ICT AND EDUCATION

WHAT IS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

ICT is the study or business of developing and using technology to process information and aid communications. ICT education is basically our society’s effort to teach its current and emerging citizens valuable knowledge and skills around computing and communications devices, software that operates them, applications that run on them and systems that are built with them.

ICT is complex and quickly changing, and it is confusing for many people. It is so pervasive in the modern world that everyone has some understanding of it, but those understandings are often wildly divergent.

ICT APPLICATION IN SCHOOLS

There are developments in the education sector which indicate some level of ICT application in schools. The Federal Government of Nigeria, in the National Policy on Education (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004), recognizes the prominent role of ICTs in the modern world, and has integrated ICTs into education in Nigeria. To actualize this goal, the document states that government will provide basic infrastructure and training at the primary school. At the junior secondary school, computer education has been made a pre-vocational elective, and is a vocational elective at the senior secondary school. It is also the intention of government to provide necessary infrastructure and training for the integration of ICTs in the secondary school system.

It should be noted that 2004 was not the first attempt the Nigerian government made to introduce computer education in schools. In 1988, the Nigerian government enacted a policy on computer education. The plan was to establish pilot schools and diffuse computer education innovation first to all secondary schools, and then to primary schools. Unfortunately, the project did not really take off beyond the distribution and installation of personal computers (Okebukola, 1997; cited by Aduwa-Ogiegbaen and Iyamu, 2005).

Okebukola (1997), cited by Aduwa-Ogiegbaen and Iyamu (2005), concludes that the computer is not part of classroom technology in more than 90 percent of Nigerian public schools. This implies that the chalkboard and textbook continue to dominate classroom activities in most Nigerian secondary schools.

COMPUTER COMPETENCE

Pelgrum (2001), the success of educational innovations depends largely on the skills and knowledge of teachers. Also, he found that teachers’ lack of knowledge and skills was the second most inhibiting obstacle to the use of computers in schools. Similarly, in the United States, Knezek and Christensen (2000) hypothesized that high levels of (attitude), skill and knowledge (proficiency), and tools (level of access) would produce higher levels of technology integration that will reflect on student achievements positively. Their model postulated that educators with higher levels of skill, knowledge, and tools would exhibit higher levels of technology integration in the classroom. Moreover, Berner (2003) studied the relationship between computer use in the classroom and seven independent variables: perceived relevance; desire to learn; emotional reaction to technology; beliefs about computer competence; beliefs about technology; administrative support; and peer support. He found that the faculty’s belief in their computer competence was the greatest predictor of their use of computers in the classroom. Therefore, teachers should develop their competence based on the educational goals they want to accomplish with the help of ICT.

In addition to the factors mentioned above, there are other factors that influence teachers’ decision to use ICT. They are collegiality among computer using teachers, self image, student- oriented educational philosophy of the teacher, positive views about the impact ICT has on teachers’ work, perceived changes, student-oriented pedagogical approach, personal entrepreneurship, professional engagement, self confidence, and willingness to change.

Improved secondary education is essential to the creation of effective human capital in any country (Evoh, 2007). The need for ICT in Nigerian secondary schools cannot be overemphasized. In this technology-driven age, everyone requires ICT competence to survive. Organizations are finding it very necessary to train and re-train their employees to establish or increase their knowledge of computers and other ICT facilities (Adomi and Anie, 2006; Tyler, 1998). This calls for early acquisition of ICT skills by students.

The ability to use computers effectively has become an essential part of everyone's education.

Skills such as bookkeeping, clerical and administrative work, stocktaking, and so forth, now constitute a set of computerized practices that form the core IT skills package: spreadsheets, word processors, and databases (Reffell and Whitworth, 2002).

The demand for computer/ICT literacy is increasing in Nigeria, because employees realize that computers and other ICT facilities can enhance efficiency. On the other hand, employees have also realized that computers can be a threat to their jobs, and the only way to enhance job security is to become computer literate. With the high demand for computer literacy, the teaching and learning these skills is a concern among professionals (Oduroye, n.d.). This is also true of other ICT components.

New instructional techniques that use ICTs provide a different modality of instruments. For the student, ICT use allows for increased individualization of learning. In schools where new technologies are used, students have access to tools that adjust to their attention span and provide valuable and immediate feedback for literacy enhancement, which is currently not fully implemented in the Nigerian school system (Emuku and Emuku, 1999 & 2000).

ICT application and use will prove beneficial in improving Nigeria's educational system and giving students a better education. A technologically-advanced workforce will lead to ICT growth in Nigeria, with the potential to improve military technology and telecommunications, media communications, and skilled ICT professionals who will be well-equipped to solve IT problems in Nigeria and other parts of the world (Goshit, 2006).

