Integration of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the Education Bachelor of Education Programme, Makerere University, Uganda

Abstract

This article reports on the problems experienced by the Department of Distance Education, Makerere University, Uganda with the B.Ed. (External) programme with specific reference to the technology needs and expectations of the programme. With a total enrolment of nearly 3,500 students in 2003, this programme was one of the largest distance education programmes for teachers in the country. It was therefore important to establish what technologies the stakeholders of this programme had access to, what technologies they believed could be used for the programme and for what purpose, and finally what prerequisites should be put in place for this technology to work. The article reports on the availability of and access to ICTs, access to telecommunications and sources of funding for ICTs in the distance education programme. The authors also looked critically at a number of prerequisites thought to enhance the effectiveness of ICTs in the B.Ed. (External) programme from an African perspective hoping that the integration of ICT in the programmes would lift the distance education mode of delivery of these programmes from a classical first and second generation, to a third generation level of operation.