Status of Information and Communication Technology Training and Support for Science and Technology Teacher Educators in Colleges of Education in Southeast, Nigeria

Education is perceived in this piece as a process of learning in which the knowledge, skills, and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through teaching, training, support and research. ICT has a very significant place in the education process that involves teachers and instruction. Information and communication technology have become within a very short time, one of the basic building blocks of modern society including Science and technology teachers. The purpose of the study is to determine the status of ICT training and support for science and technology teacher educators in colleges of education within Southeast Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research design. The population of the study consisted of 454 science and technology teacher educators in colleges of education within Southeast state Nigeria. The instrument was subjected to face validation by three experts. The reliability coefficients of the instrument for the study is 0.98 using Cronbach’s Alpha formula. Five research questions that guided the study were answered using mean and standard deviation. Five research hypotheses were tested at 0.5 level of significance using one-way ANOVA. Among the findings of the study were that, there is low ICT training, support and competence for science and technology teacher educators. It was concluded, among others, that government should help.


INTRODUCTION
Nigeria education policy makers and social planners, in recognitions of its potentials for integrating tertiary education into a global digital society, have emphasized the adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) by teachers in the tertiary institutions. This was made clear as the policy states that in recognition of the prominent role of ICT in advancing knowledge and skills necessary for effective functioning in the modern world, there is urgent need to integrate ICT into education in Nigeria (FRN, 2004). According to Daniels (2002) ICTs have become within a very short time, one of the basic building blocks of modern society. Many countries now regard understanding ICT and mastering the basic skills and concepts of ICT as part of the core of education.

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
The marriage of two technologies gave birth to the Information and Communication Technology. These technologies are the communication and the computer technology (Edward, 2007). The communication technology includes the radio, the television and the telephone technology, while the computer technology includes the computer, satellite, the wireless and the internet technology (Edward, 2007). ICT therefore, includes the radio, television and telephone, and the new'ICTs of computers, satellite and wireless technology and the internet (Potashnik and Copper, 2009). According to UNESCO (2002) information and communication technology (ICT) may be regarded as the combination of Informatics technology 'with other related technology, specifically communication technology. Information and communication technology (ICT) are advance in technologies that provide a rich global resources and collaborative environment for dissemination of ICT literacy, materials, interactive and educative discussions, and research information (Bates, 2011). ICT also enhances international exchange of ideas which are critical for advancing meaningful educational initiatives, training high skilled labour force, and understanding issues related to both education and economic development (Ololube, Ubogu and Ossai, 2011). Many tertiary institutions in Nigeria today are struggling to adopt the ICT as teaching and learning technologies. This is to be handled with skills and expertise for effective achievement and realization of its potential in both education and socio-economic development.
Accordingly, the application of ICT makes institutions more efficient and productive, thereby engendering a variety of tools to enhance and facilitate teachers' pedagogical activities. ICT can also be used to promote collaborative learning, including role playing, group problem solving activities and articulated project (Fathi, Shelda and Nahid, 2010). The authors further opined that ICT is a diverse set of technological tools and resources used for creating, storing, managing and communicating information. For educational purposes, the ICTs can be used to support teaching and learning as well as research activities, including collaborative learning and inquiry. One of the main applications of ICT in education is teaching and learning based on new technologies. Therefore, Information and communication technology (ICT) involve the use of computer and all other electronic devices to process information. In concrete term, ICT enhances teaching and learning through its dynamic, interactive, flexible, and engaging content. It provides real opportunities for individualized instruction. ICTs have the potential to innovate, accelerate, enrich, and deepen skills, to motivate and engage students, to help relate school experience to work practices, create economic viability for tomorrow's workers, as well as strengthening teaching and helping schools change

