Abstract:
Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) play an important role in
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), one of the multiple approaches
advanced in the last two decades to address the global sustainability crisis. The
role of higher education, especially as a main driver of change, in ameliorating the
immense sustainability challenges is widely acknowledged. Educators in higher
education institutions must strategically engage in profound transformative
programmatic, pedagogical and organisational shifts in order to play this role.
ICTs are important in enabling educators to make the necessary modifications to
effectively promote themes, skills, knowledge, values and attitudes in learners
that will foster sustainable development. This study adopted a concurrent mixed
strategy to investigate the use of ICT in the implementation of ESD practices by
academic staff of Busitema University in Uganda. It sought to find out the dominant
ICT activities that staff used for implementing particular ESD practices. The sample
consisted of 134 academic staff and students selected using simple random and
purposive sampling. The study employed a questionnaire, interview and focus
group guides as primary data collection instruments. The results point to a low level
of ICT use, with the dominant ICT activities being of communication and sharing information, information creation and management, which did not add much value
to the educational experiences of the learners in ESD. The study recommends staff
training in ICT skills to address the challenge that comes with the use of new digital
technologies, addressing the issues of access to ICTs and internet infrastructure.
Keywords: Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs); Sustainable
development; Education for Sustainable Development (ESD); Higher education
