, it was reported that;
• ICT helped in enriching teaching content that had been obtained from text
books
• ICT had improved confidence for the educators as they were well informed
and prepared
• ICT facilitated more interaction and participation with the students as there
was no constant reading or writing on the part of the educator.
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Impact of ICT on Educators and Teaching. Contd..
Impact on evaluation methods
Educators reported a big impact in this area
• Easy access by educators to students performance records and
tracking them. This helps educators to give appropriate guidance and
counseling to prospective learners
• Management of student information esp. monthly and end of term
assessment as well as report making
However,
• Assessments that required inquiry and research of information from
the internet were limited
• Many educators used manual ways to evaluate and assess students.
• In some institutions exams were hand written and forwarded to the
examinations master who together with the schools secretary type
them and compute results.
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Impact of ICT on Educators and Teaching Contd..
Impact of Student/Educator Communication
Over all there was limited impact on student /educator communication
using ICT due to:
• Lack of internet connectivity in many of the institutions esp. primary
• Lack of personal email addresses even by the educators
• Strict ICT rules in some schools regarding internet access
• High teacher student ratio at all levels
However in some schools there has been improved communication
between learners and educators.
For example, in Kibuli SSS, students in upper secondary (S3-S6) are
mandated to own email addresses, and teachers give 10 minutes
to students of every ICT Class, to check on their emails. Also in
this school students use NetTalk to share notes, questions and
answers electronically.
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Research Results Contd..
Impact of ICT on Learners and Learning
The Learners' stated impact of ICT on their Learning included;
•
Increased access to quality educational materials especially through surfing
on the Internet resulting into accessing to update educational information, thus
making learners’ more enthusiastic to put in more effort and perform better
•
Abstract concepts in science were simplified for students when taught using
Cyber rooms - thus increasing student motivation, willingness to learn and
generally changing the traditional belief of saying “science subjects are
difficult”
•
Making learning more interesting and exciting as well as improving the level of
participation on the part of learners compared to other subjects where there
was no integration of ICT at all.
•
Facilitated individual, inquiry and engaged learning approaches as students
can get notes; compare notes and other educational resources from the
Internet.
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Impact of ICT on Learners and Learning. Contd..
• Increased independent learning, making learners more responsible and
focused
• Builds a good relationship between educators and learners there by
increasing academic excellence.
However,
some of the negative impacts were mentioned to include:
• The fact that once students get addicted to digital learning they don’t
easily learn from other methods;
• Use of internet for non academic purposes like chatting and watching
pornography.
• Some educators complained that students had become lazy as they
hoped to get all the formulas and information they wanted from the
Internet.
• Therefore, it was reported that ICT has on some occasion discouraged
hard work and the spirit of innovativeness and makes students less
functional in a situation where computers are not available.
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Research Results Contd..
Institution Management and ICT
•
•
•
Majority of institutions (8 out of 11) did not have well written out ICT
integration plans: what the researchers found at institutional level were the
expressed views and ideas of the educator in charge of ICT
Overall the institutions did not have written down strategic plans on how to
sustain the ICT they had acquired
However, a computer fee was being levied every term from every student
and had helped very much the institutions in acquiring and maintaining of
computers and internet connectivity where they existed.
Barriers to ICT sustainability in institutions
• Inadequate funding especially to access software as most schools use
licensed as opposed to open source software
• Negative attitude of education managers and teachers towards use of ICT
• Government policy of removing the payment of institutional fees and other
costs by parents in public primary schools
• Current teacher training has not mainstreamed ICT in the curriculum
• CPD Programmes for educators do not include ICT integration
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Lessons learnt & Implications for
policy and practice
• Educational Institutions are doing their best to acquire
computers for teaching, learning and administration purposes;
• Students are enthusiastic in using computers for learning
despite the high student computer ratio
• Public education institutions have a higher student to computer
ratio than private ones
• Educator to computer ratio still high
• With regard to connectivity, access rates are still high and
most institutions can not cope with connectivity
• There is need for policy guidelines to cover education
institutions with regard to ICT equipment and connectivity
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Lessons learnt & Implications for policy and practice Contd..
• ICT Integration is still inadequate, More individualized than
institutionalized
• Schools that have embraced public-private partnerships like cyber
schools technology solutions have gone along way to integrate
technology in science subjects
• Existence of computer clubs has enabled peer learning sharing and
documentation of information
• Effective utilization of ICT for teaching and learning purposes requires:
– Competencies and skills/interest of educators in ICT integration and
availability of supportive institutional ICT policies
– Easy access to adequate and functioning computers and reliable
Internet connectivity
– Continuous in-service training for teachers on Programmes that
embrace ICT integration
– Capacity building for the development of ICT enhanced content by
both the private and public sector
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Lessons learnt & Implications for policy and practice
Contd..
– Development and availing of ICT enhanced content that cuts across
the curriculum
• There is need for Government to expedite the finalization of the draft
National ICT Policy that will address challenges of equipment and
infrastructure, training of educators in pedagogical integration of ICT and
developing ICT enhanced curricula materials
• Government should take a leading role in equipping the institutions it
supports with adequate ICT to realize its long term vision of providing
quality education
• Need for institutions to develop institutional level ICT policies and guide
lines including sustainability plans.
• Need to mainstream Pedagogical integration of ICT in the Teacher
training curriculum
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Thank You
=====================
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