Lecturers’ technical knowledge and competency contributes to transforming the way in which ICT is used in teaching and learning, and is a driver towards developing teacher trainee competencies in the effective use of ICTs in the classrooms. The respondents agreed in this regard, though limited this to the use of computers.
All the respondents described their experience with ICTs. Respondent (L2) indicated the role of computers and internet in the preparation of course materials and accessing resources and relevant journal articles for teaching and learning, as expressed:
I use the internet, access the departmental policy documents and in developing my teaching resources at the same time get the books that are on line on the content” (L2).
This is one illustration of how some lecturers make use of ICTs to approach curriculum delivery.
Another respondent, L3, accentuated the importance of technology in advancing the delivery of course content.
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“The university has Wi-Fi connections in our block. I am able to access the internet in my class. Sometimes, lessons are conducted by accessing specific information on certain websites” (L3).
Respondent four (L4), on the other hand, acknowledged the value of ICT in teaching, and expressed support for its use:
“In the first world communities, it is realistic. I fully support it, but not yet ready to implement it in my subject(s). a lot still need to be done” (L4).
However, L4 was of the opinion that ICTs are realistic in first world communities, but he is not ready to implement its use in teaching and learning, contending that a lot still needed to be done. He acknowledged the relevance of ICT in teaching and learning, but viewed its use in the classroom differently, due to his pedagogical orientation.
One valuable ICT initiative the university introduced to improve teaching and learning, as well as making lecturers accessible to students, is the “Blackboard” learning management service. The lecturers were asked to comment on the service, especially their take on, and experience of the service. Three of the participants expressed positive sentiments about the service. Respondents one, two and three had this to say:
L1 “‘Blackboard’ is a good tool for all stakeholders. It makes lecturing easy, marking multiple
choice questions easy and accessing lecture notes etc. easy thus reduces paper work furthermore, makes communicating with students easy”.
Though expressing such positive sentiments about the use of ICTs in facilitation, L1 still had not undergone any pedagogical re-orientation to appropriately integrate technology into subject matter delivery, saying:
“No, it (Blackboard) has not changed my approach to teaching. It is just that for me it simplify things…”
This was an indication of the lecturer holding onto the teacher-centred philosophy of teaching and learning.
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L2: “It is a good initiative in that it gives an insight on how to engage your material with students on line”.
The same respondent expressed the use of the service to communicate the latest information on a subject which might not be in the teaching module, and also for students being able to download resources online in their own time.
Respondent three commented:
L3: “I was trained on ‘‘Blackboard’’ together with colleagues in the school. A person from the company (‘‘Blackboard’’) provided the training. Thereafter, the university’s IT department provided follow-up training for lecturers. The follow-up training was opened to all lecturers. I believe that some of our new lecturers need to be trained on ‘‘Blackboard’’. The service offered on the campus is satisfactory”.
Further, L3 claimed that ‘Blackboard’ enabled a variety of resources to be made accessible to students, exposing them to e-books and videos, and could be used as discussion forums. Using the ‘Blackboard’ forum reduced printed matter, eventually contributing to a safer environment. Students could read information online and also get immediate feedback on assessment, therefore; through ‘Blackboard’ the student could always be in contact with the lecturer and classmates.
However, one respondent (L4) was not in tune with the service and claimed: “The service is good but our students still prefer contact sessions with lecturers”
Thus, holding onto the traditional view, and assuming that students preferred direct interaction with lecturers rather than engaging with them electronically.
Another lecturer viewed the ‘Blackboard’ service as an ‘instructional technology’; a medium to convey information and tutor students as reflected in the comment:
“You know with ICT it is only for acquiring tutorials and questions and work sheets...”(L1)
This demonstrated the participant’s skewed knowledge of the potential benefits of the service as he (L1) could not imagine its contribution to maximising teaching and learning for understanding. Instead L1 holds on to the traditional philosophy of curriculum delivery.
