CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The road to the present century has seen many technological innovations that have brought some remarkable changes in so many areas of our lives. These include how we work, communicate, live and even how we educate ourselves in schools.
The Internet features prominently among the technologies that have made this possible. In fact, the Internet could be said to be the fastest of the emerging technologies that are affecting our lives today.
The Internet is a collection of more than ten thousand (10,000.00) interconnected computer networks around the world that make it possible to share information almost |nstantIy (Sellers, 1994). It grew out of the Advance Research Project Agency Network (ARPANET), an experimental four computer network established by Advance Research Project Agency (ARPA) in U. S. A. (The World Almanac, 2001).
According to O’Leary and O’ Leary (1996) the most common uses of the Internet are sending and receiving electronic mail (Email), participating in public discussions, running programmes on remote computers and
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transferring files. Its utilities are many, but the most widely used are gophers and the World Wide Web.
The Internet can provide one with more information than one could possibly need or imagine. It has made new forms of communication and information dissemination possible. People can now communicate, send or access various forms of information on databases and websites because the Internet has become a treasure house of information. In fact, Moore (1996) says that information is now becoming embedded in our culture.
The Internet has become a major global infrastructure for education, research, professional learning, public services and business (Sellers, 1994). It also has the ability to increase the classroom resources by making many resources from all over the world available to students and teachers in a given locality that has the necessary infrastructure. These resources include information, data, images and even computer software from places otherwise inaccessible to the classroom. The access to these resources can yield individual and group projects, collaboration, curriculum materials and idea sharing not found in chools without Internet access (Sellers, 1994).
In situations where the teacher has access to the Internet, he is able to bring experts in subject areas into the classroom through this electronic medium. The use of networks, according to Sellers (1994), as a hands-on classroom tool, can be a motivator for students in and of itself. This is because its use encourages thq kind of independence and autonomy that many educators agree is important for students to achieve their learning process. Class, race, ability and disability are removed as factors in communication while using the Internet. It therefore becomes a natural tool for addressing the needs of students.
Many features of the Internet such as the availability of online library catalogues and information articles save time once the instructor learns to use them (Sellers, 1964).
Egnatofff (1996) is also of the view that Internet use in schools is a modern extension of past and current educational use of communication media. And schools have used the Internet and other telecommunication media for numerous activities such as:
informal dialogue; cross cultural studies;
discussions and debates on social issues; consulting with professional scientists and authors; collaborating on research;
creative writing and so on.
In countries around the world, the Internet is therefore making its way into the schools and research centres. Egnatoff (1996), reported that in March 1996, Industry Canada and Stentor, a Canadian alliance of telecommunication companies announced plans to connect all schools in the country to the Internet by the end of 1996 — 1997 school year.
In the United States, Parker (1994) also reported that the school community, commonly referred to as k-12, was starting to focus its attention on the Internet. The National Information Infrastructure (N.I.I) Initiative, she affirmed, was intended to benefit the k-12 education in terms of ubiquitous connectivity to all schools.
Selwyn (1998) spoke of the desire to integrate the Internet into compulsory education in the United Kingdom. He cited the “super highways for education” as an example. It saw the government in 1998 committing an initial amount of ten million pounds into the establishment of pilot schemes exploring the role of the Internet in education.
In year 2001’s World Telecommunications Day, under the theme “The Internet: challenges, opportunities and prospects” the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) said that there were projects in India and Morocco for learning centres which will make use of the Internet to re-train teachers to help arrest the rot in education. The ITU has committed an
amount of US$ 250,000.00 to help get the programmes of each pilot project off the ground.
In Ghana, the use of the Internet for educational purposes has seen several initiatives. According to Dankwa (1998), the first was the idea of SchoolNet which was introduced into the country by a company called GhanaNet. It unfortunately collapsed because of misunderstanding with the Ministry of Education. He noted that since then there have been several others. These include:
Partners in Internet Education (PIE) which comprises professionals who have come together to use their expertise to assist secondary school children.
- The world of learning project (WorLD-Links) a World Bank sponsored programme coupled with assistance from corporatmbodies such as Ghana Telecom, Network Computer Systems (NCS), Africa Online and Standard Chartered Bank.
- The Ghana InfoDev Project which was initiated in February 1996 by the Ghana National Committee on Internet Connectivity (GNCIC), with initial support and” sponsorship from UNESCO and ITU. The purpose of the project is to promote the application of telematics for national development. It has among its beneficiaries some selected secondary
schools in five regions of Ghana including Greater Accra, Central, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Upper Regions.
Some of the schools already connected to the Internet are St Thomas Aquinas Secondary School, Achimota School, Accra Academy, Yaa Asantewaa Girl’s Secondary School, Aburi Girls, Holy Child School and Ghana National College.
The Ghanaian Times (June 13, 2001) also reported that Mfantsiman Girls was joining 11 other schools under Infotech solutions’ e-schools project in the country as beneficiaries from using computers to learn at tender ages.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In this informatlon age, a good number of research and educational institutions are making use of the Internet. Kisiedu (1999) has stated that due to inadequate funding and the resultant drastic drop in the level of journal subscription, there is the need for research institutions to access the Internet and tap the rich journal and other resources. The same admonition holds good for all kinds of educational institutions including secondary schools.
The benefits of Internet use in education as stated by Parker (1994) include professional development of teachers and benefits for the students in their academic work. However, Wagner (1995) in discussing the
problems of Internet use, quoted’from Maddux (1994) who has pointed out that a number of problems such as the use of antiquated hardware and software and the need to train teachers could impede Internet use in teaching and learning.
As stated earlier, some secondary schools are getting connected to the Internet in Ghana; there are also others with computer laboratories which are not connected to the Internet. Most schools however have not got in place the infrastructure required for connectivity to be made possible. The need, therefore, to conduct investigation into Internet use at Achimota School where the service has been in use since 1997 as a guide to schools that are thinking about getting connected to the Internet becomes imperative.
- OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The objective of the study are:
- To investigate the background from which the students and teachers came to know of the Internet and the school came to have the facility;
- To find out where the students and teachers first received training in the use of the Internet;
- To find out the frequency of Internet use and how often they get access to the Internet;
- To find out what their views are on the location of the Internet facility;
- To find out what their views are the constraints to the use of the
Internet facility in the school;
- To find out whether Internet use has benefited them and whether it could benefit other schools.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
A study of this nature will be of benefit to policy makers, the general public and the second cycle institutions in particular. The study will bring to light the use to which the Internet is being put and the problems associated with its use for the needed attention of all stakeholders. This is because more and more schools in the country are beginning to have computer laboratories and the idea of e-schools is gradually and steadily spreading across the country.
METHODOLOGY
Data was collected through the use of structured interviews involving the use of both opened – ended questions as well as closed ended questions. Some teacher and students were interviewed. The interviews were used to find out how they got to know of the Internet, where they first received training in its use, what they use the Internet for, how often they use it, whether the use of the Internet has benefited them and whether it could benefit other schools as well among others.
