ICT in Schools

Introducing ICT into schools in Rwanda: Educational challenges and opportunities

Aim and background This study investigated the effects of information and communication technology (ICT) use patterns, moderated by socioeconomic status (SES), on science and mathematics achievements. This investigation aims to address the issue of whether ICT use has ‘conditioned’ (linear and quadratic) effects on achievements with SES as social conditions, based on a posited Conditioned Ecological Techno-process (CET) model. Method Data from the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment for Taiwan were analyzed using regression analysis focusing on the effect of three ICT use patterns (leisure, educational, and school). Results The results support the CET model in the quadratic effects of all the three ICT use patterns on both achievements in addition to the positive linear effects of educational ICT use and the negative linear effects of leisure and school ICT use patterns. The moderation effect of SES only occurs with leisure ICT use on science achievement. Discussion The findings suggest that moderate frequent ICT use predicts the highest achievements. SES may aggravate the negative effect of leisure ICT use on science achievement.

The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Finnish primary and secondary schools has been increasing for the last decade, but the full potential of the new technology has not been achieved; pedagogical thinking in educational institutes has not advanced in parallel with technological advances. Teachers’ attitudes towards the use of ICTs in schools are significant factors in determining how technology is used in schools. The aim of this study is to investigate if there is a difference in attitudes towards ICTs by teachers who have a personal laptop computer (provided by the employer) compared to teachers who have not. The data were collected by means of an online questionnaire, to which 69 teachers out of 196 (31%) from four schools replied. Analysis of the data reveals that teachers who used personal laptops in their work regarded the use of ICTs, both in teaching and in general, more positively than teachers who did not.

This research investigates the transformative role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in educational systems, with a specific focus on its impact on both teachers and students. As ICT becomes more integrated into classrooms, understanding its benefits and challenges is critical for enhancing the teaching and learning experience. The study employed a literature review approach, analyzing existing research on the use of ICT in schools, particularly focusing on its effects on student motivation, participation, achievement, and the attitudes of both students and teachers toward ICT integration. Various studies and case reports from diverse educational settings were examined to assess the overall impact. The findings indicate that ICT adoption in classrooms generally results in positive outcomes. Most studies reported a significant increase in students' motivation to learn, shifting away from traditional teaching methods. The research also highlighted improvements in students’ success rates, participation, computer skills, and overall academic achievement. However, some challenges were identified in ICT integration, particularly due to the advanced technological skills of younger generations, which, if not properly managed, could lead to misuse of technology for non-educational purposes. ICT has a transformative impact on education, enhancing student motivation, participation, and achievement. However, careful planning and oversight are required to ensure that technological advancements are used effectively in the classroom setting.

Actuality of the conducted research is practically oriented character. Without the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the field of higher education, it is impossible to carry out qualitative training of specialists in engineering, the results of which are necessary for the implementation of a national strategy for modernizing the economy and forming a progressive state of European type. Formulation of the task - the specificity of the use of ICT in the system of higher education has not been studied sufficiently. ICT form a complex environment, which includes a lot of information objects and the links between them. It can be argued that the structural and functional analysis of the use of ICT in higher education is the basis of the theoretical justification in the formation of technical professionalism of future engineers. ICTs form a complex system, which includes not only technical and software-hardware capabilities, but also psycho-pedagogical, organizational, methodological. Without taking into account all of these components, as well as the needs of the subjects of the educational process, the use of ICT tools (especially centralized) may be accompanied by risks and negatively affect the quality of high education. An analysis of recent research and publications-is actively exploring the experience of using ICT in high school, it is possible to distinguish the work of foreign specialists D. Stevenson, G. Reinhold, E. Wenger, S. Papierta, I. Zakharova, E. Patarakina, A. Khutorskogo, E. Polat The founders of this scientific direction in our country were M. I. Zhaldak, Y. I.Mashbits. The recent significant increase in the number of studies, the subject of which was the use of information and communication technologies in the educational process. Tsitemi in Ukraine is dedicated to the study of such scholars as V. Yu. Bykov, Ya.V. Bulakhova, O.M. Bondarenko, V.F. Zabolotny, G.O. Kozlakova, O. Moiko, O. Naumenko, Yu.Burovitskaya, I. Stavyts'ka, O.P. Pinchuk, O.V. Shestopal and others. Selection of unexplored parts of the general problem. The use of information technologies in the educational process is the foundation of innovative development of the educational system. The rapid development of ICT provides not only significant pace of innovative progress, but also requires the definition (limitation) of information resources that guarantee the quality of learning, the choice of techniques that are in line with the general strategy for the formation of professional competences. Therefore, the problem of choosing an approach to the process of learning with the use of ICTs remains one of the main tasks of education. Research methods. In theory and practice, the study of the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in high school uses empirical methods of collecting and analyzing information based on the results of the survey of 120 students. Presenting main material. The essence of professionalism of future specialists of the technical direction is revealed. The scientific point of view on the professionalism of the engineer is presented. The peculiarities of formation of the basis of technical professionalism of future engineers in the process of studying at a higher school are theoretically grounded. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results of empirical researches of this problem is presented. The practical significance of the research topic is that the innovative approaches to the training of specialists in engineering specialties are differentiated, which differentiate in the educational concepts of teaching in higher educational institutions of European countries

