AN EVALUATION OF THE USE, AND COMPETENCE OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN AKWA IBOM STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

Presently, traditional educational approaches have resulted in a mismatch between what is taught to the students and what the industry needs. As such, many institutions are moving towards ICT and multimedia resources as a solution to producing creative graduates, who can think critically and analytically and can solve problems. This research focuses on identifying the type of ICT and multimedia resources available in teaching and learning in selected tertiary institutions in Akwa Ibom State, exploring the level of satisfaction of teaching and learning with ICT and multimedia resources, clarifying the level of ICT and multimedia teachings for motivating the students to learn a subject, investigating the level of ICT and multimedia teaching effectiveness in classroom teaching. Moreover, The research also consists of some of the ICT mediums of teaching and communication such as e-books as the future of scholarly communications, e-reading, participatory learning, distance, and online teaching, massive online open courses, re-engineering teaching and learning in Nigerian universities using ICT and multimedia systems, ICT and multimedia research in the university systems, potential benefits of ICT and multimedia teaching system, an overview of the strategic plan of ICT and multimedia in the education sector in Nigeria, multimedia authoring in Macromedia director, assessment criteria, and some the problems militating against full adoption and utilization of ICT and multimedia resources in teaching and learning in selected tertiary institutions in Akwa Ibom State. Furthermore, the research conducted case study approach and survey strategy, and the result was presented in tabular figures using the simple statistics of frequency and percentage. A summary of findings, conclusions, and recommendations for better adoption and useful utilization of ICT and multimedia resources is also been given.

 

AN EVALUATION OF THE USE, AND COMPETENCE OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN AKWA IBOM STATE, NIGERIA

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER ONE

 

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Conventional institutions of learning have changed far more slowly than the modes of inventive, collaborative, participatory learning offered by the Internet and an array of contemporary mobile technologies. This slow pace of change makes us think we know what a learning institution is or what we think we do. But what happens when rivaling formal educational systems, there are also many virtual sites where learning is happening, from young kids customizing Pokémon (and learning to read, code, and use digital editing tools), to college kids contributing to Wikipedia, to adults exchanging information about travel or restaurants or housing via collaborative sites, learning is happening online, all the time (Davidson, and Goldberg, 2009). The Impact of Information Technology on the Activities of the University has survived other periods of technology-driven social change with its basic structure and roles intact. But the changes driven by evolving information technology are different since they affect the very nature of the fundamental activities of the university: creating, preserving, integrating, transmitting, and applying knowledge. More fundamentally, because information technology changes the relationship between people and knowledge, it is likely to reshape in profound ways the roles and activities of knowledge-based institutions such as the university (Duderstadt, 2001). Moreover, the digital revolution is

providing a dizzying array of tools that offer opportunities for learning institutions all over the world to become more vibrant and accessible. This revolution provides the means to share vital information, enabling people to learn more, shape informed opinions, and make decisions in their daily lives. Suddenly, everybody can have access to information that previously was only available to the experts. Everybody can take part in the creative processes of institutions that once were not even in public view. However, this unprecedented and continuous shift has left many institutions struggling to adapt and is forcing them to rethink how to maintain their unique qualities while at the same time adding value. Today, no organization is immune to the disruptions caused by technological innovation (Clough, 2013).

Furthermore, modern digital technologies such as computers, telecommunications, and networks are reshaping both our society and our social institutions. These technologies have increased vastly our capacity to know and to do things and to communicate and collaborate with others. They allow us to transmit information quickly and widely, linking distant places and diverse areas of endeavor in productive new ways. They allow us to form and sustain communities for work, play and learning in ways unimaginable just a decade ago. Of course, higher education has already experienced significant change driven by digital technology. Our management and administrative processes are heavily dependent upon this technology. Research and scholarship are also highly dependent upon information technology, for example, the use of computers to simulate physical phenomena, networks to link investigators in virtual laboratories or “collaboratories,” and digital libraries to provide scholars with access to knowledge resources. There is an increasing sense that new technology will also have a profound impact on teaching, freeing the classroom from the constraints of space and time and enriching learning by providing our students with access to source materials. Yet, while information technology can enhance and enrich teaching and scholarship, it also poses certain threats to our colleges and universities. We can now use powerful computers and networks to deliver educational services to anyone, at any place and anytime, no longer confined to the campus or the academic schedule. Technology is creating an open learning environment in which the student has evolved into an active learner and consumer of educational services, stimulating the growth of powerful market forces that could dramatically reshape the higher education enterprise (Duderstadt, 2001).

