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Asia-Pacific Forum
on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 10, Issue 2, Article 7
(Dec. 2009) |
This article has examined the effectiveness of instructional technology in higher education institutions in relation to the role and usage of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), it effectiveness in faculty teaching and its impact on student learning. It has also looked at attitudes and anxiety towards instructional technology amongst higher education faculty and students in a developing economy. Instructional technologies constitute an important force in the efforts to build an information technology society and to join the international community in meeting the millennium development goals. This study suggests that higher education worldwide is valuable in providing faculty and students with some of the resources needed for their continuing development; higher education institutions are enduring entities that ensure and foster the diffusion of knowledge for national advancement. Society depends on institutions of higher education for growth, the production of new knowledge, the transmission of new knowledge through education, training and information and communication technology. As higher education is increasingly playing a role in the global free market we must endeavor to ensure standardization and uniformity in satisfying global trends, for example, in demanding excellence from our educational institutions in their training and preparation of highly qualified manpower. The Nigerian government must embark on a comprehensive program of higher education recapitalization and should move from its traditional position of paying lip service or little attention to empowering higher education programs to proactively funding, monitoring, and controlling ICT implementation as away of ensuring that standards are met (Ololube, 2008). This will necessarily involve making sure that adequate and functioning ICT infrastructures are available to private organizers of higher education programs and citizens at large. Such infrastructure includes electricity, telecommunications equipment and effective network systems (Yusuf, 2006).
According to Mac-Ikemenjima (2005), ICT plays a key role as an enabler that helps us to better manage the complex information flow and integrate such information in policy formulation in order to achieve the maximization of human capital and potential in society. Thus, ICT involves the development of effective and integrated tools as well as training modules to enable ICT application through effective teaching and learning.
Transferring technology to Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries is necessary and overdue. An overhaul of the technology transfer process is essential, including stipulations for the acquisition of skills, knowledge and abilities. Although, these requirements appear daunting, especially in view of the human and material resources needed to successfully implement them, they are central to the development of the region. Over 70% of Nigeria’s public universities and Nigerians themselves depend on the government to provide ICT materials in universities. This overwhelming dependence on the government has often left higher education institutions poorly equipped. ICT capacity building through the management of information systems and staff training are critical; and a failure to address these issues may lead to aims and objectives displacement, which in turn will allow higher education institutions to deviate from their primary role of teaching and research (Ololube, 2008).
Implication for research and practice
This research suggests several possible implications for future research and practice. These implications pertain most directly to higher education institutions, faculty, students and researchers. At a management level, this case study calls for effective policies to make balanced investments and increase funding in higher education programs that will provide resources needed to effectively implement the use, integration and diffusion of ICT. Following the design of this investigation, which was based on a small sample size, the researchers suggest larger studies based on a more widespread survey, which may also involve multiple case studies. These limitations need to be considered when evaluating the findings of this study as they raise the possibility that some differences in opinion may be more a function of research design and contextual factors than a result of any differences in higher education studies. As with many other case studies, the findings should not be regarded as definitive but as offering faculty, educators, researchers, planners and administrators a view of the authors’ reality.
