INVESTIGATON OF THE POTENTIAL OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY AND INTERNET FOR ACTIVE LEARNING IN PHYSICS: THE CASE OF JINKA SECONDARY SCHOOL, IN SOUTH OMO ZONE

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate of the potential of information and communication technology and internet in teaching and learning physics in Jinka Secondary School. It mainly dealt with the ICT use and competence of teachers and students in teaching and learning process the researcher used the instruments questionnaire and interview. The data were collected from the targeted school. The samples were taken from eight physics teachers‟, two IT teachers (experts) and 100 (hundred) students were selected through simple random sampling technique. Before conducting the main study, the researcher carried out the pilot study in other school. The reliability of pilot study was 0.92 and in the main study, the reliability of alpha coefficient of the questionnaire of teachers was 0.87, questionnaires of students were 0.72 and the questionnaire of IT expert was 0.71. The data analyses were done using statistical tools such as percentages, frequencies, mean and standard deviation. The results of the study indicated that ICT has not been successfully integrated in teaching and learning physics in Jinka secondary school. The study showed students have the skills to use new kinds of applications and their ICT skills are wider although not necessarily adequate. However, many of the physics teachers did not use their ICT skills and integrate this technology in their physics lessons in the actual classroom. Most teachers complained that the use of ICT in learning and teaching was low in the past years and currently learners are very interested to upgrade their knowledge of ICT. If this is supported by computer lab and internet connectivity in school, it will be useful to improve learners‟ competence of ICT to adopt new pedagogical practices and integrate ICT in meaningful way. The findings of this study showed that ICT integration faced some challenges such as shortages of sufficient number of ICT tools, lack of motivation and lack of technical support , some teachers‟ have less knowledge of computer skills, insufficient school leaders‟ support and lack of continuous training. These become the obstacle for the successful implementation of ICT in teaching and learning