Computer developers started looking to multimedia as a delivery system of information using text, pictures, audio, and video. Multimedia computers could be used to increase efficiency and productivity on the job, provide information at our fingertips at home, and help students learn more effectively both in and out of the classroom. These personal gains meant that people would see computers as practical and useful tools in their everyday lives. Since the late 1980s, multimedia technology and applications have found many places in our lives, at home where a wide variety of games and reference products such as encyclopedias and cookbooks are put to use, at the office where marketing presentations and training are essential how to get a new job done, at school where interactive software programs assist students in learning mathematics, science, and new languages, in shopping malls where interactive computer terminals, called kiosks, help us to design greeting cards or to find out where specific stores are located. Multimedia teaching systems combine texts, graphics, sound, and animation. A well-designed multimedia teaching system should enhance the communication of ideas. The main goal of communication is to direct the learner’s attention to more important information on the screen. Interaction is one of the most important constituents of computer-based teaching and learning. Interactive learning is a key mechanism for the development of cognitive skills. If a computer interaction system contains well-designed examples, simulations, and animations then it can be used to stimulate cognition and learning. Techniques and examples of simulations allow a student to experiment with phenomena that are too complex or expensive to be reproduced in a lab, but which can be modeled using computer environments. One of the main challenges when developing multimedia teaching systems is the capability to adapt the learning experience to different users. The design of adaptive multimedia teaching systems requires significant effort since dependencies between educational characteristics of learning resources and learner characteristics are too complex to exhaust all possible combinations. Karampiperis and Sampson (2006), address the design problem of the adaptation model by proposing an alternative sequencing method that instead of generating the learning path by populating a concept sequence with available learning resources based on adaptation rules, first generates all possible sequences that match the learning goal in hand and then adaptively selects the desired sequence, based on the use of a decision model that estimates the suitability of learning resources for a targeted learner. Adaptability requires an appropriate scheme for sequencing the learning material for different students. The learning objects presuppose the existence of an environment with the capacity to decide which object is to be presented next. To accomplish adaptation of the educational content to the particular needs of every learner it is necessary, however, for content to be described appropriately and in enough detail for a system to be able to automatically and dynamically establish the most appropriate sequencing of the learning objects for each learner (Supic, H.2009).

 

1.1.1 Terminology and History of the Term

According to Albarino, (1966). The term “multimedia” was coined by

Bob Goldstein (later ‘Bobb Goldsteinn’) promoted the July 1966 opening of his “LightWorks at L’Oursin” show at Southampton, Long Island. On August 10,

1966, Richard Albarino of Variety borrowed the terminology, reporting: “Brainchild of song scribe-comic Bob (‘Washington Square’) Goldstein, the

‘Lightworks’ is the latest multi-media music-cum-visuals to debut as discothèque fare. Two years later, in 1968, the term “multimedia” was re-appropriated to describe the work of a political consultant, David Sawyer, the husband of Iris Sawyer one of Goldstein’s producers at L’Oursin. In the intervening forty years, the word has taken on different meanings. In the late 1970s, the term was used to describe presentations consisting of multi-projector slide shows timed to an audio track (Stewart, and Kowaltzke, 1997). However, by the 1990s ‘multimedia’ took on its current meaning. In the 1993 first edition of McGraw-Hill’s Multimedia: Making It Work, Vaughan, (1993) declared “Multimedia is any combination of text, graphic art, sound, animation, and video that is delivered by computer. When you allow the user the viewer of the project to control what and when these elements are delivered, it is interactive multimedia. When you provide a structure of linked elements through which the user can navigate, interactive multimedia becomes hypermedia.” The German language society, Gesellschaft für deutsche

Sprache decided to recognize the word’s significance and iniquitousness in the 1990s by awarding it the title of ‘Word of the Year’ in 1995. The institute summed up its rationale by stating “Multimedia has become a central word in the wonderful new media world” In common usage, the term multimedia refers to an electronically delivered combination of media including video, still images, audio, and text in such a way that can be accessed interactively. Much of the content on the web today falls within this definition as understood by millions. Some computers which were marketed in the 1990s were called “multimedia” computers because they incorporated a CD-ROM drive, which allowed for the delivery of several hundred megabytes of video, picture, and audio data.

