5 Teachers’ Resistance To The Use Of Educational Communications Technology In State Owned Tertiary Institutions In Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines teachers’ resistance to the use of educational communications technology in state owned tertiary institutions in Enugu State, Nigeria. The study was undertaken to examine: (i) factors that cause teachers resistance to the use of educational communications technology (ii) identify administrative strategies that can be used to encourage teachers to use educational communications technology. The study is anchored on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). A descriptive survey research design was adopted. A sample of 45 lecturers of three tertiary institutions, obtained through simple random sampling was used. A structured questionnaire with a four-point rating scale was used for data collection. Data obtained were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions. The major findings were (i) lack of digital skills, inadequate access to technology resources, lack of training and lack of functional technology resources, are factors that resist teachers’ to use educational communications technology.(ii) adopting technology in the different operations of the institution, sponsorship of teachers’ to workshop, seminar and conferences and are administrative strategies that can be used to encourage the teachers’ to use educational communication technology as rated by teachers’ in State owned tertiary institutions in Enugu state, Nigeria. It was recommended among others that teachers’ should regularly attend workshops, seminars and conferences in order to improve skills in the usage and integration of educational communications technology in the classroom The government should motivate teachers through provision of adequate funds for courseware development.

Keywords: Teachers resistance, technology, educational communications technology

Introduction

Technology involves the generation of knowledge and processes to develop systems that solve problems and extend human capabilities. In other words, technology can change or alter how people access, gather, analyze, present, transmit, and simulate information. The impact of technology is one of the most critical issues in education. The use of educational communication technology creates a powerful learning environment and it transforms the learning and teaching process in which students deal with knowledge in an active, self directed and constructive way (Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010). Educational communications technology is the use of technology resources such as electronic media, computer, and information communication technology (ICT) in education. Educational communication technology is not just regarded as a tool, which can be added to or used as a replacement of existing teaching methods. Educational communication technology is seen as an important instrument to support new ways of teaching and learning. It should be used to develop student’s skills for cooperation, communication, problem solving and lifelong learning.

Educational communications technology have revolutionized higher education in many ways such as increasing access to post-secondary instruction, improving the availability of educational resources, facilitating meaningful interaction among teachers and learners etc. Harnessing the power of educational communications technology has become a critical strategy among institutions eager to offer an affordable, efficient, and   flexible learning environment for rapidly growing and diverse communities of learners.(Lim, Zhao, Tondeur, Chai, & Chin-Chung, 2013). Today, technology enhanced learning, including distance and online instruction, is  recognized as a viable tool necessary for preparing citizens to participate in the   technologically driven global  environment.

The infusion of educational communication technology in educational institutions as part of the new social structure has great implications for teaching and learning. This has resulted in transforming the traditional face to face teaching where the teacher was central in the teaching and learning environment. In this new social dispensation, the teacher’s role is still to help learners to develop their skills and fulfil their potential for personal growth. The change due to the presence and prominence of educational communication technology has led to a situation where the teacher is no longer the central figure who imparts knowledge to the learner. The  envisioned education system  is learner-centered where learners are in control of their learning, use the digital tools  especially the internet to acquire and share knowledge with other learners in the  network.  Learner  centeredness  does  not  imply  that  teachers  are  relegated  to  the  background.  However, teachers still have the responsibility to facilitate teaching and learning and to  improve their professional development by means of using various educational communication technology  tools (Kopp,  Matteucci,& Tomasetto, 2012).

For decades educational communications technology have been heralded as great beacons of hope for new and improved teaching and learning. However, despite significant investment and policy initiatives, there has been little change in the fundamental practices or outcomes of schools, teaching, or learning. These technology initiatives have exploded into schools but failed to revolutionize education or dramatically improve student learning. Yet, it is important that young people are able to navigate, analyse and understand complex and changing landscapes of digital technologies and the data they mediate. (Tedla, 2012). For significant change to happen in schools, evidence has shown that teachers need to be able to take the responsibility to design different learning tasks and classroom interactions through the use educational communications technology. Despite much enthusiasm about the roles of communications technology in education. Many teachers are turning away from technology, after early attempts met with mitigated success.

Resistance to educational communication technology is ‘unwillingness or refusal or reluctance to adopt educational communication technology (Harendita, 2013). Resisting or being discouraged to integrate educational communication technology into teaching and learning process, when it has been found very supportive in achieving the learning aims feels like wasting a good opportunity.

Teacher’s belief about educational communication technology will likely determine their attitudes towards its integration in education. It is apparent that their efforts to integrate educational communication technology in teaching and learning activities are hampered by the negative beliefs towards it (Hargreaves & Shirley,2009). There are three key factors influencing teachers’ decisions about integration. The first is the school culture. The next two are confidence using technology and beliefs about technology in teaching, which have to do with the individual teacher. Considering the three broad school factors  lack of leadership prioritizing the change, shared vision not developed and technical or pedagogical support to fully engage in the change is not provided. Failure to adequately address and support change communicates to teachers that the change is not valued and not a school priority. The connection between what is valued at the school level and what teachers value is critical (Sipilä, 2014). Another potential  factor  to teachers’ resistance towards educational communication technology use in the classroom is the lack of competence, both pedagogical and IT competence. Almekhlafi & Almeqdadi, (2010). opined that the older the teacher, the lesser competence of integrating educational communication technology in teaching they have, which implies the need for more teacher training focusing on not only the basic educational communication technology skills but also pedagogical aspects of educational communication technology so that they have the knowledge to develop the use of educational communication technology in order to suit their teaching and learning environment.

