Effectiveness of Digital Technology in Geography Syllabus in Tanzania's Ordinary Secondary Schools

Abstract

Despite the pervasive of digital technology in all aspects of teaching and learning materials Geography syllabus remains ineffective in its execution in Tanzanian’s Ordinary secondary schools. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of digital technology in the Geography syllabus in Tanzanian Ordinary secondary schools. The study focused on two objectives namely: To examine Geography topics that use digital technology instructional materials in Tanzanian’s Ordinary secondary schools and to compare the Geography topics that use digital technology instructional materials and the performance of the Certificate of Secondary Education Examination. The study used documentary analysis methods including analyzing the recent five years National Examination Reports; Candidate’s Item Response Analysis and current Geography syllabus. The data was analysed by using a quantitative approach where graphs; percentages and Spearman’s ranks order correlation coefficient techniques were applied. The findings revealed that the topics that used digital technology instructional materials in the Geography syllabus had satisfactory and moderate positive correlation coefficient between the topics that used digital technology instructional materials and the performance of the Certificate of Secondary Education Examination. The study recommended to unfold the Geography syllabus and then inculcate digital technology instructional materials for those topics that appeared to have inadequate digital instructional materials; to include all topics in the Geography Certificate of Secondary Education Examination particularly those using digital technology instructional materials and to use ‘Kiswahili’ as lingua franca language in digital technology instructional materials as teachers and students have pitfall in English language proficiency. The report concluded that, in order to pursue the utilization of digital technology in Geography syllabus educational philanthropists should be resilience to allocate sufficient funds in ordinary secondary schools in order to purchase digital facilities such as; computers, projectors, printers, television, radio, and smartphones and construct digital Geography classrooms with reliable in internet connectivity and electricity supply.