The 3rd International Conference on Educational Research And Practice 2015
ICT Tools for Research Utilized by Business Education Teachers in Tertiary Colleges of a Developing Country 1
Isiyaku Dauda Dansarki, 2Ahmad Fauzi Mohd Ayub, & 3Suhaida Abdulkadir 1,2,3 Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia 1
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected] Abstract This study aims at investigating the types of Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools for research, used by business education teachers in a developing country. A list of 11 ICT tools were provided in four categories, namely: (i) search engine platforms, (ii) survey and polling platforms (iii) cloud storage and computing platforms and (iv) reference management platforms. Respondents were 212 business education teachers from 13 tertiary colleges of Northwestern Nigeria, who were asked to indicate from the list, those ICT tools for research that they often use for classroom purposes. Findings have revealed that out of the 11 ICT tools listed, Google/Google Scholar were used by up to 37.7% of the respondents – implying that these are the most familiar ICT tools for research and perhaps the most commonly used among the teachers. The average percentage of the total users of the 11 research ICT tools listed was only 9.4%, while that of none-users was up to 90.6%. This shows that only a meager number of teachers in business education faculties of tertiary colleges of Northwestern Nigeria make use of ICTs for research. This study is quite informative to school authorities in the developing countries of Africa, especially Nigeria. The study has shown that ICT facilities for research are grossly inadequate in the schools captured in this study, implying that authorities need to provide more of these facilities to schools. Keywords: Information Communication Technology, ICT tools, business education teachers
Introduction The need to use ICTs in education has been underpinned in literature as a crucial step for achieving sustainable development among nations, (Karisiddappa, 2004). The streams of advantages and opportunities in ICTs are enough to catalyze the paradigmatic shift in education desired among developing countries. But for this to happen, ICTs must be appropriately put to use. Unfortunately, empirical evidence has shown that although Nigeria has initiated an ICT policy in the 1990s, the country is still being ranked backward in ICT adoption and use (around Africa and across the world) especially for education (Arekete et al., 2014; Iloanusi & Osuagwu, 2009; ITU, 2012; 2013; 2014). Hitherto, the country’s education sector has been characterized by lack of adequate ICT facilities and lack of skilled ICT-manpower, with most teachers using obsolete tools in the classroom and only a few - buying and using ICTs out of their own volition (Higgins & Moseley, 2001; Sugar et al., 2004; Asogwa & Brendan, 2013). Overall, teachers’ use of ICTs in tertiary schools’ classrooms is presently very low in Nigeria and research initiatives in this regard are very rare (Arekete, Ifinedo, & Akinnuwesi, 2014; Jhurree, 2005). Based on the foregoing, investigating the types of ICTs used in tertiary schools of Nigeria is fundamental to understanding where the nation stands with regard to use of technology in
education. Hence, the main purpose of this study was to describe the types of ICT tools for research, used in the classroom by teachers in tertiary colleges of Northwestern Nigeria so as to provide useful insight for repositioning Nigerian teachers and the rest of the teachers in developing countries with regard to technology integration and utilization in education. This objective will be achieved through answering one fundamental research question: “What are the types of Research ICT tools used in the classroom by business education teachers in tertiary colleges of Northwestern Nigeria?” LITERATURE REVIEW Over the past few years, Teachers (including those in tertiary schools) have been faced with the task of changing the way they teach to conform to technological standards of the globe (UNESCO, 2010); and those teachers in the Northwestern region of Nigeria are no exception. As a matter of fact, teachers’ competence is now connected with how they integrate ICTs in their classroom activities (Ololube, 2006; Teo 2014). In addition to this, the size of the Northwestern region of Nigeria, (a region comprising of seven states with 13 tertiary schools located across the states), poses serious challenges to Nigerian government with regard to coordinating school activities such as students admission processing, time-tabling, students’ registration and profiling, attendance monitoring and library management. Overall, owing to the continuous increase in
The 3rd International Conference on Educational Research And Practice 2015 human knowledge and the technological sophistication around the world, school systems (including the Nigerian school systems) are continually being pushed into ICTs for them to cope up with global standards (Isiyaku, Ayub, & Kadir, 2013). Hence, this study will be of immense benefit to teachers in Nigerian tertiary colleges, especially those in technical and vocational education majoring in business education, as it will reveal useful information to inspire teachers to use ICTs in the classroom and bridge up the digital gap that exists between them and their counterparts across the globe. The study underscores various ICT tools and applications for research that make teaching more meaningful, exciting, beneficial and effective in the classroom and beyond. The wealth of literature materials and findings in the study will serve as source of information for teachers, researchers, policy makers and curriculum planners to make better ICT-integration investigations, decisions and policies especially in regard to business education in Nigerian tertiary schools and beyond. Finally, the recommendations of this study if applied, will leap-frog the ICT-capabilities of teachers in the Northwestern region of Nigeria to the next level. Meaning of ICTs To describe ICTs, UNESCO (2010) stated