There are conceptual, pedagogical, cultural, and political dilemma that influence the resistance of the use of educational communication technology. Conceptual dilemmas  are the attempt to understand philosophical, psychological and epistemological  underpinnings of the change in the newly context, which is the use of educational communication technology for teaching. Secondly, the pedagogical dilemmas come when the teachers design the curriculum using more complex approaches and design the learning experience for the students  in  the  classroom,  especially when they need to adjust ICT in the curriculum and the classroom  practice. Meanwhile, the cultural dilemmas arise  between teachers and students during the roles in the teaching and learning in the  classroom (Makgato, 2012).

Purpose of the Study

(i) factors that cause teachers resistance to the use of educational communications technology

(ii) identify administrative strategies that can be used to encourage teachers to use educational communications technology.

Research Questions

(i) What factors cause teachers resistance to the use of educational communications technology?

(ii) What administrative strategies can be used to encourage teachers to use educational communications technology.

The study is anchored on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by (Davis, Bagozzi & Warshaw 1989)

The technology acceptance model (TAM) is an information systems theory that models how users come to accept and use a technology. The model suggests that when users are presented with a new technology, a number of factors influence their decision about how and when they will use it, notably:

– Perceived usefulness (PU) – refers to how much the user believes that the technology will help to improve the performance/efficiency

– Perceived ease-of-use (PEOU) – refers to what extent the user is comfortable is using the features of the technology

These 2 factors determine the attitude of the user towards using the technology. The model also goes on to say that the Perceived Usefulness will also influence the behavioral intention to use. The attitude determines the behaviour which in turn influences the actual acceptance. The diagrammatic representation of the model proposed by Davis in 1989 is given below:

The TAM has been developed continuously since 1989. TAM 2 was proposed in 2000 by Venkatesh & Davis. In TAM 2, the antecedent variables to the Perceived Usefulness were also established.

Methodology

Design

Descriptive survery design was employed in this study. A descriptive design seeks to document and describe what exist or the present status of existence or absence of what is being investigated (Ali, 1996). It was used in this study to investigate teachers resistance to the use of educational communications technology in state owned tertiary institutions in Enugu state, Nigeria.

Sample

The sample for the study was 45 respondents (teachers) drawn from three state owned tertiary institutions in Enugu state.

Instrument for Data Collection

The instrument has three sections (A, B and C). Section A deals with demographic information and sections B and C are structured questionnaire comprising twelve items. Section B elicited information on factors that cause teachers resistance to the use of educational communications technology and section C elicited information on administrative strategies that can be used to encourage teachers to use educational communications technology. A four-point rating scale of ‘Strongly Agree’, ‘Agree’, Disagree’ and ‘Strongly Disagree’ with assigned values of 4, 3,2,1 respectively was used. The Conbach Alpha test of reliability, used on the validated instrument yielded 0.81 and 0.78 respectively.

Method of Data Collection

The questionnaire was administered personally. The administration of the questionnaire on the sample was by personal visit, with reasonable time given for completion and immediate retrieval. On the whole, 45 copies of questionnaire were duly completed and found usable for data and analysis.

Method of Data Analysis

Research questions 1 and 2 were answered using mean and standard deviations. The two null hypotheses were tested using t-test at 0.05 level of significance. The criterion mean is 2.50  for the research question.

Results of the Findings

The result of the study are summarised in various tables as follow:

Research Question 1: What are the factors that cause teachers’ resistance to the use             of educational communications technology (ECT)?

Mean and standard deviation of the factors that cause teachers’/lecturers’ resistance to use of educational communications technology in State owned tertiary institutions in Enugu state, Nigeria is presented in table 1.

Table 1: Mean and Standard Deviation on Factors that Cause Teachers’ / Lecturers’ Resistance to the Use of ECT

Table 1 shows the mean and standard deviation on factors that cause teachers’ resistance to use of Educational Communication Technology in State owned tertiary institutions in Enugu State, Nigeria. The factors that cause teachers’ resistance to the use of ECT in State owned tertiary institutions in Enugu State, Nigeria are clearly indicated in the decision column. However, 6 out of 7 factors categorised under teachers’ resistance to the use of Educational Communication Technology which include lack of digital skills, reluctance in the use of new technology resources, inadequate access to technology resources, inadequate internet connectivity, lack of training and lack of functional technology resources, are factors that resist teachers’ to use ECT whereas, insufficient time to use the technology is not a factor that teachers’ resistance to use ECT in state owned tertiary institutions in Enugu State as rated by teachers in state owned tertiary institutions in Enugu State, Nigeria shown in last column of table 1. This was indicated by the range of the mean ratings on the factors that cause lecturers’ resistance to use the use of educational communications technology being less more than or equal to 3.00 and that of insufficient time to use the technology is less than 2.50.

