EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY AND ACQUISITION OF SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL SKILLS AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN NIGER STATE

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of educational technology and acquisition of social-emotional skills among University Students in Niger State. The study was guided by two research questions and null hypotheses. This study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population for this research was undergraduate students in the public universities located in Niger State with a total population of 380,877 undergraduate students.  A sample of 400 undergraduate students from the four public universities in Niger state was used for the study. The sample size was determined using Taro Yamane's formula (1967) and multistage and convenience sampling techniques were adopted for study. The instrument used was Educational Technology and Acquisition of Social-Emotional Skills Questionnaire (ETASESQ). The instrument was validated by experts and trail-tested for reliability which indicated a reliability coefficient of 0.87. Data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer research questions while Dependent t-test was used to test null hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. The results showed that there is a significant influence of availability and utilization of educational technologies on acquisition of social-emotional skills among University Students in Niger State. Based on this finding it was concluded and recommended among other that schools should ensure that students have access to a range of educational technologies, including computers, laptops, tablets, and interactive whiteboards to projectors, audio-visual aids, and educational software among others.