PERCEIVED CHALLENGES TO EFFECTIVE ICT INTEGRATION IN TEACHER EDUCATION IN SOUTH-EASTERN NIGERIA *Bede Blaise Chukwunyere Onwuagboke 1 , Termit Kaur Ranjit Singh 1 , Joy Ngozika Onwuagboke 2 1 School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia 2 Department of Business Education, Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education Owerri, Nigeria Paper presented at the 3rd ELLTA Conference, Universiti Sains Malaysia 17 th -19 th November, 2014 Abstract With the general acceptance of information and communications technology (ICT) as a veritable tool for teaching and learning coupled with its great potentials for educational advancement in the 21 st century learning environment, this paper examines its availability and the challenges of integrating ICT in teacher education programs in south-eastern Nigeria. The study was a descriptive survey conducted in teacher educational institutions in south-eastern Nigeria. Data was collected using a set of researchers’ designed instruments from selected second year pre-service teachers in selected universities and colleges of education. IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) statistics software version 22 was employed to analyze the data using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings show that only a few resources are available in these institutions. The availability of ICT resources was low and therefore inadequate with numerous challenges facing the integration of ICT in teacher education ranging from lack of adequate training of teacher educators, epileptic power supply to high cost of ICT resources. The paper concludes that the numerous obstacles to effective ICT integration in teacher education need urgent attention if the gains of ICT in education must be reaped in our teacher educational programs. Keywords: Challenges; ICT integration; Teacher education; South-eastern Nigeria. Introduction The emergence of new technologies like the computer and the Internet has tremendously changed the way things are done all over the world. The emergence and convergence of computer and telecommunications technologies have given birth to the term Information and Communication Technology (ICT) (Afari-Kumah& Tanye, 2009). This term has most often been used interchangeably with Information Technology (IT). Wilson, Tete-Mensah and Boateng (2014) maintain that although ICT offers new opportunities and flexibilities for classroom use, it also challenges the confidence of the user. The importance of ICT integration in the 21 st century classroom has necessitated its use in the teacher preparation institutions to enable future teacher be skilled and confident users. The role of education includes the transmission of worthwhile values of society to the younger generations. These include information literacy and technological skills necessary for achieving national development. Obanya, (2007) asserts that technological skills are among the eight time-bound Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It therefore follows that one cannot give what he lacks. It is common knowledge that information and communication technology is a required resource for training teachers all over the world if these goals have to be achieved. ICT usage in teacher education programs deserve to be given importance and priority for its role in developing information literacy. Information literacy is seen as one of the 21 st century skills which education is bound to develop in the learners. The Nigerian nation is not oblivious of this fact hence the nation maintain that ICT should be a tool for teaching in Nigerian educational institutions at all levels (FRN, 2004). For any developing nation like Nigeria to catch up with other developing countries of the world at a very reasonable pace, the teachers must be abreast of new developments around the world as the world has now been reduced to a