CHAPTER ONE
NTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Information communication technologies (ICTs) are information handling tools that are used to produce, store, and process, distribute and exchange information. These different tools are now able to work together, and combine to form networked world-which reaches into every corner of the globe (UNDP Evaluation Office, 2001). It is an increasingly powerful tool for participating in global markets, promoting political accountability; improving the delivery of basic services; and enhancing local development opportunities (UNDP, 2006). According to Ogunsola (2005) ICT “is an electronic based system of information transmission, reception, processing and retrieval, which has drastically changed the way we think, the way we live and the environment in which we live”. It can be used to access global knowledge and communication with other people (Ogunsola, 2005).
Students who use ICT based materials stand a chance of gaining deeper understanding of complex topics and concepts and are more likely to recall information and use it to solve problems outside the classroom (Apple Computer, 2002). In addition, through ICT based materials, students extend and deepen their knowledge, investigation, and inquiry. According to Apple computer (2002), Information communication technology (ICT) has no doubt changed the face of teaching and learning globally.
Globally, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) world has initiated a transition of emphasis from an analogue educational research based technological development to that of a digital knowledge based technological development in education. This has made it one of the basic building blocks of modern society.
The technological change process has accelerated in tandem to create a new world power based ICT. Although ICT based materials have been looked upon as tools for the upliftment of the standard of education in any nation, the level of compliance in implementing the ICT based materials in instructional development process leaves much to be desired in the Nigerian higher education system.
Recent developments in ICT have drastically affected educational procedure for improved quality of education offered to students at all levels. ICT based materials in instructional delivery in secondary schools will serve a dual purpose and more efficient classroom instruction (Nzewi, 2009; Umoren, 2006).
It is in the pursuance of the need to access international best practices that the Federal government reviewed the National Policy on Education (1998) to the current one (NPE, 2004) to accommodate the introduction of ICT into the school system in keeping with the dynamics of social change and its demand on education.
Improved secondary education is essential to the creation of effective human capital in any country (Evoh, 2007). The need for availability of ICT based materials 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 and the use of ICT based materials by secondary school students in Port Harcourt and in the entire nation.
The availability and use of 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).
There are developments in the Nigerian education sector which indicate some level of ICT application in the secondary 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).