Effective Use Of ICT Research Articles

Using Local ICT Services to Support Lower Secondary and Primary School Teaching

Abstract The article looks at the ways lower secondary and primary school pupils and teachers make use of ICT services (particularly user accounts and network drives). The description of implemented approaches is complemented by a discussion of the factors that influence schools in their choice of a particular solution. Attention has been devoted to both the various benefits that a chosen solution has brought to teaching and the complications that have been encountered during lessons. Our research has covered a wide range of schools that use services provided by servers to a varying extent as well as schools that are not in possession of servers. In-depth, semi-structured interviews have been carried out with school network managers. Our investigation has been supported by triangulation, consisting of interviews with teachers selected from the given schools. Data gained from the interviews has been processed using open coding. The results show that despite user accounts being found to be beneficial to teaching and lesson management, not all schools have access to such a solution. As well as being able to use personal and shared network drives, this solution can make it easier for schools to monitor their pupils′ Internet activity. Schools have their own specific procedures to deal with pupils that forget their login details, which could lead to lessons being disrupted. Schools that do not make use of user accounts have developed methods to overcome such a problem. It does not seem to be a lack of suitable solutions that prevents the more effective use of ICT in teaching. The problem is more likely to lie in the fact that many teachers lack knowledge of the various possibilities offered by available solutions and are often unwilling to make use of such solutions.

Infusing Skills Acquisition Contents In Reading Comprehension Via Information And Communication Technologies (Icts) For Economic Empowerment In Nigeria

The objective of this paper was to educate teachers of English Language at all levels of education in Nigeria, on how to make effective use of ICTs in teaching. Specifically, the paper has discussed briefly the introduction of Western Education in Nigeria with its flaws in the curriculum how Nigerians yearned for the type of education that would satisfy their desires. The paper advanced and discussed the introduction of information and communication Technologies in the global education system and in Nigeria in particular. Entrepreneurship and skills acquisition have also been discussed. Reading comprehension with its three levels of understanding have been discussed and how reading comprehension can be utilized in ICTs for the purpose of skills acquisition. In addition, the paper discussed how reading comprehension can be used to acquire skills of making some products. The importance of collaborative class work through the use of ICTs among school teachers has also been discussed. The paper discussed how project assignment can be given to students to work in pairs and groups to produce some products they have read about the processes of making them. In conclusion, the paper emphasized the importance of ICTs in schools and the use of reading comprehension in ICTs. It was recommended among others that teachers in English language class should integrate skill acquisition texts or passages through ICT in the reading comprehension class.

The Use of Participatory Approaches in Developing ICT‐Based Systems for Disseminating Agricultural Knowledge and Information for Farmers in Developing Countries: The Case of Tanzania

AbstractThis paper provides an insight on the use of various participatory approaches to develop ICTs to the rural farming communities. The paper shows how collective groups of farmers can be empowered through involvement of different stakeholders in a participatory action research. The paper also discusses how participatory action research will help the farming community in adopting ICT‐based solutions for agriculture. This in turn will contribute in solving problems as well as assisting decision making in identifying technological and agricultural needs. In this study, a total of 64 researchers and extension workers and 320 rural farmers were involved. Primary data were collected using a self‐administered questionnaire and interviews. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics tool. The results indicate that many ICT‐based solutions for agriculture are not adopted by farmers and other stakeholders in various agricultural value chains because those ICTs were developed without using participatory approaches. Moreover, the results from study indicate that participatory action research approaches such as Participatory Communication (PV), Participatory Video (PV), Participatory Learning and Action Research (PLAR), Farmer Participatory Research (FPR), Informal‐Mobile Learning Research (IMLR) have a significant impact on the effective use of ICTs in rural farming community and the agricultural domain in general. Among of these participatory approaches, the IMLR and PLAR have shown to be more effective because of availability and interactive mobile learning environments that excite interests, commitments and encourages participatory attitudes among famers and researchers. This study provides an evident that ICTs has a dominant position to alleviate rural poverty and strengthen the agriculture productivity through participatory approaches. We recommend that a strong commitment of all actors in agriculture value chain is needed so that they can collaborate to identify the problem, analysis and design possible solutions and finally, implement and later on use those developed ICTs to increase agriculture productivity.

