Role of ICT in Teaching and Learning: Influence of Lecturers on Undergraduates in Tanzania

Abstract

Reconnaissance to investigate on the integration of ICTs is not novel, and in case higher learning institutions in Tanzania as it is elsewhere remains indispensable to augment pragmatic corpus of knowledge and practice on ICTs integration in panoramic educational contexts. This study investigate on the influence of lecturers have on their students’ use of ICTs in learning. Three objectives are adopted to determine essential ICT Skills needed by student-teachers in learning; to examine lecturers’ usage of ICTs in teaching process; and to determine cause-effect relationships between lecturers’ ICTS usage in teaching and student-teachers’ use of ICT in learning. A survey design ensuing quantitative methodology to collect and analyze the data from sample of 97 student-teachers.  The data were analyzed using Statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The major posits of the study divulged that ICT skills are not only essential for construction of knowledge, but also essential for identifying useful information for learning. Also, the Lecturers consider ICT as a major tool in teaching. Moreover, though there was moderate relationship between lecturers’ use of ICT in teaching has and student use in learning, lecturers’ use of ICTs in teaching process significantly influence student teachers’ use of ICTs in learning process. Generally, student teacher perceptions and ultimate use are dependent on self conceived usefulness of the ICT skills in learning, which in turn contingent to extent lecturers apply ICTs in their daily teaching and learning practices. Four major implications have been proposed in this paper for improving practice and theory.