that in the past, Information Technology (IT) was the term used for computers and computer peripherals like printers, floppy disks drives, scanners and the early digital cameras; but with the arrival of the internet the term IT was replaced by the term Information Communication Technology (ICT) or its plural - Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), which describes technologies of the internet along with computer networks and the World Wide Web where e-mails and search engines are used in producing and sharing information. ICTs have also been referred to as an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, mobile and fixed phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, (as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing, distance learning, and so on) necessary for the delivery of information in the form of audio, data, video, image, and so on (Oghogho and Ezomo, 2013). Further to this, UNESCO (2010) has posited that whereas even the air we breathe seems to have been literally saturated with different types of information signals, the technologies by which these signals are detected, interpreted and exchanged can be regarded as ICTs. Figure 1 is a specimen of various types of ICTs that are commonly used across the globe today (UNESCO, 2010).
Fig 1 Types of ICTs used across the globe Source: (UNESCO, 2010: pp. 4)
The 3rd International Conference on Educational Research And Practice 2015
Impact Of ICTs in Education ICTs have brought significant transformations in education generally, such that school systems are now utilizing various specialist software, for tasks like time-tabling, students’ registration and profiling, attendance monitoring and library management with more ease, speed and accuracy (UNESCO, 2010). Also, teachers have changed from playing the roles of ‘knowledge transmitters’ - providing ‘primary source of information’, controlling and directing all aspects of learning; to playing the roles of learning facilitators, collaborators, coaches, knowledge negotiators and co-learners, giving students more options and responsibilities for their own learning (UNESCO, 2010). Congruently, students’ role in the school has changed from being passive recipients of information, reproducing knowledge and learning in solitary activities - to being active participants in the learning process – providing knowledge, and learning collaboratively with others (UNESCO 2010). Overall, the process of teaching and learning has become more exciting, giving room for more creativity, innovation and growth/development. Teachers have moved from being “sages on the stage” to becoming “guides on the side” with students in ICT equipped classrooms participating in virtual excursions, being active researchers, searching the web for information to complete individual projects, communicate via e-mails, blog and social networking with their teachers and other students in different locations (UNESCO, 2010). ICTs in Education across Nigeria Irrespective of the available streams of educational advantages in ICTs that can be utilized by teachers and students across the globe, empirical evidence has shown that in Nigeria, most colleges and universities in the country have not been able to implement effective ICT
education programs; thereby incapacitating the drive towards the development of a knowledgeable society (Ololube, Ubogu, & Egbezor, 2007). Hence, whereas for the past four decades researchers in business and information systems, as well as those in education, have been keenly interested in studying ICT usage behaviour among individuals (Teo, 2015), in conventional universities of North Central Nigeria, the mean rating of student-teachers’ ICT use was low (M=2.35) (Anunobi 2015). Congruently, it has been recently observed that faculty members in Nigerian tertiary colleges are unable to cope with the use of ICTs for their private purposes as well as for classroom purposes (Onwuagboke, Singh, & Fook, 2015). Furthermore, the standard of education in Nigeria has fallen over the years and educational achievements amongst students have become purely self-guided, with little or no significant assistance from the teachers (Asogwa &Brendan, 2013; Delaviz et al., 2012 & Ololube et al.2008). Unfortunately, despite all these, research initiatives on Teachers’ ICT usage behaviour with Nigeria’s perspectives have remained very scanty over the past several years (Arekete, Ifinedo, & Akinnuwesi, 2014; Jhurree, 2005). Based on the foregoing, this study is purported to investigate the types of ICT tools that teachers in tertiary schools of Northwestern Nigeria use for the purpose of facilitating their classroom functions through research. ICT Tools for Research Eleven ICT tools were sampled from literature to represent the most commonly used tools for research among teachers across the globe (Embi, 2013). The tools were further classified into four main types, namely: i) search engine platforms, ii) survey and pooling platforms, iii) cloud storage and computing platforms and iv) reference management platforms. Table 1 presents the eleven tools and how they were classified:
