Maoba, Mabohlokoa Lydia.
Abstract:
In 2005, the Lesotho Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy introduction
prescribed that all educational institutions for formal learning must play a major role in the
improvement of teaching and learning mechanisms that develop a society that is ICT literate
and capable of producing ICT products and services. This policy is part of the motivation for
this study. The study's focus is to explore the extent to which ICT has been integrated in
teaching and learning in one of the Lesotho higher education institutions. Its fundamental aim
is to understand the ways in which the Lesotho College of Education (LCE) integrates ICT in
teaching and learning environments.
My study adopted the mixed method approach which based fact on an interpretive paradigm,
with lecturer's interpretations regarding ICT integration in the college collected through
structured questionnaires which were hand-distributed to purposefully selected lecturers as
study participants. These questionnaires served as the basis and guide for face-to-face
individual interviews of lecturers from the Computer studies and Agricultural/Environmental
studies departments who were interviewed at their respective offices. Two sessions of sixty
minutes, non-participatory observation of thirty computer studies students were also
conducted. This study was guided by the activity theory/model based on the construction of
real social change for pedagogy in a college. The concepts of the theory/model have been
used to analyse the findings of this research.
The findings of this study indicate that ICT integration creates opportunities in teaching and
learning, where learning is focused on learners, and educators are only facilitators. Despite
the opportunities that ICT has in learning, obstacles such as lecturers' lack of skills and
incompetence in ICT literacy, limited resources and the infrastructure were found to be major
factors hindering ICT integration in the college of education in Lesotho. The
recommendations are that staff development and financial support should be considered a
priority in ICT integration in this context. Also that ICT integration should include internal
and external partners who can donate funds that will help in the implementation of ICT in
teaching and learning at Lesotho's institutions of higher education.