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TEACHER ICT TRAINING
Teachers' training needs in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is one of the key aspects for the integration of ICT into daily educational practice, along with competencies in ICT and teachers' use of these technological resources (Almerich, Gonzalo, Belloch and Consuelo, 2011). ICT training is the process of learning ICT knowledge and skills needed to do job. ICT skill comprises training in the general understanding of the basic building blocks of the computer system, office application programs, sending email, making use of internet and so on. Specific ICT skills enable teacher to acquire ICT skills in order to enhance the quality of teaching and learning that takes place in the institutions. It involves training on how to use computer in subject-based teaching, power point presentation of lesson using multimedia, computer assisted instruction (CAI) software packages, statistical package for science and social science (SPSS), curriculum design/redesign of new learning activities, developing digital material and developing vision of IT in education. According to Jegede (2009) the purpose of these training and support is making teacher educators ICT skilled both in personal activities and day-to-day professional practice .The problem has been that these trainings do not impact the integration of ICT into teacher educators classroom especially science and technology teacher educators' classroom. At best, science and technology teacher educators use the internet and in few cases use computer for word processing. Thus, teaching with ICT in colleges of education still becomes impossible to achieve. Jegede (2009) also maintains that this is because serving teachers (science and technology teachers inclusive) did not experience ICT immersed curriculum in their professional preparations and they pass on what they receive. ICT in education (2004) opines that, the most critical factor in the successful integration of ICT into education is the extent to which teacher educators are able to prepare teachers with the required knowledge and skills to utilize ICT effectively. Oliver in Jegede (2009) identified the needs for student teacher to experience models of ICT used in their own learning before they can go ahead to implement same in their later profession. UNESCO (2002) clearly pointed out that teachers education institutions (colleges of education institutions inclusive) may either assume a leadership role in the transformation of education or be left behind in the swirl of rapid technological changes. Bada et el. (2009), investigated the uses of computer and its relevance to teaching and learning in Nigeria education system. In more recent work, Inyiagu (2014) investigated the utilization of internet and computer in undertaking TVET educational research in tertiary institutions in Nigeria: Problems and Strategies for improvement. However, having reviewed related topics, it will be imperative to identify the reasons why most college of education students prefer to source for information from internet facilities outside their school. Therefore, this research work examined the status of information and communication technology training and support for science and technology teacher educators in colleges of education within Southeast Nigeria.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TEACHER ICT SUPPORT
ICT support for teacher educators refers to incentives aimed at helping or encouraging teacher educators in learning/ acquiring ICT knowledge and skills in order to use skills and produce ICT competent teachers. Studies carried out on ICT training and support indicates that teachers in colleges of education do not use ICT for instructional delivery and need training and support in this and in the development of ICT Programmes (Nwagbo, 2008). This is in line with Benton foundation (1997), who maintained that inadequate ICT training and supports are perhaps the biggest bottleneck limiting effective use of computer networking in many of the nation's classroom.
Apart from the introduction of ICT into the education domain, the last decade has witnessed the development of teacher training programmes for both teacher training and professional development purposes. Despite pursuing the same aim, that of integrating ICT into daily practices, the differences between both groups imply required training diversity (Condie and Munro, 2007; Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010), but without leaving to one side the required continuity between initial training and continuous training, as Marcelo (2007) pointed out. This, therefore calls for the acute need to avail teachers the opportunity of learning to use multimedia in instructional delivery. Should the teachers who are supposedly the master of knowledge fail to change with the dictates of globalization and buries themselves in their textbook, old research topics while the world is on the superhighway of information, the science and technology teacher educators would not be competent to teach the children of 21 st century. For science and technology teacher educators to be seen as learners themselves, we need to build bridge between different area of research in education, learning theories, ICT and management to mention but the four.
ICT training and support for science and technology teacher educators in southeast Nigeria states are not without some challenges. There is therefore, need to investigate some of the factors militating against ICT training and support for science and technology teacher educators such as lack of fund, high cost of computer hardware etc.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Nigeria must brace up to the new challenges and system of education through deployment and use of ICT in science and technology instructions. However, studies have shown that Nigeria teacher educators can neither use the computer efficiently nor develop ICT programme or package for instructional or other uses. Also pre-service science and technology teachers for the primary and secondary level of education have been found to posses' low competence in the use of computers and are not equipped with relevant ICT skills, in the use of ICT applications in teaching. Weak policy formulation and implementation, high cost of system installation and maintenance, poor founding of education, management's attitude, and erratic power supply etc are major constraints which have slowed down ICT in Nigeria.
Therefore, there is need to empirically determine the extents of preparedness of science and technology teacher educators in the colleges of education to impact ICT knowledge and skills to the pre-service science and technology teacher educators. The problem therefore is, what is the status of ICT training and support for science and technology teacher educators in colleges of education in Southeast Nigeria? Would ownership and location of colleges of education affect ICT training and support for science technology teacher educators?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In carrying out this study, seven research questions were posed to guide in investigations.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
Five null research hypotheses were posed for the study, and were tested at 0.05 level of significant. They are as follows: H01 There is no significant difference in the level of ICT training received by science and technology teacher educators in colleges of education within Southeast Nigeria due to location. H02 There is no significant difference in the kind of support received by science and technology teacher educators in colleges of educations within Enugu state due to location. H03 There is no significant difference in the level of ICT competence attained by science and technology teacher educators in colleges of education within Southeast Nigeria due to location. H04 There is no significant difference in the extent of utilization of ICT knowledge acquired by science and technology teacher educators within Southeast Nigeria due to location.
H05 There is no significant difference on the extent science and technology teacher educators' rates' different factors as militating against effective ICT training and support in colleges of education in Southeast Nigeria due to location.

