Apart from being able to infuse ICTs into curriculum studies, one can only talk about effective integration of ICTs in curriculum studies if one understands how and when to use these devices. This is expressed in the comment:
S1: “Browsing the internet to access extra supporting information in my studies. Watching video tapes related to what I am doing in my studies. Use tutorial software to practice what I am currently studying”.
Another commented:
“ICTs can be seen as an important motivational tool and enhance productivity in our curriculum. ICTs can expand access to education, thus achieving authentic goals. It enables us to take learning away from school and into the world”. S5
It was apparent that the students’ ability to understand how and when to use ICTs influenced their attitudes positively and motivated them to work towards conceptual understanding and improved learning strategies, which possibly transformed into quality learning and performance.
To determine the student participants’ understanding of how and when to use ICTs this question was posed, touching on various ICT devices. “Discuss how you incorporate ICT equipment and hands-on materials (projectors, internet etc.), tutorial software, communication software (e-mail, chat, discussion forum etc.), digital resources (portals, dictionaries, and encyclopaedias), mobile devices (cell phones, iPods, etc.), learning management systems in their learning programme”.
On the issue of equipment and hands-on materials, the participants expressed an understanding of how and when to make use of these facilities. Respondent 6 commented that during presentations, s/he uses a projector and the laptop, and sometimes uses the internet via the laptop to access information during lectures. Respondent 5 claimed that projectors can be used purposefully to display pictures
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and images related to the topic under discussion. The view of respondent 1 was that the internet is used to access information to expand his knowledge. Furthermore, the projector can be used by lecturers and teachers to deliver teaching content, as expressed below:
S5: “Projectors can be used purposefully for display images/pictures related to the topic under
discussion. This can be done through teaching via multimedia”.
S6: “During presentation I used projector and the laptop and sometimes the lecturer request
us to bring the laptops into the lecture session so that we can access information that will help us have a better sense of what we are learning about easily”.
S1: “Internet is used to access information that one can use to comprehend the information he has in the subject. The projector can be used by lecturers and teachers to deliver teaching or lecture”.
Regarding the use of tutorial software, the participants seemed to have a very limited idea of the device. One participant (S3) suggested that the teacher could develop tutorials, or ensure that every learner had access to the tutorial software so that students could solve problems, irrespective of where they were situated. Another (S5) claimed that tutorial software could be incorporated into a learning programme through accessing tutorials using the software, as evident in the comments:
S3: “The teacher can develop tutorials or make sure that every learner has access to the tutorial software so that students can solve problems irrespective of the place they are situated”.
S5: “Tutorial software can be incorporated in a learning programme through accessing tutorials via the software”.
This is not evidence that the students are neither familiar with, nor have any understanding of what tutorial software is.
However, S6 confirmed this.
S6: “Unfortunately, I have no idea of tutorial software”.
On the other hand, one participant seemed to be aware of the device and understood how and when it could be used, as reflected in the comment:
“Tutorial software such as maple can be used by learners or students to draw graphs and work out calculations” (S1).
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Two of the respondents (S2 & S4) claimed that they did not use the software.
Seemingly, lecturers do not employ tutorial software for students to evaluate their progress. Two lecturers had this to say, when questioned about their use of tutorial software to assist student’s build conceptual understanding.
L3 “…in terms of tutorial software, I do not have any tutorial software. But I know there are
many different kinds of tutorial software that you can actually be able to access, alright, but unfortunately my teaching and learning with my students, we don’t use anything other than maybe the internet….”
The lecturer demonstrated that he did not avail himself of any resources that could be used by students to evaluate their progress. Furthermore, he did not see the value of the ICT resource because he was busy with how to teach the content, as revealed in the comment:
“The modules that I teach, they don’t lend themselves to be using a tutorial software, because most of the time I am dealing with how I teach a particular content. So therefore it does not lend itself to that aspect. So therefore that is something I did not work on”. (L3)
The other respondents seemed equally ignorant about tutorial software and how it could contribute to students’ achievements, especially their conceptual development and understanding.
Regarding communication software, the views expressed concerned using the device for social activities with little academic benefit. The software popular with the participants is email, which they use to submit assignments, communicate with peers and lecturers on academic and social issues, chat, or as a discussion forum to share ideas and information with one another. Due to their limited exposure to the ‘Blackboard’ service they could not link it as communication software. However, one respondent (S4) who knew and understood its use commented:
“GroupWise was used for good communication between university lecturers and students via the net, then ‘‘Blackboard’’ was introduced which is more effective than “GroupWise’ because now students can also engage themselves in group discussion”.
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Though he cautioned against ICT dependency on information and claimed it could lead to a lack of reading skills, as he expressed:
“The only challenge is if you depend too much on ICT, you are going to lack the skill of reading a book, because reading a book and going to ICT are two different things, because sometimes you will find that you are compelled to read a book, because the ICT or the internet is not there. Once you depend too much on the internet, you are going to have a problem, because you will always go to Google, even if a simple thing” (S4).
This view demonstrated awareness by the students that knowledge acquisition that relied entirely on ICTs is not always complete.
However, most of the student participants appeared to be competent users of computers and the internet. They were quite comfortable with productivity suites, internet browsers and email programmes, and they used these applications widely to support their academic work. They claimed to use the internet to search for information, and to obtain notes and other resources from websites such as tutong.gov, science and mathematics websites, to further their understanding of topics being taught. S5professed:
“I normally go to the internet, search for relevant document on how best can I use ICT into my practice”.
This is an indication of self-development towards ICT skills due to an understanding of the relevance of technology in the present digital space. Cell phones play a key role in this regard, according to the participants, in that they are a common handy device and are an easily accessible ICT tool at their disposal.
It is evident that students become more familiar with ICT equipment used by lecturers in their classroom, as expressed by one respondent:
“Most of the lecturers use the projectors. When I was doing, when I was busy with my degree, the lecturer used to encourage us to use internet to get some additional information. So he used to encourage us. You have to go to internet. If you don’t understand something
you have to go to the internet and try to get some additional information” (S1)
This shows that the most popular ICT tools amongst lecturers in curriculum delivery are the projector, computer and the internet, which limits students’ exposure to other tools and marginalises their skill development. Another summarised it this way:
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“When I look at how we have been equipped in our school, somewhere somehow we don’t
have that much knowledge of ICT” (S5).
He went on to say:
“When we don’t have resources at school, we become more of procedural. We give learner procedure other than the conceptual knowledge that they need. So ICT is to give them the conceptual understanding of which they will be able to draw out the procedural
understanding” (S5)
The student believed that the lecturer’s excuse of limited ICT resources is a cover-up to emphasise the procedural structure of presenting curriculum content, instead of using the available tools to assist students to construct knowledge using technology. It is clear that the lecturers and students are aware of the contribution ICTs make in teaching and learning, and do integrate it into their programmes. However, the level of their knowledge base and pedagogical influence limits their use to information and communication resources.
Curriculum may be structured to incorporate ICTs in teaching and learning but lecturers do not seem to make use of digital technology.
4.3 HOW DO MSTE STUDENTS’ AND LECTURERS’ BELIEF SYSTEMS