Effective use of ICT and pupils’ motivation in learning a foreign language at elementary schools

Effective use of ICT and pupils’ motivation in learning a foreign language at elementary schools

Acceptance of Educational Use of Tablet Computers: A Critical View Of The FATIH Project

In Turkey, various ICT tools were integrated into the educational environments through the FATIH Project introduced by the Ministry of National Education while studies concerned with the effective use of ICT in the educational processes began to increase in number and tablet computers were given to students and teachers within the framework of the project. Despite the effort put into the technological infrastructure, in-service training for the teachers and fulfilling other components of the project in order to help the FATIH Project reach its aim, the distribution of the tablet computers was the only action taken in terms of the services intended for the students. The attitudes of the students regarding the project need to be determined in order to ensure sustainability and help the project reach its aims. In this regard, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) becomes prominent. According to TAM, the students’ beliefs will affect the behavior of the students positively as a result of thinking that using the tablet computers is easy and beneficial while this effect will cause the students to adopt the use of the tablet computers. The study was carried out with 2023 secondary school students who were enrolled in FATIH Project pilot schools in the central province of Bartin province in the spring semester of 2014-2015 academic year. In the end of this study, the secondary education students’ acceptance levels of the educational use of the tablet computers used in the FATIH Project were examined in accordance with TAM and the scale for the acceptance of the tablet computers used in the FATIH Project in terms of educational use was developed. In addition, it has been achieved that giving tablet computers to students, training with FATIH Project technologies and increasing class level negatively affects students' acceptance of educational use of tablet PC in the FATIH Project.

Preschool teachers’ perceptions and pedagogical practices: young children’s use of ICT

ABSTRACTICT has been widely introduced to early childhood programs for young children to learn and play, but the meaningful integration of ICT into early learning and development is not strongly evident. While studies reveal that teachers are the key to the effective use of ICT in the classroom, there is to date limited research investigating how early childhood teachers perceive and support young childrens use of ICT. This paper reports on a survey study examining Chinese preschool teachers perspectives and pedagogical practices. Although there was a level of correspondence between the teachers perceptions and pedagogical practices, the teachers high positive perceptions of ICT benefits conflicted with their low frequencies of using pedagogies to facilitate the childrens ICT use. The results point to the importance of providing effective professional learning and development programs so teachers can employ a wider range of pedagogical strategies to support the childrens use of ICT.

Promoting Pro-environmental Printing Behavior: The Role of ICT Barriers and Sustainable Values

This study aims to explore how to reduce printing at elementary schools through strengthening both the effective use of ICT and pro-environmental values. Literature review is presented in themes – ICT barriers (fears, knowledge, skills and time), demographic, printing behavior and sustainable values (egoistic, hedonic, prosocial & biospheric). A quantitative method is applied in this study, data is obtained from 108 teachers from seven elementary schools at three different regions in Northwest Friesland, The Netherlands by using a questionnaire. The value scale by De Groot and Steg (2008) is applied for sustainable values while for ICT barriers and printing behavior, questions are developed by the author and validated by Cronbach. The main findings illustrate that lower ICT fears and higher biospheric values have a positive effect on the pro-environmental printing behavior. To minimize teachers' ICT fears and printing, directors of the schools should train teachers in the use of ICT and enhance their biospheric values. This study is one of the first to explore ICT barriers with the combination of pro-environmental values orientation contributing pragmatic evidence to reducing financial and environmental costs.