METHODOLOGY Research Design
The design of the study is a descriptive survey. According to Nwakwo (2013), descriptive survey is that type of design in which the researcher collects data from a large sample drawn from a given population and describes certain features of the samples as they are at the time of the study and which are of interest to the researcher, however, without manipulating any independent variables of the study. It is also a data collection technique in which information is gathered from individual called respondents, by having them respond to questions. The reason for using a survey research design was that questionnaire was used to collect data concerning existing condition.

Area of the Study
The study was conducted in Southeast Nigeria.  (13). The choice for including private colleges of education was to ensure even representation of all government approved colleges of education in the area of study. There was no sampling due to the manageable size of the population size by the researcher.

Instrument for Data Collection
The instrument used for data collection was structured questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised of six sections. The kinds or sources of ICT support received, the level of ICT training and support received, the science and technology teacher educators' level of ICT competence attained, the science and technology teacher educators extent of utilization of ICT knowledge in teaching and learning and the factors militating against effective ICT training and support.
The level of ICT support received by science and technology teacher educator consisted of eleven (11)

Validation of the Instrument
The instrument were face validated by three experts, three draft copies of the instrument were given to three expert; two from the department of science and computer education, Enugu state University of science and technology, Enugu, and one from the department of computer and robotic education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. After validation, the instruments were collected from the valuators and corrections made.

Reliability of the Instrument
The instrument was trail tested to determine its reliability by using 10 science and technology teacher educators from Yaba College of Education Technology Lagos. Ten copies of questionnaire were administered by the researcher to the respondents. When completed, was immediately collected by the researcher. Responses obtained from the administered questionnaire were calculated using Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. The data generated were used to calculate the alpha coefficient yielded reliability co-efficient of 0.98. According to Lobiondo and Haberan, (2013); Shuttleworth (2015) an acceptable reliability score is one that is 0.7 and higher. The result 0.98 is good because it is more than 0.8. The reason for using Cronbach's alpha was that, the instrument used for data collection was polychotomous.

Method of Data Analysis
Data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using mean standard deviation, and one way ANOVA. Research question 1, 2, 3,4,5,6 and 7 were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. Nominal values assigned to scaling items i.e. very high extent (4), extent (3), low extent (2), and very low extent (1) were used to determine the mean. This gives: 4+3+2+1/4 = 10/4 =2.5 The decision rule was that, mean scores of 2.5 and above were regarded as high while item with mean score below 2.5 were regarded as low. Testing of the null hypotheses was done using one-way ANOVA. At 0.05 alpha level of significant. Hypotheses 1, 2, 3, 4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and 12 were tested using one way ANOVA. The decision rule for the null and direct hypotheses was that, if the calculated value is less than the critical table value for the given degree of freedom, the null hypotheses is upheld, but, if the calculated value is greater than the critical value, the null hypotheses is rejected.

Research question 1
What is the extent of ICT training received by science and technology teacher educators in colleges of education in Southeast Nigeria?

