Mulcahy, Patricia
(2005)
An Analysis of Teachers’ use of ICT
in a Selection of Irish Schools.
Masters thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
Abstract
The Government of Ireland has made a large financial investment in the field of
Information and Communication Technology in the Irish educational sector. The Author
was interested to discover how teachers have benefited from this investment.
A questionnaire and interview based study was conducted in a number of primary and
secondary schools. This allowed for the selection of ICT interested teachers for
interviews. The interviews were designed to cover the range of uses that teachers were
making of the technology. This included class preparation and in class use. The
interviews concluded by offering the teachers an opportunity to voice their opinions as to
the future of ICT in Irish classrooms. The teachers suggested strategies that could be
implemented to increase the amount of ICT usage by teachers in Irish classrooms.
This study showed that only a minority of teachers are actually making regular use of ICT
for class preparation or in class with their students. However, the majority of Irish
teachers have some ICT skills. Many of the interviewees believed that it was a lack of
on-site support that was preventing teachers from making greater use of their
technological facilities. This was due to the fact that many teachers do not have the
technical knowledge needed to repair the technology if it breaks down during class.
An interesting finding of the research was that the age of the teacher appeared to have an
impact on the amount of technology usage that took place. Teachers in their thirties were
seen to be the group making the most use of ICT. This group of teachers should be
encouraged to help the integration of ICT into all Irish classrooms. The research also revealed differences in ICT use in primary and secondary schools, and an emerging need
for professional on-line communities.
| Item Type: |
Thesis
(Masters)
|
| Keywords: |
Analysis; ICT;
Irish Schools; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Education |
| Item ID: |
5091 |
| Depositing User: |
IR eTheses
|
| Date Deposited: |
03 Jul 2014 14:30 |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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