Teacher development in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Beijing for e-Learning in school education

Teaching professionals are crucial for the successful realization of e-Learning in school education. Major Asian cities/regions such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Beijing continuously invest in teacher development on e-Learning to empower frontline teachers and school leaders to advance school education in the digital era. This article aims to review and discuss the activity contents, delivery approaches, and scaling-up methods of teacher development on e-Learning in these four major Asian cities/regions. There is a unique trend identified in each of the four major Asian cities/regions. Singapore focuses on professional peer-learning communities for supporting practice-based teacher development on the effective use of ICT for learning and teaching in the classroom. Hong Kong focuses on building teacher communities for observing, engaging, and reflecting and succeeding school-based e-Learning initiatives for student-centered learning. Taiwan focuses on offering university-supported teacher development on the effective integration of e-Learning into students’ learning, especially for learning twenty-first century skills. Beijing focuses on promoting self-directed teacher development on the advancement of ICT infusion in classroom teaching, especially the ICT-supported innovative pedagogies for K-12. Implications are drawn in order to provide a point of reference for other cities/regions in tailoring the future provision of teacher development for e-Learning in the twenty-first century.

An e-readiness assessment model for disaster management

One of the most important factors for an effective use of information and communication technologies ICT in different fields is the e-readiness of the environment in which evolve such technologies. Bringing technological solutions before assessing the maturity of such environment was, in the most cases, behind the registered failures of the related projects. In this paper, we propose an assessment model to evaluate countries' e-readiness in the field of disaster management. To elaborate and validate the proposed model, we used two main techniques: Delphi and the analytical hierarchy process, from statistic and decision-making domains, respectively. The proposed model includes five dimensions and 34 indicators representing the principal elements that influence the effective use of ICT in disaster management. This model can be used by countries, mainly from the developing world, to assess their readiness to successfully use ICT and to suggest areas for improvement, in the field of disaster management.

Desarrollo social y mejora de la competitividad: dos retos para la educación en América Latina / Social development and improving competitiveness : Two challenges for education in Latin America

The author addresses in this article the direct relationship existing in Latin America between education and development. A region with a cyclical economy in which remains a low level of educational that prevents its fully participation in the knowledge society, ensure a sustainable growth and have a level of competitiveness that would allow the region to grow in a global economy. In short, the author bets on key factors such as: the best selection, training and evaluating teachers, the effective use of ICT in education, to generalize the external evaluation of teachers, centers, and education systems, and carry out a comprehensive strategy for skills, both cognitive and non-cognitive development: skills are the global currency of 21st century.

How Strategic Purchasing Orientation and Transformational Leadership Impact Performance: The Mediating Role of Information and Communication Technologies

ABSTRACTPurpose: Purchasing orientation (greater efficiency, use of information and communication technologies; ICT) is becoming an underlying part of company strategy in an increasing number of business organizations. Transformational leadership by purchasing managers is also emerging as a tool to generate more intense and effective use of ICT and as a means of enhancing performance. The present research pursues 2 goals: firstly to explore how the strategic nature of the purchasing function and transformational leadership of purchasing managers impacts ICT use intensity and purchase efficiency, and secondly to pinpoint how the use of ICT affects purchase performance.Methodology/approach: The empirical work is based on an analysis of the information provided by a sample of 130 Spanish firms. Empirical verification of the proposed model was carried out through partial least squares analysis.Findings: Findings show that the strategic importance which management attaches to the purchasing function impacts the intensive use of ICT. However, the transformational leadership exercised by purchasing managers proves relevant in achieving greater cost efficiency and coordination with suppliers.Research implications: This work has sought to merge as determinants of efficiency both strategic aspects of the purchasing function in the firm as well as managerial aspects of said function (manager’s transformational leadership and the use of ICT). This research breaks new ground by empirically comparing the relationship between the strategic nature of the purchasing function in a firm and intensity of ICT use, a relation which has been the subject of very little inquiry and for which the mediating role of ICT in the link between strategic orientation and purchase performance is brought to light.Originality/value/contribution: The study makes a twofold contribution. Firstly, the present research seeks to bring together strategic aspects of the purchasing function in the firm as well as other management factors involved in said function (managers’ transformational leadership and use of ICT) as drivers of efficiency. In this sense, the findings point to the important role played by the purchasing manager vis-à-vis the strategic vision of the purchasing function in achieving cost efficiency and coordination with suppliers. Secondly, this research breaks new ground by empirically verifying the link between the strategic nature of the purchasing function in a firm and intensity of ICT use, a link which has been the focus of scant attention and for which we underpin the mediating role of ICT in the relationship between strategic orientation and purchase performance.