University students have to master new competences to be able to completely form part of Knowledge Society, which are known as 21st-century competences. These include high-skill competences (higher-order thinking capacities and teamwork competences) and information and communication technologies (ICT) competences (technological, pedagogical and ethical). Moreover, using technological resources is vital for student learning. This study aims to determine the influence of ICT use (personal use, academic use at home and academic use in the classroom) on the relational asymmetric structure of ICT competences on high-skill competences. For this purpose, an explanatory, cross-sectional and correlational design has been made that collected information through a questionnaire from a sample that comprised 983 students from the University of Valencia (Spain), selected by incidental non-probability sampling. The data analysis was a structural equation model that asymmetrically related three sets: ICT use, ICT competences and high-skill competences. The results indicated that ICT competences, mostly the pedagogical competences, impacted on high-skill competences: higher-order thinking capacities and teamwork competences. Academic use at home directly influenced the three ICT competences subsets and teamwork competences. This work stresses the negative relation of academic ICT use in the classroom with ICT competences, higher-order thinking capacities and teamwork competences. This research makes it possible to delimit the complex influence of ICT use on twenty-first-century competences, being necessary to promote the academic ICT use at home and rethink the academic ICT use in the classroom. This implies that university institutions should consider training plans that include the ICT integration into classrooms.

This paper presents a study on the perceptions of primary school teachers regarding their knowledge, usefulness, and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education. Likewise, the relationship between sex, age, working time and the educational center in which it is found with the perceptions about ICT is obtained. To answer these questions, a battery of 14 categorical closed questions is designed, divided into four blocks: socio-demographic information; knowledge of ICT; usefulness of ICT; and use of ICT. In the context of measuring the knowledge, usefulness and use of ICT in education, the novelty of this work relies on the design of an indicator for each of the ICT-related blocks following the methodology of Human Development Indicators created by the United Nations Development Program. In this research, 119 teachers from Spanish primary schools were chosen as the study sample to answer the questions’ battery. The results show a direct relationship between knowledge, usefulness, and use, although not significant. Although teachers are aware of the usefulness of ICT, and the Covid-19 pandemic has increased the use of technological tools for planning teaching in blended or distance learning lessons, this does not mean teachers have a greater knowledge of ICT. In addition, the findings indicate a greater knowledge by teachers in public schools, which contrasts with the finding that teachers in grant-assisted schools make the most use of ICT and find it the most useful. Finally, it is also suggested that the study's methodology and approach could be applied to other contexts or countries.

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) is increasingly becoming prevalent among students, both at home and school. While inconsistent results were found for student ICT use and reading literacy, this study attempted to explain these ambiguous links with the moderation of ICT use intensity and mediation of metacognition. Three moderated mediation models for each type of ICT use (at home for entertainment activities and for schoolwork, as well as at school) were analyzed using a Hong Kong sample taken from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 data pertaining to 5180 15-year-old students from 152 schools. A dynamic effect pattern was found for the links of all ICT use types and reading literacy with the increasing intensity of ICT use, which begins with a positive effect followed by a decrease to less positive, then turns to fluctuating negative and finally ends up with a stable negative effect. But the dominant effect varies across ICT use intensity, which result in different overall effects of three ICT use types. In addition, all three aspects of metacognition showed a profound negative mediation on links of intensive and excessive ICT use with reading literacy, and a less positive mediation for limited ICT use. The metacognition of assessing credibility showed a more important role than summarizing, which was followed by understanding and remembering. In light of the findings, the study recommended that more metacognitive scaffolds should be developed for students with intensive or excessive ICT use, so as to alleviate the side effects of ICT use on their reading literacy.

