CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study:

Every now and then, there is always the need for a man to get an optimum result in the most convenient and safest manner. Nothing has ever contributed more to the spread of knowledge than man’s invention of the ways of recording his thoughts in lasting form. Of all the qualities that make man an inventor, imagination is the foremost. It is the imagination that allows man to transcend his passive environment into the active form and meet up with other challenges within man’s environment. As man has settled in his environment, the human population increases; the entire system becomes complex. The amount of knowledge being received becomes very high and technical, too. The complexity of the society and overflow of information necessitate the man’s crave to provide alternative means to acquire the right and richly available information. This ushered in Information and Communication Technological revolution in the 20th century.

During the 20th century, there were many changes but none of them was as profound as the effect of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The 20th century was the century of the physical sciences, the transistors, the computer and other material sciences. New technologies and new techniques were engendered by the Information and Communication Revolution, which allow for the knowledge and the dissemination of Information and knowledge. The new technologies include the Internet, CD-Rom and other electronic media forms. Among all the new technologies, Internet remains the most effective Information and Communication Technological resource (Liverpool, 2001).

According to Abraham (2002), the Internet has been the driving force for new interest and new learning device. It is often referred to as the Net, the information super high way and the cyberspace. It has been seen as a dazzling new product, a new information system, a new way to find out things, a new communication medium. It may as well be described as a global market place, where people can find any type of information that is of great interest to them. Daly and Miller (1998) state that the Internet is an interesting and vital technical change and a basis for virtually instantaneous communication worldwide.

Internet is an educational medium. It changes the way people work, live, play, and learn. Daly and Miller in their investigation found out that over 70 million people receive education on the Internet yearly and that everyday training of people for every job on earth is readily available on the Internet. The use of Internet in educational institutions has gained grounds whereby the staff and students use the Internet for various purposes such as E-mail, E-learning, news, games, research, phone call, lottery, admission and employment.

In Nigeria, the Federal Government has prepared citizens on how to live in the Internet age through its policies and actions. In 1994, the ministry of Education commissioned the use of Internet in Nigerian tertiary schools and education. The National University Commission (NUC) established National University Network (NUNET), which was published in 1996. It was specifically established for instructional purposes, research and administrative processes through the installation of a campus wide voice and data communication network. These facts suggest that Internet has been introduced, tested and established in Nigeria for her educational values or purposes.

On these notes, Fajuyigbe and Ekubase (2001) state that gone were the days of hyper-dermic needle method of teaching and teachers’ myopic and narrow-minded instructions. Then, teachers and lecturers saw themselves as the oracles and “sage on the stage” delivering lectures, giving information and transmitting knowledge to eager students whose minds were supposedly empty vessels waiting to befit. Coy (2001) in similar thoughts, opts that with the exponential growth of the Internet; the traditional methods of learning are fast vanishing. There has been a general awareness and awakening of the Nigerian populace of what Internet can achieve for the education of the citizenry.

Incidentally, Hanif (2006) observes that even though the Internet allows the citizenry, to move along on the same pace, the teachers take the lead and play the role of guiding and facilitating or assisting students to gain the skills required to acquire and utilize the knowledge available in various forms. In spite of the functional and dynamic values of Internet services to education, teachers still delve into using the traditional approaches in teaching. They still pose as the repertoires of all knowledge. Their teachings and learning are still modeled rigidly and awkwardly along the old system and style where learners are meant to memorize all rules, all forms and take in the strict definitions. The technique, which appears very prescriptive, is found with a total disregard for dynamism and eclectism. It is fraught with unfunctionality, role and parrot learning.

Emelife (2008) equally observes that people generally have been aware of the Internet but not all people perceive the role of-Internet in education. Some people have misconception about Internet. In his investigation, out of thirty people he interviewed, seventy percent was of the view that Internet is a source of corruption. Massari (1999) states that there are problems in the use of Internet in Nigeria. He outlined them as: Lack of reliable communication, infrastructure, competitive regulatory policy, fluctuation of network, high cost of equipment and Internet connectivity and lack of awareness of potential benefit. These problems suggest that the use of Internet in teaching and learning in Nigerian tertiary schools is quite unsatisfactory.

Another issue in this study is on the categories of teachers and their respective attitudes. There are four types of teachers. They are grouped as Laissez-fair, autocratic, authoritarian and democratic teachers. Ejili and Anyanwu (2006) remark that laissez-fair teachers are carefree; autocratic are rigid and strict to a fault; authoritarian teachers are high handed, strict and harsh, while democratic teachers are sensitive, friendly and open-minded. These differences in behavior pose a problem and may affect the teachers’ perception.

Again, there is the issue of gender differences. On this note, Agwu (2007) in his findings confirms that female teachers perceive things better than their male counterpart. On the contrary, Aniforo (2005) from his investigation, states that male teachers are more active, and sensitive and perceive things better than the female teachers. Adebayo (2005) finds out that none of the sexes does better than the others. These findings suggest conflicting issues.