Utilization of Educational Technologies in Teacher Education for English Language in Kenyan Universities: A Preparation for Appropriate Teacher for Today and Tomorrow

Abstract

This study was an investigation of the factors militating against the effective use of educational technologies in the education and training of teachers of English in Kenyan universities who are relevant for today and tomorrow. The objective of this study was to establish factors militating against the acquisition and utilization of educational technologies in the education programmes of teachers in the Universities. This study was based on the theory called: Technology Acceptance Model. This theoretical model holds the principles that acceptance of technology is based on its relative advantage, compatibility, ease of use, triability and observability. A descriptive survey research design was adopted to guide this study. This was utilized in the collection of data on existing current educational technologies with intent to obtaining the reasons hindering its effective implementation in the areas of mainstreaming and integration into the teacher education programmes. The study population included fourth year student teacher trainees of English education, lecturers of English and Literature education, heads of the departments of curriculum instruction and educational media and the senior media technician. Purposive sampling was used to sample some of the respondents. Stratified random sampling technique was used to cater either gender among the students followed by the application of simple random sampling technique to cater for individual participants in every gender. Questionnaires, observation and interview were used to collect data. The results were analyzed, presented and discussed as descriptive and explanatory discourse. The findings of this study were varied, some of them were that universities had few current and old educational technologies required for the training of teachers of English; effective training of teachers of English was limited by shortage of training materials, shortage of time, shortage of funds, limited  motivation and inadequate space. Finally the universities were slow in implementing the policies in the strategic plans related to acquisition and use of sufficient educational technologies to cater for the ever rising students' enrollment.