ROLE OF ICT FOR IMPROVING SKILLS OF SECONDARY LEVEL STUDENTS IN D I KHAN

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use in the development of secondary students in Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. This study tried to analyze the association of ICT capability with the development of advanced thinking skills, digital literacy, and collaborative/communicative skills and pinpointed the barriers concerning the effective use of ICT. Utilizing a descriptive survey research design, a quantitative study was conducted on a population of 381 students and 317 teachers in Dera Ismail Khan. Participants were chosen using a combination of stratified sampling and simple random sampling. Five-point Likert scale questionnaires were used to collect data, which was then subjected to descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation, and moderated multiple regression analysis. The results indicated that there was a strong positive correlation of ICT with critical thinking (r = 0.48, p < 0.01), problem-solving (r = 0.44, p < 0.01), creativity (r = 0.41, p < 0.01), computer literacy (r = 0.56, p < 0.01), internet literacy (r = 0.52, p < 0.01), collaboration (r = 0.47, p < 0.01), and communication skills (r = 0.43, p < 0.01). Internet literacy was the strongest predictor of total digital literacy (β = 0.38, p < 0.001). ICT training (β = 0.31, p < 0.01), barriers of ICT (β = 0.27, p < 0.01), and ICT pedagogy (β = 0.22, p < 0.05) had a significant moderating effect on the successful implementation of ICT. There are difficulties like insufficient resources (76%), limited internet (74%), power outages (68%), and inadequate teacher training (59%). The study found that while ICT has a lot of possibilities to improve student skills, it needs more challenges to understand what it could do by focusing on infrastructure, teacher training and development, and ICT policies.