LEVEL OF UTILIZATION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN TEACHING BUSINESS EDUCATION COURSES IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN DELTA STATE

Abstract

The study examined the level of utilization of new technologies in teaching business education courses in colleges of education in Delta State.  Two research questions and a null hypothesis guided the study. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study. The total population of the study was one hundred and two (103) Business Educators from the three Colleges of Education in Delta State. The entire population was studied because of the manageable size.  The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire with thirty-eight (38) items validated by three experts.  The reliability of the instrument was determined using split half method and subjected to Cronbach Alpha statistics, which yielded reliability coefficient score of 0.82. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while a t-test statistics was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance.  The decision rule was based on a cumulative mean score of 3.00 and above denotes high level (HL) while mean less than 3.00 means low level (LL) for utilization level and a cumulative mean score of 3.00 and above to denote strongly agreed (SA) and mean score less than 3.00 means disagreed (D). The null hypothesis was rejected if the t-calculated value was more than the t-critical value 0.05 alpha level or otherwise accepted. Findings revealed that; there is low level of utilization of new technologies in teaching business education courses, there are constraints to utilization of new technologies by business educators for teaching business education courses in Colleges of Education in Delta State and gender did not significantly influence the ratings of the respondents. It was recommended based on the study that; in response to a worldwide trend, curriculum developers for business education should pass legislation that would force business educators to use pertinent new technologies in the delivery of teaching in colleges in order to produce graduates who are capable of being productive in their careers. Managers and administrators of colleges of education should plan training and retraining on ICT for Teaching and Learning (E-learning Platform) for capacity building in partnership with the National Commission for Colleges of Education.

Keywords: New Technologies, Business Education, Colleges of Education