EMERGING PARADIGM OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES USE IN TEACHER TRAINING INSTITUTIONS OF PAKISTAN

Abstract

The study “Emerging Paradigm of Information and Communication Technologies Use in Teacher Training Institutions of Pakistan” was conducted through survey approach. Main objectives of the study were to; (1) Assess the teachers’ and students’ attitude towards the use of ICTs, (2) Evaluate the existing situation of ICTs utilization, (3) Investigate the teachers’ and students’ skills to use these technologies and (4) Examine the barriers in the utilization of ICTs. 1805 students out of 3609 and 442 out of 442 teachers were taken as a sample of the study through random and universal sampling techniques respectively. A questionnaire was developed on five point Likert scale to elicit the opinions of students and teachers. The salient findings of the study were; (1) Majority of the teachers and students are frequent user of e-mailing, word-processing and Internet browsing. (2) A considerable number of teachers was infrequent user of spreadsheets. (3) Majority of the teachers opined that that they have good skills of e-mailing, word-processing, presentations and Internet browsing while they have insufficient skills to use spreadsheets. (4) Majority of the respondents both teachers and students opined that lack of training, power failure, lack of hardware and lack of confidence were major barriers in up taking these technologies. On the basis of the findings it was concluded that (1) Both teachers and students have positive attitude towards ICTs. (2) Both teachers and students are frequent user of e-mailing, word-processing and Internet browsing. (3) Both teachers and students have sufficient skills to use e-mailing, word-processing and Internet viiibrowsing while teachers have insufficient skills to use spreadsheets. Similarly students have insufficient skill to use spreadsheets and presentation technologies. (4) Major barrier to the uptake of ICTs were lack of training, power failure, lack of hardware and lack of confidence. Therefore, on the basis of these conclusions the following recommendations were made (1) Maximum deployment of these technologies may be ensured to address the barrier of lack of hardware. (2) A judicious policy may be developed and implemented for continuous training of technological usage so that teachers may become familiar with advancement in these technologies. (3) Use of spreadsheets and presentations may be enhanced (4) Especial emphasis may be given to address the problems of lack of training, power failure, lack of hardware and lack of confidence.