Impact ICT on Academic Achievement – An Empirical Study

Abstract

Our world is changing, and information and Communication technology (ICT) is central to this change. Use of ICT in education develops higher order skills such as collaborating across time and place and solving real world problems. It improves the perception and understanding of the world of the student. ICT can be used to prepare the workforce for the information society and the new global economy. The focus of the paper was to explore the attitude of the teachers towards the use of ICT in higher education and its impact on their academic achievement in Tuticorin city. The present study is based on both primary and secondary data covered only three months period (2014). The total household sample is 70. The proportionate random sampling technique has been adopted to select 70 teachers from Tuticorin city. Secondary data and information are collected from the annual reports of the department of statistics, Tamilnadu, books, journals and websites. Class interval technique was used to analysis the age, family size and experience. Percentage analysis, averages, ranking method, standard deviation, chi-square tests, Cramer’s V and probability analysis were used for the analysis.

It is found that majority of the teachers are most knowledgeable in word processing was ranked first followed by emailing. Well-informed in internet browsing was ranked third, proficiency in spread sheets ranked fourth. Information in statistical tools and presentation tools were ranked fifth and sixth respectively. To know the teacher’s attitude and usage of ICT in teaching learning, many teachers have also expressed the opinion that incorporating ICT in teaching is time consuming (59.29%), Lack of skill (20.35%), Syllabus pressure (12.39%) and needs access to a lot of infrastructure (7.96). They want the institution to recognize teachers who use ICT and provide the necessary infrastructure so that others who are nonusers of ICT will be motivated. The result of chi-square-test revealed that there is no significant difference between teacher’s attitude and usage of ICT in teaching learning and barriers in implementing ICT in higher education in Tuticorin town.

Keywords: economic development, teaching profession, information society, syllabus pressure, personal development

JEL Classification: A11