The 3rd International Conference on Educational Research And Practice 2015
Table 1. Types of ICT Tools used by Teachers for Research ICT Tools for Research
S/N
1
2 3 4
5 6 7 8
Item
Description Search Engine Platforms Google/Google Scholar Freely accessible web search engines that index the full text or metadata of literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines Survey and Polling Platforms Poll everywhere Text message polling and audience response system for quizzes, attendance, teacher feedback, group evaluations and class discussions Survey monkey An online survey platform for users to design surveys, collect responses and analyze their data Zoomerang Online survey platform for users to share their polls on other social media networks e.g. Facebook encompassing survey samples, online focus groups Cloud Storage and Computing Platforms iCloud Cloud storage and cloud computing platform for managing documents, photos, music and sharing with others Drop Box Platform for cloud storage and synchronization and sharing, that allows users to create a special folder on their computers while it synchronizes with another in the cloud Google Drive Cloud storage and synchronization platform by Google that allows users to share with others whatever they store. One Drive
Cloud storage and synchronization platform by Microsoft that allows users to synchronize, store and share their files and folders in the cloud. 9 Evernote Platform for capturing all ideas and experiences (in files or folders) and for storing and accessing notes, and sharing with friends, in folders and file attachments, etc. Reference Management Platforms 10 Endnote/Refworks/Mendeley Desktop and web reference management platforms that allow users to manage and share their research papers as well as discover research data and collaborate online. 11 CiteUlike Platform for organizing, sharing and discovering links to academic research papers
Methodology In order to ensure that the findings of a study are valid and reliable, the research methodology to be used in the study must be systematically presented (Creswell, 2012). Hence, the design of the study, participants and measures used for the study are discussed as follows. Research Design This study was a survey research in which responses of business education teachers were obtained on the types of ICT tools they use for research. Survey research designs allow for unbiased collection of data from representative participants (Krysik & Finn, 2013).
Participants Participants of this study were 212 business education teachers from 13 tertiary colleges in Northwestern Nigeria. Majority of the respondents 134 (63.2%) were males while the minority 78 (36.8%) were females. The average age of the respondents was 43 years; with 26 years being the minimum and 63 years being the maximum. Among the 212 respondents, only six (2.8%) were Doctorate Degree holders while 99 (46.7%) were holders of Master’s Degree. Majority of the respondents - 107 (50.5%), were Degree/HND holders. Also, majority of the respondents - 99 (46.7%) have worked as business education teachers for a period of 2 to 8 years; followed by 44 (20.8%) who worked for a period of 9 to 14 years; then 42 (19.8%) who
The 3rd International Conference on Educational Research And Practice 2015 worked for 15 to 20 years, and 20 (9.4%) who worked for 21 to 26 years. Only seven respondents (3.3%) have worked as business education teachers for 27 to 33 years. The official statuses of the respondents were also classified as follows: Chief Lecturers/ Instructors - 16 (7.5%), Principal Lecturers/ Instructors - 26 (12.3%), Senior Lecturers/ Instructors - 56 (26.4%), Lecturers/Instructors and Assistant Lecturers/Instructors – 72 (34%), Assistant lecturer 42 (19.8%) Measures The researchers conducted a literature review on the types of ICT tools used by teachers across the globe and came up with a list of eleven items (Embi, 2013). Based on this, the researchers developed a structured questionnaire titled ICT Tools for Research Used by Teachers (ICTTR), made up of two Parts, namely: A and B. Part A has five demographic items that enquired of respondents’ official status, gender, age, working experience and educational level, while Part B has 11 ICT Tools for Research, listed for teachers to tick the ones they use in the course of conducting research for their classroom instruction purposes. All items were validated by experts (One from University of Ilorin -
Nigeria and the other from Universiti Putra Malaysia). A Pilot study was conducted on 30 respondents from three tertiary colleges in Northwestern Nigeria, and the reliability coefficient obtained for the instrument was 0.75, indicating that the instrument was valid at measuring what it was purported to measure. RESULTS The opinions of the teachers that participated in this study on the types of ICT tools they use for research are shown on Table 3. The table shows teachers’ usage responses (Yes) and non-usage responses (No) in frequencies (F) and percentages (%), and as can be seen, out of the eleven ICT tools listed for research, the most commonly used research tools among the teachers are the search engines - Google Scholar in particular, with 37.7% of the teachers as average users. Congruently, 9.1% of the teachers were users of cloud storage and computing platforms such as Google Drive (19.8%), Drop Box (10.8%) and One Drive (9.9%). However, reference management platforms such as Endnote, Refworks, Mendeley and CiteUlike were used by only 3.6% of the teachers, while only 1.7% of them use survey and polling platforms such as poll everywhere.