Research question 2
What is the kind of ICT support received by science and technology teacher educators in colleges of education in Southeast Nigeria?

Research question 3
What is the level of ICT competence attained by science and technology teacher educators in colleges of education within Southeast Nigeria? The data presented in table 3 above indicates that out of eighteen (18) items only five (5) items obtained mean score rating above 2.5. These include item 34 (3.1), item 35 (3.2), item 44 (2.65), item 48 (3.14), and item 51 (2.62). Others obtained mean score rating bellow 2.5 as seen in table 3 above. The standard deviation for the five items ranges from 0.40 to 0.83. Result shows that respondents possess more ICT competence in the functions of the various components of computer, use of variety of software, including word processing functions, power point presentation, and use of Microsoft access functions, use of file server with mean score rating of 3.1, 3.2, 2.65, 3.14, and 2.62 respectively.

Research question 4
To what extent do science and technology teacher educators utilize ICT knowledge acquired in colleges of education within Southeast Nigeria? The result presented in the table shows that the extent of utilization of information and communication technology knowledge acquired by the respondents is very low.

Research question 5
To what extent do science and technology teacher educators rate different factors as militate against effective ICT training and support in colleges of education within Southeast Nigeria?  above shows that in all the items, none of the items indicated a mean rating score bellow 2.5. This therefore means the all the items obtained a mean rating score above 2.5 on different factors militating against effective ICT training and support. The mean rating score ranges from 2.55 to 3.13 and the standard deviation ranges from 0.34 to 0.85. The results presented in the table indicate that all the factors militating against effective ICT training and support as indicated by the respondent is very high.

Summary of Findings
The results presented reveals the following: 1. ICT training among the respondents is very low.
Although ICT training is going on gradually, the respondents received training mainly in computer appreciation, word processing, spreadsheet package and Microsoft Access. Also the interaction effect of urban and rural colleges of education is not significant. 2. ICT support among the respondents is slightly high. For instance, respondents indicated high possession of computer in the office. It also reveals that educators in colleges of education attended workshop/seminar/conference for ICT pedagogical renewal in the last two years, workshop were sponsored by employer, seminar sponsored by national agency, conferences were sponsored by self, internet facilities in the school provided by employer were high. 3. There is low ICT competence among the respondents.
Also there is no significant difference based on the competence level of the respondents due to location. 4. The extent of ICT utilization of ICT knowledge acquired by the respondents is very low. The null hypotheses analysis shows that there is no significant difference on the extent of ICT utilization among the respondents due to location. 5. The respondents rated all the factors in table 5 (see  table 5) as militating against effective ICT training and support. It also shows that there is no significant difference on the factors militating against ICT training and support due to location.

Conclusions based on the findings
Based on the findings of the study, the following were drawn: that ICT training and support among science and technology teacher educators in colleges of education in Southeast Nigeria is very low. Although training has been going on gradually, more effort should be geared towards ICT training for science and technology teacher educators in colleges of education within Southeast Nigeria. This will enable them attain the desired ICT competence needed in the classroom.
ICT support is also slightly low for science and technology teacher educators in colleges of education in Enugu state. Generally, federal college of education is rated higher in ICT training, support and competence than their counterparts.
There is equally low ICT competence and poor utilization of ICT knowledge acquired by science and technology teacher educators in colleges of education within Southeast Nigeria. Finally, many factors such as lack of fund, low level of internet connectivity, unreliable power supply, management attitude to mention but the four are some of the numerous factors that militate against ICT training and support for science and technology teacher educators in colleges of education within Southeast Nigeria.

Recommendations
Based on the findings made and conclusions drawn from the study, the following recommendations were made. 1. Government should provide support services to teacher educators of science and technology in colleges of education to enhance their knowledge in ICT 2. Government should organize and sponsored ICT seminar, workshop and conference on ICT pedagogical innovation for science and technology teacher educators. 3. Administrators and managements of private colleges of education both in urban and rural area should be of help in founding, training and retraining of their staff 4. Government should ensure restructuring, development and reinforcement of the Nigeria policy for integration of ICT in the Nigeria education system.