PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES TOWARDS TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION FOR OUT-OF-SCHOOL TIME LEARNING

EPRA International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (IJMR) ◽

10.36713/epra3591 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 342-348

Author(s):

Dr. Thadei A. Kiwango

Keyword(s):

Educational Technology ◽

Parental Support ◽

Technology Use ◽

Out Of School Time ◽

Digital World ◽

School Time ◽

Integration Of Technology ◽

Home Context ◽

Technology Abuse ◽

Out Of School

This paper is an assessment of parental responsibilities in relation to supporting integration of technology in the context of out-of-school time (OST) learning. The assessment involved 78 parents from Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Mwanza regions in Tanzania. The aim was to discover the practices among parents in supporting their children to use educational technology in the home context. Criterion sampling applied and 11 best schools were picked from 11 divisions based on the 2015 NECTA Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) results. It is shown that parents have the potential to support the use of educational technology among children through procurement of educational technology, guiding material on the use of educational technology and giving instructions on the use of educational technology. Parents can also guide pupils on best to write summaries of key concepts, and also give questions on learned concepts. Moreover, parents are also potential for identifying useful programmes for use with educational technology thereby making children use technology for educational pursuits and avoid technology abuse and thus enhance their academic performance. The findings suggest the need for the schools to cooperate with parents and communities with a view to fostering the parental roles in the utilization of educational technology for OST learning. Further studies on how to improve the parental support towards the educational technology use by OST learners is inevitable in this digital world.

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BEST PRACTICES IN USING EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY BY OUT-OF-SCHOOL TIME LEARNERS

EPRA International Journal of Research & Development (IJRD) ◽

10.36713/epra3773 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 283-291

Author(s):

Dr. Thadei A. Kiwango

Keyword(s):

Educational Technology ◽

Best Practices ◽

School Administrators ◽

Public And Private ◽

Educational Stakeholders ◽

Out Of School Time ◽

School Time ◽

The Media ◽

Teachers And Parents ◽

Out Of School

This paper identifies the best practices in the use of educational technology during out-of-school time learning. The study was conducted in Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Mwanza regions in Tanzania. A preliminary study was first carried out to establish actual practices in the use of educational technology among learners. Learners were asked to state the actual practices that they apply in using the educational technology. The most frequent perceived best practices were used as a benchmark in constructing a questionnaire which was later administered to the respondents from the research regions for them to rank the perceived best practices. The findings suggest that effective use of educational technology demands users jot down key ideas, pay due attention to the media, identify problem areas, and keep records of essential programmes for future reference. Additionally, learners have to adhere to the schedules, and avoid unintended programmes especially those forbidden by adults. These findings call for the joint efforts among educational stakeholders especially school administrators, teachers and parents to ensure that learners in both public and private schools actually embrace the best practices in the course of using Information Communication Technology (ICT) with a view to creating enabling OST learning environment among learners and ultimately improve academic performance. Furthermore, studies need to be done to find the best ways the findings of this study could apply to other countries and higher levels of education.

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