Table 2. Teachers’ Usage of ICT Tools for Research Usage Options
ICT Tools for Research
No
Yes
Item/Description F % Search Engines Platforms (Average Users = 37.7%) Google/Google Scholar 132 62.3 Survey and Polling Platforms (Average Users = 1.7%) Poll everywhere 193 91.0 Survey monkey 208 98.1 Zoomerang iCloud Drop Box
F
%
80
37.7
19
0.9
4
1.9
207 97.6 5 Cloud storage and computing platforms (Average Users = 9.1%) 208 98.1 4
2.4 1.9
189
89.2
23
10.8
Google Drive
170
80.2
42
19.8
One Drive
191
90.1
21
9.9
206 97.2 6 Reference Management Platforms (Average Users = 7.6%) Endnote/Refworks/Mendeley 185 87.3 27 CiteUlike 207 97.6 5
2.8
Evernote
Percentage Mean
90.6%
12.7 2.4 9.4%
The 3rd International Conference on Educational Research And Practice 2015
On the whole, the percentage means score of users of ICT tools for research was only 9.4% while a majority of 90.6% was made up of non-users of the tools in question.
Discussions This study has underscored the continuous emergence of new technologies around the globe which Nigerian teachers are yet to access and utilize. Essentially, teachers in Nigeria need to boost their research capabilities and teach with more ease, speed and accuracy beyond the clustered walls of the classroom, using virtual ICT tools for research that are supported by the web 2.0 technologies (Embi, 2013). Unfortunately, this has not been possible among Nigerian teachers over the past several years and educational researchers in Nigeria and in Africa as a whole are concerned. This study has shown that search engines such as Google and Google Scholar are the only tools used among teachers of business education in tertiary colleges of Northwestern Nigeria for research. Yet, there are important research tools from the survey and polling platforms, such as poll-everywhere, survey monkey that are capable of directly connecting teachers with their targets of study and the reality of the subject matters they intend to study, as against mere search engines that can only connect them with what is documented in literature. There are also cloud storage and computing platforms that can allow teachers to create information folders in the cloud and synchronize them across different kinds of applications while sharing them with their
students and other teachers beyond the classroom. Most of them do not cost anything more than an internet connection. This means, by simply visiting the internet, teachers can access various web pages to utilize different types of research tools that can be downloaded and used with cell phones, tablets and lap top computers on the go; thereby - handling their teaching with more ease, speed and accuracy, beyond the classroom and defying the barriers of time and space. CONCLUSIONS This study provides insight on the types of ICTs used by teachers for research. The findings in the study are consistent with the claims of extant literature that teachers in Nigeria are yet to benefit from the potentials of ICTs and research initiatives in that direction are scanty. Nevertheless, teachers are expected to be able to access and use more virtual tools to access better learning contents and enhance their instruction facilitation process by the use of various compatible computing devices, including smart phones and tablets. It is expected that teachers will apply the insight provided in this study as a panacea to their digital advancement, because the trend continues to change with the speed of lightning and teachers must keep up with the pace if they to remain academically relevant in the current dispensation. The researchers recommend that further studies may be conducted to investigate the types of ICT tools that teachers use for virtual interactions, mind-mapping and brainstorming as well as for content creation and for content sharing.
