Designing and Developing of Low-Resource Constrained Tools for Effective Teaching of Information Technology in Secondary Schools: A study of wereda Abbi-Addi central zone, Tigray region

Abstract

This research aims to design and develop low-resource constrained tools that facilitate effective teaching of Information Technology (IT) in secondary schools. Given the disparities in educational resources, particularly in developing regions, this study focuses on creating accessible, cost-effective, and user-friendly tools that enhance learning outcomes. Additionally the thesis investigates the challenges and opportunities for delivering effective Information Technology (IT) education in secondary schools with limited resources. It focuses on the design, development, and evaluation of low-resource constrained tools and methodologies that can facilitate engaging and meaningful IT learning experiences. The research explores practical, affordable, and sustainable solutions that address the lack of infrastructure, limited access to technology, and inadequate teacher training in low-resource settings. Through a combination of literature review, design-based research, and empirical evaluation, this thesis demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of leveraging open-source tools, offline solutions, and context specific approaches to enhance IT education in these challenging environments. The findings indicate that these tools significantly improve student engagement and understanding of IT. Secondly: To investigate the challenges affecting the effective teaching of IT in wereda Abiy-Adi Meles-Zenawi and Ras-Alula secondary schools. The study was focused on the influencing of school facilities, the contributions of the schools leaders, teachers’ related factors, and extent student related factors influence the implementation of ICT in teaching and learning process of secondary schools. This study was conducted to examine the challenges facing the use of ICT in teaching information technology in public secondary schools in Abiy-Adi wereda Meles- Zenawi and Ras-Alula secondary schools central zone Tigray region. The study was guided by three research questions with parallel the specific objectives that is the research questions depends on the objectives of the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Population of the study comprises 2,050 total numbers of students from the two secondary schools and 120 teachers from the two public secondary schools in Abiy-Adi secondary schools. Through simple random sampling, 305 students were selected. 17 IT teachers, two school principals (sp) as well as two (3) wereda bureau leaders were selected by purposive technique as sample size for this study. Instrument for data collection was a 32-item structured questionnaire validated by two IT teachers of the schools, interview questions as well as observations. The data analyses using mean scores. The findings revealed that the challenges facing the use of ICT in teaching information technology in public secondary schools in Abiy-Adi secondary school include lack of internet access, inadequate electricity supply, lack of computers, and lack of funding by the government. It was also found that lack of technical support for the available ICT facilities and inadequate security measures to safeguard the ICT facilities are among the challenges to the use of ICT in teaching of computer studies. The findings of this study also revealed that the solutions to the challenges facing the use of ICT in teaching of information technology in public secondary schools in Abiy-Adi secondary schools includes proper maintenance and repairs of ICT facilities, regular in-service training for computer teachers, monitoring ICT usage in schools by the government. Based on these findings, it was recommended that the government should provide budgetary allocation for the provision of ICT facilities, the school administrators should ensure the safety of the available ICT facilities by providing adequate security measures, and internet service providers should provide free internet access to schools to enable them to utilize the available ICT facilities. Besides at school level and teachers’ level the following low- resource constrained measures were taken to minimize the challenges affecting the effective teaching of IT, such as: smart phone, portable wifi, offline digital library and innovative teaching method. These were taken by the researcher to solve the problems that affect the teaching IT negatively.