Status of ICT in schools

The use of ICTs in Nigeria generally is increasing and dramatically growing. However, while there is a great deal of knowledge about how ICTs are being used in Nigeria schools, there is not much information on how ICTs are being introduced into schools in Nigeria (Nwankwo and Godwin, 2012). Looking at secondary schools in Nigeria according to these authors, there is generally limited access time per month using ICTs by both the teachers and students, and even less time spent with reliable Internet access. It should be noted that availability of ICTs access in term of ratio of teachers and students differs significantly. Despite this, the new and emerging technologies challenges the traditional process of teaching and learning, and the way education is managed. While information communication technology is an important area of study in its own right, it is having a major impact across all curriculum areas. Easy worldwide communication provides instant access to vast array of data, challenging assimilation and assessment skills (Fowowe, 2006). Rapid communication plus increased access to ICTs in the home, at work, and in educational establishment, could mean that learning becomes a truly lifelong activity- an activity in which the pace of technological change forces constant evaluation of teaching process itself.

Formerly, the term IT was used to mean ICT, the term which was synonymous with computer but as the passage of time, it covered other equipment created to enhance acquisition, storage and dissemination of information materials. Most of these equipments were initially confine to the vicinity of offices. Libraries in the course of time embraced the use of these equipments to carry out their day-to-day activities as usage was adapted to carry out some routine activities. It functions does not end there. The current issue is the use of ICTs in the classroom by the teachers. This includes specifically the use of computers, Internet, telephone, digital camera, data projector, etc. As the world continues to revolve around technology, teachers need to continue incorporating these new technologies into their teaching.

Meanwhile, it is observed that some studies have been conducted on uses of ICTs by teachers particularly on the issue of their professional development. Most of these studies were carried out in developed countries where the use of ICTs has come of age, and where there are resources and material to maintain them. However, the use of ICTs by teachers in Nigeria is just beginning to gain popularity and researches in the area have just started emerging. Emphatically, the use of ICTs by teachers to teach the students is highly advantageous. This is because its enable them to demonstrate understanding of the opportunities and implications of the uses for learning and teaching in the curriculum context; plan, implement, and manage learning and teaching in open and flexible learning environment (UNESCO, 2004). In the light of these therefore, more research is needed to showcase further development of ICTs use by secondary school teachers in Nigeria.

Liisa Ilomäki (2008) studied “The effects of ICT on school: teachers’ and students’ perspectives and concluded that “In general, students are capable and motivated users of new technology; these skills and attitudes are mainly based on home resources and leisure time use. Students have the skills to use new kinds of applications and new forms of technology, and their ICT skills are wide, although not necessarily adequate; the working habits might be ineffective and even wrong. Some students have a special kind of ICT-related adaptive expertise which develops in a beneficial interaction between school guidance and challenges, and individual interest and activity. Teachers’ skills are more heterogeneous. The large majority of teachers have sufficient skills for everyday and routine working practices, but many of them still have difficulties in finding a meaningful pedagogical use for technology. The intensive case study indicated that for the majority of teachers the intensive ICT projects offer a possibility for learning new skills and competences intertwined in the work, often also supported by external experts and a collaborative teacher community; a possibility that “ordinary” teachers usually do not have. Further, teachers’ good ICT competence helps them to adopt new pedagogical practices and integrate ICT in a meaningful way.

The adoption and use of ICTs in schools have a positive impact on teaching, learning, and research. Despite the roles ICTs can play in education, schools in Nigeria have yet to extensively adopt them for teaching and learning. Efforts geared towards integration of ICTs into the secondary school system, have not had much impact. Problems such as poor policy and project implementation strategies, and limited or poor information infrastructure militate against these efforts.

CONCLUSION

Finding has shown that schools are lagging behind in the level of application of ICT in the teaching-learning process. The ICT facilities are lacking in schools, the capacity for using ICT by both teachers and students is also very low. Despite the perceived benefits in the use of ICT in school, there are a lot of factors inhibiting the successful application of ICT in schools. In order to fit into the new scientific order, it is necessary for institutions and individuals alike to develop a society and culture that places a high value on information and communication technology. The following recommendations are therefore made. There should also be continuous and periodic training of teachers on computer and ICT skills acquisition. This will help provide them with practical and functional knowledge of the computer, the internet and associated areas of ICT with the hope of integrating it with instructional methods of teaching and learning.

IMPACT OF ICT ON EDUCATION

1. Ensures life-long learning
2. Enables distant learning
3. We can access teaching materials and experts from all over the world
4. It has the ability to perform impossible experiments by using stimulations

TRENDS OF ICT IN NIGERIA AND THE WORLD TODAY

It is no longer news that every organization has adopted the use of ICT as a major way of operation and communication. The western and developed countries have long started the use of ICT in all organizations. Now the educational sectors in Nigeria have also adopted the trend of the day. Today jamb has introduced the use of ICT as a means of writing her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), 90% of Nigerian Universities have also started the use of computers for their entrance examination, called the CBT (Computer Based Test), and even WAEC has proposed to commence the use of ICT for her Final Examination (WASSCE). This means there is nothing like special centre again, where students practice an illegal means of passing their examinations. Many student failed their UTME and POST-UTME because of their inability to use the computer effectively.

Despite this alarming rate of failure due to the inability of these students to use the computer effectively, it still looks like most schools in Nigeria, have not seen the importance of training their teachers and students in the use of ICT to overcome the difficult task of using the computer to excel in their examinations.