The term ‘information technology’ means computers, ancillary

equipment, software, and firmware (Hardware) and similar procedures, services (including support services), and related resources. It is also information technology that includes any equipment or interconnected system or subsystem of equipment, that is used in the automatic acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of data or information. Oni, F. A (2003) explained that technological development has in recent times landed mankind into the era of Information Technology (IT). IT, which is generally perceived as a fusion of telecommunication and computer services to initiate, generate, and distribute information, is now becoming the indisputable index for measuring a nation’s level of development. Thus, Where (2000) reveals that IT is a term used to encompass all forms of technology used in the process of acquiring, storing, processing, and distributing information by electronic means (including radio, television, telephone, and computers.

 

1.2 Statement of the Problems

Presently, traditional educational approaches have resulted in a mismatch between what is taught to the students and what the industry needs. As such, many institutions are moving towards problem-based learning as a solution to producing creative graduates, who can think critically and analytically and can solve problems. This research will focus on various aspects of ICT and multimedia resources in teaching and learning in selected tertiary institutions in Akwa Ibom State, the research will also cover the availability, satisfaction, motivation, and effectiveness of ICT and multimedia resources in teaching and learning in

selected tertiary institutions in Akwa Ibom State.

Therefore, multimedia-oriented projects, like many other problems-

based learning solutions can be used alternatively as an innovative and effective tool in a problem-based learning environment for the acquisition of problem-solving skills.

 

1.3 Research Question

The research questions provide focus and direct attention to the major issues

in the project. They determine, therefore, what data to collect and how and where to collect them. They should always be related to the problem at hand and represent significant and critical issues in the study. Below are questions about this project:

• What are the ICT and multimedia resources available in teaching and

learning in selected tertiary institutions in Akwa Ibom State?

• Do you agree on the level of satisfaction of teaching and learning with ICT and multimedia resources in selected tertiary institutions in Akwa Ibom State?
• Do think ICT and multimedia teachings motivate students to learn a subject?
• Do you agree that ICT and multimedia teaching is more effective than classroom teaching?

 

1.4 Objectives of the Study

The objectives of this research are to provide effective and qualitative education in tertiary institutes which will involve creating, authoring, packaging, and using multimedia in the education system. This research Provides changes in teaching and learning which many years back depended on the theoretical aspects in the tertiary institutes, therefore, the research also laid to assist students with making lessons clear and understandable by well-organizing ICT and multimedia resources that articulate all the content ware of the research. The research seeks to motivate students to learn a subject by interacting with computer and multimedia software in learning, below are the specific objectives of the study:

• To identify the type of ICT and multimedia resources available in teaching and learning in selected tertiary institutions in Akwa Ibom State.
• To explore the level of satisfaction of teaching and learning with ICT and multimedia resources in selected tertiary institutions in Akwa Ibom State.
• To clarify the level of ICT and multimedia teachings for motivating the students to learn a subject.
• To investigate the level of ICT and multimedia teaching effectiveness in classroom teaching.

 

1.5 Significance of the Study

The study will reveal the extent to which ICT Multimedia resources are

made available for use in teaching and learning in selected tertiary institutions in Akwa Ibom State. Tertiary institutions are to provide quality education which enhances the growth of the entire educational system. As such the findings of the study will be of great importance to the government and management body of the institutions to plan better to meet the changing technological needs of their parent institution. Also, it will serve as a guide to the management of institutions in the area of planning and establishing new ICT and multimedia units. In addition, it will serve as a guide for newly created institutions in setting up their plan for ICT and multimedia to meet their need. Finally, it is an important contribution to the field of ICT/Multimedia and knowledge in general.

 

1.6 Scope and Limitations

Any intensive education research and extension education needs the support of systematic modern ICT services. A well-organized and efficiently managed ICT resources and services are pre-requisite to any of the above said activities. Therefore, there is a vast scope to study the various aspects of ICT and multimedia resources in teaching and learning in selected tertiary institutions in Akwa Ibom State, the research will only cover the availability, satisfaction, motivation, and effectiveness of ICT and multimedia resources in teaching and learning in selected tertiary institutions in Akwa Ibom State.

AN EVALUATION OF THE USE, AND COMPETENCE OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN AKWA IBOM STATE, NIGERIA

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