Technology Appropriation in Higher Education: The Case of Communication Educators in Ghana

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019 challenged universities in sub-Saharan Africa to reinvent themselves and rely more on digital technologies for curriculum delivery. Before the pandemic, technology use in curriculum delivery was ad-hoc and depended mainly on teachers' self-efficacy. This article investigates how teachers in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ghana appropriated new media technologies for teaching and research before the outbreak of COVID-19. This study explored the new media technologies used by teachers, their motivations for using them, how they used them, and the challenges they encountered in their appropriation of technologies for curriculum delivery. The study triangulated in-depth interviews and semi-structured questionnaires to gather data from university teachers who are members of the Communication Educators Association, Ghana (CEAG). Thematic and descriptive analyses were employed to analyze data collected through interviews and surveys. The study revealed that communication educators mostly used Google Scholar, YouTube, and Facebook. Their choices and usage of these new media were influenced by personal preference and the perceived usefulness of digital technologies to teaching and research. Communication educators face several challenges in using digital technologies; these include unstable internet connection, low digital literacy, and financial constraints, which impede their appropriation of new media technologies. The adoption and adaption of new media among communication educators is consistent with the Technology Appropriation Theory, and practicality rather than pedagogical imperatives drive their usages. The study concludes that teachers must carefully plan the deployment of new media in curriculum delivery; therefore, communication educators require institutional support and policy guidelines to appropriate and deploy new media technologies effectively.