Research Question 2: What administrative strategies can be used to encourage the                 teachers’ to use educational communication technology?

Mean and standard deviation of administrative strategies that can be used to encourage the teachers’ to use educational communication technology in State owned tertiary institutions in Enugu state, Nigeria is presented in table 2.

Table 2: Mean and Standard Deviation of Administrative Strategies Used to Encourage Lecturers’/ Teachers’ to Use ECT

Table 2 shows the result of mean and standard deviation on administrative strategies can be used to encourage the teachers’ to use educational communication technology in State owned tertiary institutions in Enugu state, Nigeria. As shown in decision column, adopting technology in the different operations of the institution, provision of technology resources in the institution, sponsorship of teachers’ to in-service training, sponsorship of teachers’ to workshop, seminar and conferences and formulation of policies on integration of technology into education are administrative strategies that can be used to encourage the teachers’ to use educational communication technology as rated by teachers’ in State owned tertiary institutions in Enugu state, Nigeria more especially sponsorship. This was indicated by the range of the mean ratings on the administrative strategies being less more than or equal to 3.00

Discussion

The study showed that six out of seven identified factors, influenced teachers’ resistance to use of educational communications technology. These included: Lack of digital skills, reluctance to the use of new technology resources, inadequate access to technology, resources, inadequate internet connectivity, lack of training, lack of functional technology resources. The factor that did not influenced teachers’ resistance to the use of educational communications technology in state owned tertiary institutions in Enugu state, Nigeria was insufficient time to use the technology. The findings were consistent with the assertions of Howard (2013) who asserted that resistance can be caused by two main factors,  the  lack  of  effective training to teachers for  the use of educational communication technology in classroom and lack of confidence on the use of technology resources. Effective training is that which provides adequate knowledge of educational communication technology and pedagogical knowledge of how educational communication technology is used for education or  teaching in the classroom . Consequently, the lack of effective training provided to teachers would result in the  lack  of competence.

Furthermore, the findings on the administrate strategies revealed that five identified strategies were all found to be useful to encourage teachers to use educational communications technology. These included: adopting technology in the different operations of the institution, provision of technology resources in the institution, sponsorship of teachers to in service training, sponsorship of teachers to workshop, seminars, and conferences and, formulation of policies on integration of technology into education. The findings on the strategies were consistent with the findings of Salehi & Salehi (2012) who discovered that teachers’  needs technology resources training to indoctrinate them in order to be willing to use educational communications technology in their classroom and be confident that educational communications technology will benefit their students.

 Conclusion

Teacher resistance  is  a  convenient  phrase  arising from lack of understanding of the work that goes on in schools. An alternative way to consider what happens during implementation of change is  that,  armed  with  their  professional  knowledge, teachers  make  informed and rational  choices  about  programmes  and  materials  they  are  asked  or required to use. They teach and take decisions that are intended to confirm their beliefs about the educational effectiveness with little or no concern about technological innovations in teaching and learning.

Technology has been changing rapidly. The innovative use of technology is one of  the best solutions to remove the obstacles between teachers and learners, teachers and teachers and also to remove the walls among the  countries. Factors that tend to reduce resistance are teacher understanding and involvement, in-service training programs to bridge the  gap between the old and the new, efficient support services, effective communications, understanding administrators and confidence in the media professional responsible for implementing desired change. Ineffective leadership low confidence and low competencies of the teachers, formal opposition by teachers to use pedagogical tools that they were not initially trained to utilized  in a professional way. Furthermore, institutions are unevenly equipped with educational communications technology: in some institutions, computers and other technology resources are concentrated in computer laboratories or school libraries without effective usage.

On the other hand, administrative strategies that can be used to encouraged teachers to use educational communications technology include: provision of technology resources in the institution, adopting technology in the different operations of the institution, sponsorship of teachers in-service training. sponsorship of teachers to workshop, seminars, and conferences and formulation of policies on integration of technology into education.

 Recommendations

The following recommendations were made based on the findings, discussions and conclusions of the study:

1. Teachers’ should regularly attend workshops, seminars and conferences in order to improve skills in the usage and integration of educational communications technology in the classroom
2. All classrooms and auditoria in tertiary institutions in Nigeria should be connected to the internet in order to enhance web-based instruction.
3. Teachers in Enugu state should be motivated and encouraged  to  develop  and  use  multimedia courseware and software relevant to teaching and learning. The government should motivate teachers through provision of adequate funds for courseware development.
4. The government should provide digital  libraries  in  every educational  institution. The library is the best reservoir of knowledge and no educational institution can do without it.   Each   digital   library   should   have a   server   for   storage,   retrieval,   uploading   and downloading of information.

5. The  government  of  Nigeria  should  employ  technologists  and  technicians  to  take  care  of internet facilities and equipment and to carry out routine repairs.

References

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Correspondence can be directed to:

Anthony Nnabuife Okoye

OSISATECH Boys’ Secondary School

Emene, Enugu

Okoyetonynna@gmail.com

Prof. F.A. Okwo

University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria