Jacob Manu^1,, Kwadwo Oteng Akyina¹, Robert Ampomah¹, Samuel Antwi², Gabriel Ansah³

The purpose of this study was to take a critical inventory of the various 21st century digital tools and software applications being used in the primary schools of one of the districts in the Ashanti Region, so as to draw some implications for improving education in Ghana. The educational district was carefully chosen due to the number of schools in the district and the fair knowledge of the educational district by the researchers. The study was meant to compare the current technology architectural outlook of the schools in the district to the findings of a study by Morrison and Lowther [23], which sought to identify the digital tools and software applications that were available in the classrooms of the United States of America. The researchers conducted a non-participatory observation in all the 20 public primary schools in the district and interviewed 10 information and communication technology coordinators (ICTCs) on issues that centred around the things observed as a follow-up. After the investigation, it was found that many classrooms in the district did not have electricity. Second, majority of the primary schools within the district did not have computer laboratory. Third, the majority of the schools did not own digital tools in their schools and therefore used the services of business centres around the school premises. Finally, none of the six schools with the computer laboratory was connected to the internet but rather, had older versions of the Microsoft Office suite on their machines for offline use. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Digital tools, software applications, teaching and learning, 21st century technologies