ICT ADOPTION IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF SIDAMA REGION FOR ENHANCED TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is becoming increasingly important for sustainable development, in our daily lives and in our educational system. Therefore, there is a growing demand on educational institutions to integrate and use ICT for enhancing the teaching and learning process and for the students to acquire the necessary skills in this 21st century. ICT is the process of gathering, creating, processing, and storage of information by using hardware, software, as well as the internet and global system of mobile communication (GSM). Realizing the effect of ICT on the workplace and everyday life, today’s educational institutions try to restructure their educational curriculum and classroom facilities, in order to bridge the existing technology gap in teaching and learning especially in developing countries like Ethiopia .There exists problems in the inadequacy of exploiting ICT in secondary schools such as lack of the requisite skills and interest of the most teachers as well as lack of active participation IT skill use of student were the widely observed problems in Ethiopia in general and in selected secondary school of this study. Hence, in order investigate the practical weakness and strength of the teaching learning process of ICT class enforced to develop a model for improving the process of ICT adoption for the teaching and learning process. Specifically, the objective of this study was focused on examining ICT adoption in selected secondary schools in Sidama region. The research design selected for this study is a descriptive analysis approach and the study areas of this research were Aletawondo, Gordama, and hula secondary schools located in Sidama region. The total population of the study was 1120 individuals and the sample size was 287 respondent i.e. 280 students selected using simple random sampling technique and 18 interviewees were selected using purposeful sampling method. Here, in order to collect data from the respondents, 40 questions of the questionnaire for 280 students, and 7 interview questions for 18 interviewees and 5 observation criteria were used. Then the data analysis mechanism was by using SPSS software package, and descriptive analysis. Majority of the responses gathered from the three tools shows that there was lack of knowledge and skill of ICT teachers. In this case, level of effectiveness of ICT adoption use, perceived benefits of using ICT, factors affecting ICT adoption, readiness and interest as well as IT Skills were the independent variables while ICT adoption teaching and learning process was the dependent variable. Five mentioned variables have influenced on the individual intention to use new technology. The result shows that there was highly unsatisfied in their learning and using ICT. The lack of attention to improve ICT adoption in the school and they exists weakness on the position of ICT resources and poor in developing skill students were the major findings