Evaluation of the application of mobile phone technology in teaching and learning: A case study of Kamwenja Teacher' college, Nyeri County, Kenya.

This research was designed to investigate the application of mobile phone technology in teaching and learning among tutors and students of Kamwenja Teachers College in Nyeri County in Kenya. The problem this study addressed was to establish whether mobile phones in the hands of students and tutors were beneficial for teaching and learning or if they impede learning process in Teacher Training Colleges in Kenya. The variables under consideration were: quality teaching and learning as dependent variable and owning mobile phones, awareness of educational potential of mobile phones, acceptance of mobile phones, and mobile phones influence as alternative learning and instructional methods as independent variables. The data was collected from 71 tutors and 498 students. The sample size was worked out at 20% to be 15 tutors and 100 second year teacher trainees in the college. Stratified random sampling was used to ensure the sample was a true representation of the whole population. Data was collected through questionnaires that were both quantitative and qualitative to ensure high quality of information for the study where 98.2% response rate was achieved. To ensure Validity and Reliability of Research Instruments a pre-test of the questionnaire was conducted on tutors and students of Kagumo Teachers College. A reliability coefficient of 0.7 was adopted for the items while an expert, the supervisor, guided in validity of the items. The study was guided by the activity theory also known as Cultural Historical Activity Theory. Primary data was analysed with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 20) software to generate descriptive statistics, correlation and multiple regression analysis. The findings of the study revealed that ownership of mobile phone had a positive and significant effect on application of mobile phone technology in teaching and learning when considered singly and even when regressed together with other factors. Further, the study revealed that awareness of the educational potential of mobile phone technology, acceptance of mobile phone technology and mobile phone technology as an alternative learning and instructional methods were found to have a positive and significant effect on application of mobile phone technology in teaching and learning when considered singly, however when all the factors were regressed together they were found to have a positive and but insignificant effect on application of mobile phone technology in teaching and learning. In order to enhance use of mobile phone technology in teaching and learning students and teachers should be encouraged to acquire mobile phones with internet connectivity features. The general usage of mobile phone in teachers training colleges was found to be very high. However the rate at which mobile phones are used for exchanging learning information is low. The researcher recommends that policies be put in place on use of mobile phone technology in teaching and learning and train tutors on how to teach differently using mobile phone technology. Future researchers should try to establish hindrances of application of mobile phone technology in teaching and learning.

Accepted: 2016-04-04T13:40:40Z