CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
- Background of the Study
The breath-taking pace that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has pervaded and captured today’s world is tremendous. The world in the last two decades has experienced a significant change in all aspects of life due to use of ICT (Thioune, 2003). From the individual, institutions, organisations through to government, ICT usage has affected the way people communicate, work and enjoy life as individuals, and in organisations. The constant usage in social media platform like WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter for entertainment or business transactions is trending. People now indulge in such communications than have physical conversation with each other. Electronic mails (e-mails), short message service (SMS), texting and video chats (Skype) have also ensured fast, easy and convenient means of communicating information across.
Recognising the impact of ICT in society have caused educational stakeholders in Africa to restructure programs and classroom facilities to bridge the gap between the advanced and less advanced societies. “With the possibilities and opportunities that it offers, ICT has become a critical part of educational reform efforts and is seen as an integral component of school curriculum” (Tezci, 2011). These restructuring efforts require effective action for using technologies that will offer students understanding in their programs and stimulate meaningful learning (Tomei, 2005 cited by Malcolm and Godwyll, (2008). Likewise, the profession “teaching” has become most challenging because it necessitates new preparation and high-tech adaptation to cope with the current educational systems. Teachers are implementers and therefore
need to learn and apply new technologies into their classroom instructions (Tedla, 2012). A report by the United Nation, Educational, Science and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO, (2015) stated that “Information and communication technologies (ICTs) must be harnessed to strengthen education systems, knowledge dissemination, information access, quality and effective learning, and more effective service provision”.
Information and Communication Technology thus “relates to those technologies that are used for accessing, gathering, manipulating and presenting or communicating information. The technologies could include hardware (e.g. computers and other devices), and software applications and connectivity (e.g. access to the Internet, local networking infrastructure, and video conferencing)” (Tommey, 2001). The hardware equipment like mobile phones, computers, laptops, television and projectors are mostly used in educational environment to process, send and retrieve information for academic purposes.
These equipment have aided in changing the traditional practice of teaching and learning into technology inclusive method. The change has affected all stages of education, including theological education. Lecturers (including those in the seminaries) are now placing instructional technology in their classroom work with audio and visual devices used as a medium for communicating with students (Mayo, Kajs and Tanguma, 2005). That is, students are taught with projectors to enable education become more illustrative and better understood. The method of teaching has also been a blend of on-line materials such as stored data files, movie clips, sound files, as well as manual teaching.
The use of educational software like Sakai, Quizfaber and TestCommander have furthermore provided a platform for lecturers to interact with students, give lecture notes, quizzes, test,
assignments and forum discussions. BibleWorks, Logos and Accordance are other software used in seminaries specifically in the field of Old Testament Theology (Delamarter, 2005). There are again distance degree courses online, group research work via the internet and other electronic resources used by seminaries (Killacky, 2011). These new technologies have had great potential for improving the education of pastors which has affected Church growth in this technological era (Ossai Ugbah, 2011).
Additionally, the use of ICT has provided theologians with large volume of resource materials for their studies. Thousands of scholars have therefore had the opportunity to retrieve correct and true information for their school assignments, workloads and individual research. The Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) and electronic library too are other channels through which students locate library materials on-line, reserve materials ahead of borrowing and communicate with a librarian on-line.
In Ghana, the incorporation of modern technology in pastoral training has also begun. Recently, a pastoral training institute, Trinity Theological Seminary which is a first ecumenical theological tertiary institution in Ghana launched it ICT project to aid in increasing its internet connection. This now provides students with internet to help in their studies. An ICT laboratory was also constructed to help final year students get access to computers for their thesis and dissertations. Continuous effort by the school on its ICT use will improve their academic programs and bring a great change in theological education.
Location of the Study
Trinity Theological Seminary is a top theological tertiary institution in Ghana and even in Sub Saharan Africa. It is situated in an area popularly known as Mempeasem which is a suburb of Accra and close to University of Ghana, Legon. The seminary was established in 1942 as an avenue for training ministers for the three original sponsoring churches. These are the Presbyterian Church Ghana, Methodist Church Ghana, and Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Later the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and Anglican Diocesan Council of Ghana now Accra Diocese also joined. In their desire to cover the wider population and facility to all, other denominational churches have their ministers trained there and these include Charismatic Churches, African Independent Churches and Pentecostal Churches. They have again created multicultural atmosphere where students and lecturers from other parts of the world take part in their programmes.
The seminary has a library with an attached ICT laboratory which is used by students doing their dissertation and long essays. But students with laptops can get connected to the internet through the assistance of the officer in charge of the ICT.
The teaching staff and students’ populations comprise of resident and non- resident members. The teaching staff also have full time faculty and part time faculty members. The area of studies includes Theological Studies, Biblical Studies (Old and New Testament), Language Studies (Greek, Hebrew, Ewe, Ga and Twi), History, Mission and Ecumenics, Philosophy, Systematic Theology and Ethics, and Pastoral and Practical Theology (Evangelism, Counselling and so on). Programmes offered in the school includes Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in any of the programs offered, Doctor of Ministry (DMin), Master of Theology (MTh), Master of Divinity (M.Div),
Master of Arts in Ministry (MAM), Bachelor of Theology (BTh), Diploma in Theology (Dip.Th)
and Certificate in Ministry (CIM). Generally, the school seeks to offer theological training to all irrespective of gender or denomination.
Statement of Problem
Quality education is a priority in all tertiary institutions in the world and ICT is seen as a contributing factor in achieving this. Africa and Ghanaian schools are now growing and advancing in the use of information and communication technology in their educational systems (Tella and Adeyinka, 2007, as cited by Malcolm and Goodwill (2008) and pastoral training has not been left out. It is however revealed by several studies that most tutors do not incorporate modern technologies in their lessons effectively although attempts have been made to coach them on ICT integration (Tezci, 2011).
The use of ICT by the teachers is seen more of accomplishing other supplementary tasks such as lesson plans, students’ records, preparing tests or searching information from the internet instead of instructional purpose or even classroom integration for subject teaching (Williams et al., 2000; BECTA, 2004). Watson (2001) states that revolution or progress can transpire at schools only when initiated by teachers. Just as in teaching, the use of modern technology for learning is not any different. Students access to the internet seems to be used more for leisure activities than for academic work. Face-booking, on-line games, YouTube and Twitter are some internet programs that are affecting and limiting the use of ICT in learning (Mikre, 2011).
Low patronage of academic database by students (Dadzie, 2005) and low awareness of electronic resources (as well as other ICT tools) have also contributed to inadequate use of relevant academic information (Bankole and Oludayo 2012; Fiankor and Akussah, 2012, as cited by Atuase (2016). In addition, several challenges such as poor internet connection, lack of ICT infrastructure in
schools and human resource capacity have all become a major setback for implementing ICT in teaching and learning. Thus, the inability of the schools to fully integrate ICT in teaching and learning are influenced by both human and environmental factors.
Through conversation with some students, it was realised that most classroom activities at Trinity Theological Seminary are manually organised. Likewise, majority of the materials for reading are in print form. The only accessible academic electronic resources provided by the school which relate directly to theological studies are compact disc-read only memories (CD-ROMs) which contain some lectures from foreign schools and access to Princeton Theological Seminary digital library resources. According to some students, these resources are not even being utilised by the students. Perhaps there is low awareness of such materials.
Moreover, high cost of infrastructural development has caused low bandwidth availability thus making it difficult to effectively access the internet. Inadequate ICT training in the school to equip students to use its tools and lack of experience by some lecturers and students with ICT tools have also hinder effective implementation of ICT in teaching and learning.
The use of ICT in teaching and learning is a very common research area for researchers but no research has been done so far in this area which relate to theological education in Ghana. The researcher therefore deems it necessary to conduct a study which looks at ICT use in teaching and learning in seminaries by identifying the awareness, the extent to which ICT tools are used, skills, reasons and challenges in applying ICT in their teaching and learning at Trinity Theological Seminary and consequently suggest the means of curbing the problems.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to examine the level of ICT usage in teaching and learning at Trinity Theological Seminary with the view to identify problems and make recommendations based on the findings of the study.
Objectives
The objectives of the research were:
- To investigate the awareness of ICT tools that are available in the seminary.
- To determine the extent to which the various ICT tools available are being used in teaching and learning.
- To find out the reasons for using ICT tools in teaching and learning in the seminary.
- To examine the level of skills and knowledge for using ICT in teaching and learning.
- To determine the challenges in using ICT in teaching and learning.
- To recommend proper ICT tools that can be used for teaching and learning.
Scope and Limitation of the Study
Trinity Theological Seminary runs regular, sandwich, weekends and special students’ programs which are taught by both full time teaching staff and part time teaching members. There are also residential facilities for some full time teaching staff and students at the school’s premises.
Essentially, the study should have confined itself into seeking answers from all students and lecturers at Trinity Theological Seminary; however, it concentrated on full time teaching staff and regular students who are residents on campus. This is due to the fact that non-residential full time teaching staff and part time teaching staff are located in various parts of Accra and do not spend
much time on campus. Continuous effort to involve all teaching staff would delay the research given the limited time frame.
Again, non-residential regular and weekends students are difficult to get hold of since they leave the premises after classes. Any clarification with them concerning the research questions may be a challenge. Sandwich students were also excluded since the research would have been over before they report for their academic programme.
