Skills and Preparation Improvement Needs of Pre-Service Technology Education Teachers in the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the 21st Century.

Abstract

The study revealed the needed skills and preparedness of pre-service technology education teachers in the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the 21st Century. Three research questions were formulated for the study. The study adopted the descriptive survey design. It was carried out in two tertiary institutions in Niger State that offer technology education programme, the population for the study consisted of 322 students. 112, 500 level students of Industrial and Technology Education (ITE) Department and 210, NCE III students of School of Technical education (STE). A simple random sampling technique was used to sample 234 students, 80 from ITE Department and 154 students from STE. Validated questionnaire was used to elicit responses from the respondents. The data collected were analysed using mean. The findings of the study among others includes; ICT skills such creation of (images, text, graphic art, animation), use of scanner, digital camera, projectors are needed and pre-service technology education teachers were well prepared in the use of word Processing and Keyboard, fairly prepared in the use of spreadsheet/databases, while poorly prepared in creation of 3d designs of objects and uses of web 2.0 tools to enhance a presentation of wordle, picture cube and glogster. It is therefore recommended that; The pre-service technology education teachers should be taught how to create images, charts, text, graphic art using computer and use equipment such as projectors, digital camera, scanner and other for future application, Institutions administration should provide adequate hardware and software and other ICT facilities/equipment in order to facilitate teaching of application of ICT to education and internet connectivity should be made available in classrooms, offices, laboratories, workshops and hostels of tertiary institutions.