Global Conferences on Health Promotion underscore the need for reorientation of services as a field of action in the area. In particular the Bangkok Charter mentions the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In this sense, ICT-based teaching emerges as a way to strengthen learning how to learn, also in the area of health promotion, theme still latent into graduation´s health course. Objective: To describe the use of ICT in post-graduate focusing on health promotion. Method: This is a descriptive analysis of teaching approaches supported by ICT in three experiments. The first, in the form of update / specialization (sensu lato), is part of the activities of the department of internal medicine and has been incorporating ICT throughout its 10 years of existence. The second experiment deals with a post-graduate course in the strict sense of the public health program, under theresponsibility of the preventive medicine department. Finally, we present the discipline graduate also strict sense of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Costa Rica. Results: We present summary tables on the use of different ICT as well as the desired educational objectives and the nature of the activity. Conclusion: The current use of ICT highlights the opportunity and incentive for space construction and re-construction of knowledge in Health Promotion. Recognize the potential and limits of the use of ICT contributes to interprofessional education of health promoters with emphasis in a transformative education.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is becoming a part of everyday life for many adults with learning disabilities. However, there is scant information available about what factors are important for using ICT in post-formal educational contexts with adults with learning disabilities. Eight Day Services within one organisation were visited to observe activities and interview staff and service users about ICT, which included use of personal computers, digital cameras and the Internet. Three main levels of ICT use and implementation were identified as well as a number of organisational factors associated with the regular use of ICT resources. Staff beliefs about ICT, the management and organisation of staffing and clear ideas about the purpose of ICT were important factors in addition to the basic requirements of providing resources and training. These factors are useful in guiding practitioners towards implementing and using ICT and highlight the importance of the context within which ICT use takes place. The provision of hardware, software and training are not sufficient by themselves to guarantee good use of ICT and careful attention needs to be paid to wider influential factors. Sharing of ideas about using ICT resources with adults with learning disabilities is timely in relation to the current policy context of social inclusion, but future development depends on the availability of sustained funding to adequately maintain and update equipment; without this the factors supporting regular ICT use described here will remain isolated and largely irrelevant to many people who could otherwise benefit from the use of ICT resources.

BackgroundSelf-rated health is associated with information and communications technology (ICT) use among older adults. Non–US born, older Asian American individuals are more inclined to rate their health as fair or poor compared to individuals from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. This population is also less likely to use ICTs as compared to White older Americans. Furthermore, cognitive decline may impact technology acceptance. In a previous adaptation of the technology acceptance model for low-income, Asian American older adults, perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), age, educational attainment, ethnicity, and English proficiency were significant predictors of ICT use. However, the association between health and technology acceptance has not been explored among Asian American older adults.ObjectiveThis study examined the role of self-rated health and subjective cognitive decline in the acceptance and use of ICTs among low-income, Asian American older adults.MethodsThis cross-sectional survey included Asian American individuals aged ≥62 years living in affordable housing for older adults (N=392). Using hierarchical multiple regression, we explored the association between self-rated health and ICT use and technology acceptance model mediators (PU and PEOU) while adjusting for demographics, English proficiency, and subjective cognitive decline. Contrast statements were used to estimate contrasts of interest. To further examine the separate and joint association between age and subjective cognitive decline and the dependent variables, we examined scatterplots with locally estimated scatterplot smoothing lines, revealing that the relationship between subjective cognitive decline and ICT use varied in 3 age segments, which led to updating our analysis to estimate differences in ICT use among age categories with and without subjective cognitive decline.ResultsSelf-rated health was not significantly associated with ICT use (β=.087; P=.13), PU (β=.106; P=.10), or PEOU (β=.062; P=.31). However, the interaction terms of subjective cognitive decline and age significantly improved the model fit for ICT use (ΔR2=0.011; P=.04). In reviewing scatterplots, we determined that, in the youngest age group (62-74 years), ICT use increased with subjective cognitive decline, whereas in the older age groups (75-84 and ≥85 years), ICT use decreased with subjective cognitive decline, more so in the oldest age category. Through regression analysis, among participants with subjective cognitive decline, ICT use significantly decreased in the middle and older age groups as compared to the youngest age group. However, among participants without subjective cognitive decline, the difference in use among age groups was not significant.ConclusionsThis study contributes to the understanding of the complex relationship between health and ICT acceptance among low-income, Asian American older adults and suggests the need for tailored interventions to promote digital engagement and quality of life for this population.