Integrating Technology in Art Education in Nigerian Education System: The Need for an Effective Pedagogical Approach

Fine Art has suffered tremendous neglect in schools within and outside Nigeria due to misconstruing of the benefits of the subject by policy makers and even parents who dissuade their wards from spending time in artistic creations. Despite the lofty position which the national policy on education gave to it in the policy of Nigerian education, Fine Art is not always found in the time table of most schools. Pedagogical approaches often used by teachers have often proved inadequate leading to poor performance of students in public examinations. This paper is an exploratory conceptual study (document-based qualitative study approach). Literature is explored to determine objectives of art teaching in schools; role of art teaching in general education; need for effective art teaching model. It proposes an ICT Integrated Studio Teaching Model (IISTM) as a paradigm shift from the teacher centred approach to learner centred approach which allows learning through exposure to authentic learning experiences. The effective use of ICT in teaching as well as teacher modelling practical examples of how to solve design problems in the subject is recommended to motivate students in the studio environment. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s1p184

Exploring Students' Skills and Attitudes on Effective Use of ICTs: Case Study of Selected Tanzanian Public Secondary Schools

This study was conducted purposely following various initiatives and programmes by the Government of Tanzania to incorporate in education since 2007 with the National policy theme ICT for improved education. The study provides insights regarding secondary school students' skills and attitudes in effective use of information and communication technology. The study was a co-relational and cross-sectional survey biased to the quantitative approach involving students, teachers and school administrators. A total of 246 students from six public secondary schools in Tanzania were involved in this study. Primary data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Using inferential and descriptive analyzes, results show that, secondary school students do not have enough skills on effective use of information and communication technologies. However, students have basic knowledge in different aspects of ICTs particularly Internet and various hardware and software available in Tanzania. The implications to the approach of teaching and learning of subjects in secondary schools, its evaluation and assessment and future initiatives related to educations and infrastructure development have impacts towards creating a well-connected society. It is therefore recommended that secondary schools should provide enough tools for students' hands-on experiences. The utmost end result of integrating in secondary education system will eventually be the economic engine of Tanzania by preparing her students for the knowledge based economy.

English

English

ФУНКЦІЇ ЕЛЕКТРОННИХ ОСВІТНІХ РЕСУРСІВ У ПРОЦЕСІ ПРОФЕСІЙНО ОРІЄНТОВАНОГО НАВЧАННЯ УСНОГО МОВЛЕННЯ МАЙБУТНІХ УЧИТЕЛІВ ФРАНЦУЗЬКОЇ МОВИ

Яковенко-Глушенкова, Е. ФУНКЦИИ ЭЛЕКТРОННЫХ ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНЫХ РЕСУРСОВ В ПРОЦЕССЕ ПРОФЕССИОННАЛЬНО ОРИЕНТИРОВАННОМ ОБУЧЕНИИ БУДУЩИХ УЧИТЕЛЕЙ ФРАНЦУЗСКОГО ЯЗЫКА УСТНОЙ РЕЧИ / Е. Яковенко-Глушенкова // Информационные технологии в образовании. - 2014. - № 20. - С. 84-91.

English

Teachers are the key knowledge producers and the development driving force of any nation. Studies have shown that, the wealth of any nation largely rests on empowering its knowledge producers and knowledge generators. Training teachers on necessary skills and knowledge for personal and career development is a must for attaining sustainable societal development. One of the Saudi’s Ninth Development Plan is to turn the Saudi society into information society through various mechanisms notably training and developing teachers on effective use of ICT. This paper discusses the Saudi development framework for training its treachers on skills and knowledge in terms of ICT having been in information communication age which helps in knowledge dissemination, knowledge transfer, knowledge sharing, and knowledge production. The impediments in the way of achieving this framework are discussed while suggestions are proposed for the improvement of the model for the Saudi Government, stakeholders, teachers as well as Saudi society at large. Field of Research: Professional development, ICT use, sustainable development, Saudi model.

