Influence of Technology Use on Academic Performance of Students in Public Day Secondary Schools in Teso North Sub-county, Kenya

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of technologies enabling social media use on the academic performance of students in Teso North Sub-County, Kenya. The specific objectives included: to assess the relationship between frequency of using technology for academic purposes and academic performance of learners’ in public day secondary schools; to determine the impact of learner’s access to internet connectivity on their academic performance in public day secondary schools; to establish the extent of learner’s engagement on online academic activities and its relationship to their academic performance in public day secondary schools; and to investigate the relationship between learners digital literacy skills and their academic performance in public day secondary schools in Teso North Sub-County, Kenya. The study was guided by the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. A descriptive research design was adopted in collection and analysis of data. The study was undertaken among 368 learners and 205 teachers of public secondary schools who were selected using stratified and simple random sampling. Questionnaires were administered to the learners and teachers and interviews were held with the Sub County Education Officer who was a key informant. Data analysis was undertaken with the help of SPSS version 23 which generated descriptive and inferential statistics. This study established that frequency of using technology has a strong positive and statistically significant correlation with the academic performance of learners (r=0.696;p=0.000); access to internet connectivity has a weak positive but statistically significant correlation with the academic performance of learners (r=0.467;p=0.000); learners engagement in online activities for academic reasons has a strong positive correlation with learners academic performance (r=0.669, p=0.00); and learners digital literacy skills have a strong positive correlation with learners academic performance (r=0.632; p=0.000). A unit rise in the frequency of using technology increases the performance of learners by 0.678 units. A unit rise in access to internet connectivity increases the performance of learners by 0.841 units. A unit rise learner’s engagement in online activities for academic reason increases the performance of learners by 0.930 units. A unit rise in learner’s digital literacy skills increases the academic performance of learners by 0.327 units. This study found out that 63% of learners sometimes use digital devices twice a day 25% use digital devices thrice a day in comparison to 12% who use digital devices once. However, 73.3% of learners spend 1-2 hours on social media platforms in comparison to only 25% who spend 1-2 hours on online education platforms. The study also found out that 99.3% of learners access the internet using data bundles, only small proportion of schools has internet connectivity and the internet has a lower bandwidth, lower speed and high incidences of disruptions. A large proportion of learners (97%) engage in online activities for socializing and 89.7% for entertainment compared to only 48% of learners who use online platforms to share academic content, 45% for watching academic content and 26.7% for research. Further, 95% of learners are able to operate digital devices and 91.7% of learners know how to search for information online. However, learners don’t know how to determine credibility of information on websites and only 46.3% of learners know how to use Microsoft office. Therefore, this study recommends that parents of learners restrict learners access to mobile phones to weekend; MoE ensures public schools have adequate digital devices and high bandwidth internet connectivity; Communication Authority of Kenya enhance internet reliability by scaling up the bandwidth and speed of internet provided to schools, and teachers enhance learners skills in use of Microsoft office packages and inculcate skills on how to determine credibility of information from websites.