Access and Use of ICT among Tutors in Public Teachers Training Colleges: A Case of Moshi Rural District Tanzania

Abstract

This study examined access and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in public teacher colleges (TCs) in Moshi Rural District, Tanzania. Mixed methods approach was employed using sequential explanatory design. A total sample of 96 respondents in categories of 90 tutors, 3 ICT system administrators and three heads of ICT department were used. To collect the requisite data, questionnaires and interview protocols were used. The study findings revealed that the main areas of ICT application in teaching and learning process in TCs included the following: used as search engines to find educational resources that support teaching, download resources useful for teaching in subject area, create teaching aids like visual graphics, charts as well as drawings, carry out power point presentations, use of scanner or digital camera to import graphics, photos together with text for presentation and use of computer to prepare scheme of work as well as lesson plan. Based on findings from this study, it is concluded that despite the fact that there are government and other stakeholders’ in continuing to make effective use of ICT in education like to train tutors in TCs on use of ICT in teaching and learning accompanied with provision of ICT facilities, there is still minimal access and application of ICT in teaching and instruction activities in all visited TCs. Although all visited TCs already have ICT facilities and use ICT, TCs’ application of ICT is limited to basic applications like administration, teaching of computer literacy and Internet skills. It is recommended that the MoEST should post teachers skilled in ICTs to each college so as to impart ICT skills to tutors and administrative staff members.