SOCIAL MEDIA: AN IMPEDIMENT OR INSPIRATION TO IMPLEMENTATION OF DIGITAL LITERACY PROGRAMME IN KISII COUNTY, KENYA.

Information Communication Technology (ICT) has revolutionized the way different sectors in developed and developing countries operate. They have pervaded modern societies as tools for transforming education systems, supporting economic development through the creation of new products and services, providing access to information and expertise to support improvements in agriculture, health and education, and connecting communities, teachers and students. Education sector in many countries have embraced ICT in research, teaching and learning. This has given rise to innovative learning pathways suited for different learners' situations. In initial adoption of ICT, 1higher education institutions were the first beneficiaries but in recent times, lower learning institutions like primary schools have also embraced the same. In Kenya, ICT Integration in Primary Education is one of the key flagship programmes borne out of government of Kenya's vision to make sure every pupil is prepared for today's digital world and to realize this, Digital Literacy Programme (DLP) was introduced for lower Primary schools in Kenya, particularly Class One Pupils. This study looks at the perceived ease of use and usefulness of social media by teachers of primary schools in Kisii County of Kenya and implementation success level of the Digital Learning Programme (DLP) by these teachers. Assessed was the teachers' view of technological complexity of social networking (SN) media. Survey research design was applied in the study. Random, proportionate and purposive sampling methods were used to select 250 primary schools and 276 teachers. Teachers of lower primary school segment of the Kenyan education system were surveyed using self-administered questionnaires on the frequency and ease of use of technology for Social Networking media such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter and asked about their intensity of use. The results obtained showed that WhatsApp and Facebook use have a significantly increased impact on teachers' collaboration and engagement. Further, that perceived ease of use is a predictor of perceived usefulness and both of these have impact on social media use of teacher for educational purposes. Teachers accessed internet easily with the use of mobile smart phones which allows them to converse and interact with each other, to create, edit and share new forms of textual, visual and audio content. Those who use it frequently have made great attempts to implement Digital Learning Programme with ease whereby teachers use Teacher Digital Device (TDD) and learners use Learning Digital Device (LDD). This paper concludes that social media can be used as an educational tool to help teachers to collaborate and engage and recommends that the ministry of education embrace the uses of social media for teaching and learning.

an: 150242228; source: Journal of Technology & Information Education; docTypes: Article; pubTypes: Academic Journal;