USAGE OF ICT IN TEACHING AND LEARNING (EDUCATION PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the problem
Teachers in all nations constitute a major input in the accomplishment of educational goals and objectives. The National policy on Education (2004) in Nigeria reiterates that no education system can rise above the quality of its teachers. Hence, teachers are indispensable within the teaching – learning process. Also trained and effective teachers are the principal assets of any educational system. Aminu (1987) aptly observes that teachers constitute not only a vital input to education but also a major drive in the production process and in the determination of the output system. Teachers touch and shape destinies. Ajayi (1997) states that teachers are the ones to make it possible for a child to be grounded in his mother tongue, acquire one or more Nigerian languages, plus English and one or more foreign languages. They are the ones to ensure a proper foundation of scientific education for the child.
In the light of this, it is impossible to think of education without the contributions of teachers. That teachers have a vital role to play is not in doubt, and this fact has been recognized by international development organization. In fact, teacher- training rates highly in the context of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which has now acquired the status of a framework for measuring development (Omolewa, 2009).
In Nigeria, the late President Musa Yar’Adua listed education among his seven point agenda that will guide his administration in the vision 20-2020 which was aimed at ensuring that Nigeria is placed among the leading 20 world economies by the year 2020. Omolewa (2009) asserts that it must be cleared in our minds from the outset that at the centre for the attainment of these goals and vision is the teacher. For it cannot be disputed that the teacher basically determines the relevance, quality and sustainability of education. Indeed, the world has always been a teacher’s world whether this is appreciated or not.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a generic term that refers to technologies which are being used for collecting, storing, editing and passing on information in various forms (SER, 1997). A personal computer is the best known example of the use of ICT in education, but the term multimedia is also frequently used. Multimedia can be interpreted as a combination of data carriers, for example video, CDROM, floppy disc and Internet and software in which the possibility for an interactive approach is offered (Smeets, 1996).Multimedia now includes a flash drive. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become key tools and had a revolutionary impact on how we see the world and how we live in it. This phenomenon has given origin to the contemporary and advances in our ways of life. ICT is having a revolutionary impact on educational methodology globally. The following are the functions of the use of ICT in education as described in literature (SER, 1998, Moonen and Kommers, 1995, Pilot, 1998).