References 1. Anunobi, V. N. (2015). A Study of the Information and Communication Technology Use among Student-Teachers in Universities in North Central Nigeria. Paper presented at the Information and Knowledge Management. 2. Arekete, S., Ifinedo, P., & Akinnuwesi, B. A. (2014). Antecedent Factors to End-Users’ Symbolic Acceptance of Enterprise Systems: An Analysis in Nigerian Organizations. 3. Asogwa, & Brendan. (2013). Electronic government as a paradigm shift for efficient public services: Opportunities and challenges for Nigerian Government. Library Hi Tech, 31(1), 141-159. 4. Creswell, J. W. (2012). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches: Sage publications. 5. Delaviz, R., Andrade, N., Pouwelse, J. A., & Epema, D. H. (2012). 2012 IEEE 32nd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems. 6. Embi, M. A. (2013). Web 2.0 Research Tools - A Quick Guide. Malaysia: Centre for Academic Advancement, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. 7. Higgins, S., & Moseley, D. (2001). Teachers' thinking about information and communications technology and learning: Beliefs and outcomes. Teacher Development, 5(2), 191-210. 8. Iloanusi, N. O., & Osuagwu, C. C. (2009). ICT in Education: Achievements so far in Nigeria. Research, Reflections and Innovations in Integrating ICT in Education, 1331-1335.
The 3rd International Conference on Educational Research And Practice 2015 9. Isiyaku, D. D., Ayub, A. F. M., & Kadir, S. A. (2013) Utilizing Information Communication Technologies for Facilitating Business Education Instructions in Nigeria. Proceedings of Greduc.upm.edu.my. 10. International Telecommunicaion Union. (2013). The World in 2013 ICT Facts and Figures. Geneva, Switzerland. 11. International Telecommunication Union. (2011). Measuring the Information Society. Geneva, Switzerland. 12. International Telecommunication Union. (2012). Measuring the Information Society. Geneva, Switzerland. 13. International Telecommunication Union. (2013a). Measuring the Information Society. Geneva, Switzerland. 14. International Telecommunication Union. (2013b). Measuring the Information Society: Executive Summary. Geneva, Switzerland. 15. International Telecommunication Union. (2014a). Manual for Measuring ICT Access and Use by Households and Individuals (2014 ed.). Geneva Switzerland. 16. Internet World Stats. (2013). Usage and Population Statistics. from http://www.internetworldstats.com/ 17. Internet World Stats. (2014). Usage and Population Statistics. from http://www.internetworldstats.com/ 18. Jhurree, V. (2005). Technology Integration in Education in Developing Countries: Guidelines to Policy Makers. International Education Journal, 6(4), 467-483. 19. Karisiddappa, C.R. (2004). Library and information science curriculum for developing countries. A paper presented at IFLA General Conference and Council. 20. Krysik, J., & Finn, J. (2013). Research for effective social work practice: Routledge. 21. Oghogho, I., & Ezomo, P. (2013). ICT For National Development in Nigeria: Creating an Enabling Environment. International Journal of Engineering, 3(2), 2305-8269. 22. Ololube, N. P. (2006). Appraising the relationship between ICT usage and integration and the standard of teacher education programs in a developing economy. International Journal of Education and Development Using ICT, 2(3). 23. Ololube, N. P., Egbezor, D. E., & Kpolovie, P. J. (2008). Education policies and teacher education programs: meeting the millennium development goals. Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability, 9(1), 21-34. 24. Ololube, N. P., Ubogu, A. E., & Egbezor, D. E. (2007). ICT and distance education programs in a sub-Saharan African country: a theoretical perspective. Journal of Information Technology Impact, 7(3), 181-194. 25. Onwuagboke, B. B. C., Singh, T. K. R., & Fook, F. S. (2015). Need for ICT Integration for Effective Instructional Delivery in Nigerian Colleges of Education. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(3), 51-56. 26. Sugar, W., Crawley, F., & Fine, B. (2004). Examining teachers' decisions to adopt new technology. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 7(4), 201-213. 27. Teo, T. (2015). Comparing pre-service and in-service teachers' acceptance of technology: Assessment of measurement invariance and latent mean differences. Computers & Education, 83, 22-31. 28. Teo, T., & Zhou, M. (2014). Explaining the intention to use technology among university students: a structural equation modeling approach. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 1-19. 29. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2010). ICT transforming education: A regional guide. Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education (Bangkok 10110. Thailand ed.). Bangkok, Thailand.