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To diffuse the view expressed above, one respondent stated clearly that the service could be used as a knowledge construction tool rather than having programmed tutors. This is evident in the comment:
“…The problem I have with some other facilitators or people who are sort of tasked for academic support, they tend to use 30 % or 40 % of what they have in terms of the capacity of the system. Then explore it further. It is like having a Ferrari and you are driving normal speed. It is the problem I am having, that is why I am saying maybe if the ‘Blackboard’ can be expanded to a point whereby we sort of detect its full capacity, then you may have an interest to use it, but to me what I have seen now it is not different to e-mail, because I can send you an e-mail…” (L3)
However, he contended that many lecturers perceived the ‘Blackboard’ system as a ‘cut and paste’ tool instead of it being used constructively in teaching for understanding. The respondent attributed this underutilisation of the system to inadequate capacity of the educational technologists tasked to provide the necessary knowledge required for the efficient use of the facility, and offering support to the university community.
Further, the respondents emphasised the need for the provision of systems and services that could be used as cognitive tools, and advocated a learning environment to be developed to facilitate critical thinking and a higher order of learning. Presently, they claim to use ICTs as information resources, performance support tools, information gathering tools, and mediation tools, and to some extent, as a cognitive tool to support learning.
Despite the claims made by most of the participants, that they used ICTs, one participant clearly mentioned outsourcing in terms of field visits as an avenue of empowering students and developing their knowledge base, though they did not subscribe to the use of digital technology in the course delivery, as evident in this illustration:
“……For acquiring skills I, this is what I did, I took them out on a field trip...”
This comment positioned the lecturer in the group of ‘born before digital emergence’ (BBDE) and highlighted a limited knowledge of ICT skills development and the integrated curriculum delivery approach, though he demonstrated subject specific practical field experience as a dimension of conceptual development.
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The ironic fact is that the same respondent actively admits and ascribes to the integration of digital technology in initial teacher education, and its influence on student teachers’ implementation of technology in their teaching career, commenting:
“We are moving forward and ICT is here with us and instead of moving back, it is improved by the day. So our children, whether we like it or not, our children are computer literate and they enjoy it and they would love to see it being used. So it is our life. It is our daily bread. I would
encourage that it be used effectively and not just being used”(L1)
And a reminder:
“Now that it is the wish of the government that all schools have computers and these
computers should be utilised effectively for the students” (L1).
However, she did not reveal any pedagogical integration in curriculum delivery, though she was very aware of the importance attached to skilling student teachers with ICT knowledge and aptitude, to drive the government agenda of producing digital literate citizens, starting with the school system.
Translating skills to students could occur in a variety of ways, including demonstrations with audio visual and the multimedia in class. Lecturer respondent 3 claimed to use ICT devices to generate a creative lesson, and by doing so expected students to emulate this, using available tools, to be creative about their learning, as expressed in the illustration below:
“…to be able to do something similar. Alright, or getting them to do right or using the technology that you have to be able to show them you know there is so much more that can
enhance the creativity of your lessons” (L3).
Using technology to develop a creative lesson and innovative teaching regularly, could stir students’ interest and they could end up developing creative learning approaches and a mastery of such skills for their future endeavours.
Most of the lecturers’ recognised the place of ICT in teaching and learning, as evident in one lecturer’s comment:
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“I will promote ICT. I think it is.., we may be in denial or maybe we have not seen it yet, but
eventually we will all migrate to this ICT...” (L4)
This respondent saw the potential of ICTs, and revealed a curiosity to explore things further, thus demonstrated a culture of thinking, feeding on curiosity, as reflected:
“The good thing about ICT is I think if more people within the society are using it, and then the internet aspect, where people can easily access internet, maybe if people subscribe it is the cheaper systems. I don’t know. Like I was saying, in the classroom if we are discussing something that we don’t have answers for, we can easily search on the spot and get answer to it. Again instilling the culture of thinking, because they won’t just rely on what they get if
they want to explore further”. (L4)
This is a demonstration of good understanding of ICTs, and when and how to use technology. However, most of the lecturers seemed reluctant to buy into the principle of using some of the tools to communicate curriculum, as reflected in this comment concerning their perception of the ICT resources:
“Maybe if you can get to a point whereby the things like this WhatsApp thing, they get to a
point whereby we can talk a lot about the teaching, and then you may go somewhere”. (L4) Making reference to a social network medium as a ‘WhatsApp’ thing indicates how distant the lecturer is from engaging social media in teaching and learning. Substantial education is required to change such mind sets. n