PERCEPTION AND ACCEPTANCE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY FOR INSTRUCTION AMONG UNIVERSITY PRE-SERVICE BIOLOGY TEACHERS IN NIGER STATE

Abstract

The study investigates the perception and acceptance of digital technology for instruction among university pre-service biology teachers in Niger State. The sample size of one hundred and fifty respondents was used. A stratified random technique was used to select the sample size of the study. The researcher used Taro Yamane’s formula to determine the sample size from the population. The method of data collection was by administering questionnaire which was grouped into respondents perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU) and the extent of acceptance of digital technology. A software called SPSS version 22.0 was used to analyze the data collected from the responses. The results were presented in the form of descriptive statistics. A bench mark of 2.5 was used to determine positive responses. The study found out that Respondents has positive notion that the use of Digital Technology can make learning process more effective as this has a mean of 3.62 and standard deviation of 0.98. A greater percentage also supported that the use of Digital Technology can increase students’ motivation, foster positive attitudes of students towards learning, and can make learning activities more interesting and enjoyable. In term of Ease of use, respondents agreed that the use of digital Technology also provides convenience in communication. So in general, a total mean and standard deviation of x̅ =3.73; SD=1.0) agreed that Teaching using digital technology is not difficult, and all respondents seems to like it. The study also reveals high extent of acceptance of digital technology as all responses returned positive.t-square analysis was used to verify the difference in the perceived usefulness of digital technologies for instruction amongst males and females University Pre-service Biology teachers. The mean of male and female was 21.54 and 20.98 respectively which is not significant, with the calculated t value of 0.675 (t = 0.675, df =148, p > .05). Therefore there is no significant difference in the mean responses of male and female perceived usefulness of digital technology. Therefore the null hypothesis is supported and must be accepted for the items. The findings revealed that there is no significant difference in the mean responses of male and female perceived ease of use of digital technology as the calculated t value is 0.795 (t = 0.795, df =148). Since the p-value is 0.41, the null hypothesis is accepted. This implies that there is no significant difference in the mean responses of male and female perceived ease of use of digital technology.