Digital Media Practices: Exploring the Challenges of Graphic Design Students in Senior High Schools in Ghana

Abstract

The development and introduction of digital technology for the past three decades have affected every aspect of human life. Since the introduction of digital technology in schools and colleges, most Graphic Design(GD) students have had difficulties making use of these digital technologies for their various artistic expressions. Therefore, exploiting the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the visual arts classroom has been rather challenging for students. This study thus set out to explore the challenges of Graphic design students in Senior High Schools (SHS) in Ghana. The study was conducted quantitatively. It employed the purposive sampling methodology to select four Senior High Schools where Visual Arts is studied in the Ho Municipality in the Volta Region of Ghana. The simple random sampling method was used to select 400 students from the four schools to answer the designed questionnaire. The result revealed that GD students do not involve computer applications in design knowledge to enhance creativity in the Visual Arts class because they were not taught how to use the computer application software for their practical work. It is recommended that there is a need to investigate to know the factors affecting the proper integration of ICT in the learning of Visual Art at the SHS level. Secondly, students should be trained to use ICT software to do Graphic Design work in the classroom. Keywords: Graphic Design, Digital Technology, Visual Art Education, Computers.