Information and communication technology in Asmara Community College of Education – Student teachers’ perceptions

Information and communication technology (ICT) has become an important part of education. ICT is often perceived as a catalyst for change – change in learning approaches and in access to information. ICT offers us new ways to access information, analyse data and present findings. The present study aimed to show the role that ICT plays in learning and education in Asmara Community College of Education (ACCE). It also studied how ICT is applied at ACCE from the perspective of diploma student teachers. Furthermore, it studied whether gender differences existed regarding male and female student teachers’ perceptions of ICT used in the classroom, and their accessibility to use it in learning and education. The participants were 92 student teachers from the diploma level, with 67 males and 24 females, while one student did not report a gender. The data were gathered via self-administrated questionnaires and were analysed by nonparametric statistical methods. The results indicated that students were highly confident in their ICT usage, and their estimates of ICT use in higher education were also very positive. Furthermore, there were some gender differences among the students’ perspectives of ICT usage. Female students had higher confidence in their use of ICT than their male counterparts. The ICT usefulness estimations were not associated with the gender of student teachers.