Constraints to Effective Use of Ict among Extension Professionals and Farmers in Extension Delivery in Rivers State , Nigeria

Constraints to Effective Use of Ict among Extension Professionals and Farmers in Extension Delivery in Rivers State , Nigeria

Improving e-economy by regional governments

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to analyse and assess a government support programme for business innovation in a very peripherical European region: the Spanish region of Andalucía.Design/methodology/approach– Endogenous development approach is used to categorize the main public and private actions included in the government ICT support programme. Cross-time analysis has been carried out by using three territorial indicators of diffusion and effective use of ICT: the physical aspect, refereed to the infrastructures used as a base for the information society development (infrastructures, technology and equipment); the actors and their degree of organization (firms present on the internet and support organizations and institutions); and knowledge, refereed to the technological sprawl and the entrepreneurship capacity (fostering innovation and training among the general population and businesses).Findings– The study confirms that the public policies implemented are coherent with the endogenous development approach, where investment in physical and human capital have been accompanied by enabling measures of interaction between firms and other economical agents (universities, business associations, business centres and technology institutes, etc.), with a view to favouring the dissemination of innovations and knowledge among firms. Secondly, the research assess the impact of this ICT programme, both in terms of economic growth and per capita income, as well as on the main variables that reflect the degree of business participation in the Information Society. Results show that, during the period 1996-2010, this region has made important progress in terms of convergence with more advanced European regions.Research limitations/implications– The study has methodological implications in terms of designs of further ICT programmes in less developed European regions to broke the digital divide.Practical implications– Recent outlooks of the OECD call for more assessment research on ICT national and regional policies around the world, especially those that prove that it is possible to broke the international digital divide. The present study suggests that public policies following the directives laid down by the endogenous development approach can reach this economic and social target. The Andalucía Information Society Programme constitutes a real commitment and private-public partnership towards a structural change in the technological culture amongst businesses. Investment in physical capital and human capital has been accompanied by measures that enable the interaction of firms with other economic agents (university, business associations, technology centres, etc.), with a view to favouring the dissemination of innovation and knowledge among firms.Originality/value– The study uses for the first time the endogenous development approach applied to a less advanced region for evaluation of ICT policy and it improves a methodology based on this approach to assess its effectiveness.

Technology leadership and ICT use: Strategies for Capacity Building for ICT integration.

Technology leadership is a fairly new concept in school leadership focus. It has become a concern for study in recent times, in tandem with the pedagogical change of integrating ICT in teaching and learning especially in the developed nations. However, few such studies have been done in Africa. A number of studies in the developed countries have advanced descriptive approaches on how Educators should go about the using of ICT in education. Teachers, therefore, need to have prerequisite skills to integrate ICT in teaching and learning and school leaders have a role in enabling the effective use of ICTs. This study aimed at investigating how school leaders help build capacities of teachers to be able to effectively integrate ICT in their teaching and learning, at school level, in a public secondary school in Kenya. Using a qualitative case study approach, five school leaders involved in the capacity building, were purposively sampled for interviews, four teachers were engaged in a Focus Group Discussion and two teachers were observed engaged in classroom practice. Further data was obtained by analysing official school documents. The data analysed indicate the school leaders facilitated increased access to ICT facilities to the teachers and supported them, alongside training, to enable them explore various ways of integrating ICT in teaching and learning.

Effective Use of ICT and Emerging Cellular Technologies for Health Care: E-Govt Reshaping Governance into Good Governance

Effective Use of ICT and Emerging Cellular Technologies for Health Care: E-Govt Reshaping Governance into Good Governance