This special issue has described a number of excellent initiatives for the implementation of information and communications technology (ICT) into teacher training which achieve more than functional digital literacy. This article is a synthesis of these 26 cases of good practice and reveals that there are many examples of good practice which can be used as models for calibration and/or modelling of ICT teacher training across the world. The results show that top priorities for both pre-service and in-service programmes for teacher training are that teachers become sufficiently competent to make personal use of ICT, competent to make use of ICT as a mindtool, become masters of a range of educational paradigms that make use of ICT, and sufficiently competent to make use of ICT as a tool for teaching. These characteristics are found in almost all of the programmes that the experts in this research project chose as good practice. Aspects which were considered to be important, but which are not always present in the programmes evaluated, are that teachers master a range of assessment paradigms which make use of ICT and understand the policy dimension of the use of ICT for teaching and learning. All of this needs to take place in an environment that not only talks of modern constructivist thinking and pedagogy, but adopts and models those practices. The days of teaching aboutthe use of ICT are over and directed teaching of ICT skills is not recommended. The article provides evidence that it is possible to catalyse and model appropriate practice for teacher education with ICT in ways that promote educational renewal for the twenty-first century.

Information and communication technology (ICT) use has been associated with well-being among older adults. This link is often attributed to the fact that ICT use facilitates connecting with others. The purpose of this study is to assess how contact frequency and social tie strength impact the relationship between ICT use and depressive symptoms among older adults. Using data from the Detroit-based Social Relations Study collected in 2015, we use Bayesian analyses to examine the extent to which contact frequency with social network members moderates and the strength of these social tie (strong, moderate, and weak) mediate the link between ICT use and depressive symptoms among adults age 60 + (n = 483). ICT use was found to be associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Furthermore, ICT use was associated with more moderate and weak ties which were, in turn, associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Finally, a moderating effect was also found as ICT use was associated with fewer depressive symptoms only among those with lower contact frequency. Our findings suggest that for older adults who communicate with others less frequently, ICT use can prove beneficial to mental health (i.e., fewer depressive symptoms). Furthermore ICT use may be especially meaningful to connect with weaker social ties. These findings may be due in part to ICTs capabilities which enable older adults to maintain connection to a diverse array of social ties and bridge social and physical distance.

Given reported high rates of transience and service disengagement among youth experiencing homelessness (YEH), new forms of information and communication technologies (ICT) may represent a novel avenue for intervention. Although studies suggest that ICT use is surprisingly high among YEH, less is known about the factors associated with ICT use and the association between ICT use and online health information seeking behavior (OHISB) among YEH. Using Andersen's behavioral model of healthcare utilization as a theoretical framework, this study examined the prevalence of ICT use and its association with OHISB among YEH. Data were drawn from the cross-sectional study collected from YEH living in multi-sites (N = 1,426; Mage = 20.9). Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the factors associated with ICT use (i.e., access to a smartphone, mobile phone, and social media profile ownership) and the association between each ICT use and OHISB. The results showed that differences in ICT use among YEH based on different predisposing factors including YEH’s gender, race/ethnicity, employment status, and involvement in the public system. Analysis also revealed that access to mobile and smart phones are significantly associated with OHISB among YEH. Results from this study underscore the capacity of ICT use to efficiently address the health-related requirements of YEH and enhance their health outcomes. The creation of technology-driven interventions, specifically utilizing ICTs, has the potential to assist YEH in accessing diverse information and resources related to their health, thereby fostering improvements in their OHISB.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has accelerated many aspects of medical education acquisition, driving it towards more evidence-based platforms. We undertook to evaluate anatomy students’ knowledge of computers and information communication technology application in the various departments of anatomy in medical schools. This survey was implemented using questionnaire research instrument and involved 300 students who attended the 12th Annual Conference of the Society of Experimental and Clinical Anatomist of Nigeria (SECAN) in March, 2012. Data were collected, analyzed and represented in percentages and tables. Two hundred and twenty five (90%) respondents have heard of ICT before, while 198 (79.2%) agreed to the use of ICT in their school. The most common uses of ICT in the various schools included internet-based registration of courses 144 (72.7%), surfing of the net at internet café 111 (56.1%), and power point lecturing 88 (44.4%). A total of 210 (84%) thought ICT leads to better understanding of lectures, 225 (90%) said it leads to better class participation and interaction while 237 (94.8%) were of the view that it makes it easier to demonstrate and understand diagrams. Many thought that poor and irregular electricity supply 244 (97.6%) and inadequate ICT equipment 172 (68.8%) were amongst factors that discouraged ICT usage in Anatomy Departments of Medical Schools in Nigeria. While ICT awareness was high amongst respondents, poor infrastructure like electricity remained a major challenge.   Key words: Information Communication Technology (ICT), medical, anatomy, students.