Obstacles towards the use of ICT tools in teaching of information & communication technology in Sri Lankan universities: special references to South Eastern University of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have become commonplace entities in all aspects of life. Across the past twenty years the use of ICT has fundamentally changed the practices and procedures of nearly all forms of endeavor within business and governance. Within education, ICT has begun to have a presence but the impact has not been as extensive as in other fields. This paper examines the obstacles toward the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in teaching and learning Information and Communication Technology at Sri Lankan Universities specially focus on South Eastern University of Sri Lanka. The finding of a survey identify that the most significant obstacles are: ICT tools are changing too fast to keep current, extra time and effort needed after integrating ICT tools teaching and learning, the management did not provide any incentive for lecturers to integrate ICT tools in their teaching, the network connectivity was poor, the management did not have any evaluation in integration of ICT tools in teaching. Further, the paper provides a summary of the significant obstacles to implementing IT tools in teaching and learning ICT in Sri Lankan Universities and suggests some possible coping strategies to mitigate their effects on ICT tools implementation and this paper adopts analytical appraisal approach hence, reviews the development so far.