Strengths of ICT in Nigerian education

STRENGTHS OF ICT IN EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION & PLANNING

—  ICT helps educational administration and planning students study courses using a wide range of sources: Through ICT, most educational administration and planning students are able to access materials relating to our subjects on the web, we are able to access more details from all parts of the world any day and anytime, ICT has also provided a platform where different websites can gather information from both overseas and nationally and summarize it easily for the students consumption, so through ICT, the students are not just confined to the materials they are given in class, but they are also privileged to do more research and gain better understanding on their subject/course and this is made possible through ICT.

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  ICT prepares students for the world of work: In today’s modern world, almost all organizations and business activities are computerized, most of their transactions are performed online and records of such transactions are stored in the computer, nobody wants to go back to the  strenuous method of keeping these records in books an ledgers, rather you see companies computing data of transactions with Microsoft excel, Microsoft word e.t.c. so through some important course like Epa 103(Data processing in educational management) and Edu204 (Introduction to computer) educational administration and planning students are able to acquire basic skills in ICT that would enable students a greater chance to join the labor force and also enable them to perform tasks effectively and efficiently through the use of various ICT channels/mediums.

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  ICT introduces both students and lecturers into a virtual world: through ICT students and lecturers are able to meet on a mutual ground even if they are not in the same room, for example most lecturers in don’t spend much time lecturing students in the lecture hall, but rather the lecturer could sit in the confinement of his home and issue a lecture to almost a 100 students through the use of a computer, another typical example is the sending of lecture notes and assignments  to student e-mails and students would receive these  notes and do any assignments given and they could also submit such assignments to the lecturer online, so through ICT, the lecturer could eliminate the stressful activities of mobilizing students to submit their assignments and the printing of bulky lecture materials for students and this has helped ease the learning process as a whole.

—  ICT helps both students and teachers realize that teaching and learning are interactive processes: most lecturers today use ICT to support innovative teaching, for example, most lecturers prepare lecture notes on power point and they highlight the key points that they would discuss in class, while some lecturers use images or one sort of demonstration or the other , now when they are in class, the students are able to see the major points highlighted and they are also able to ask questions when they don’t understand or comprehend, but the major benefit is that students are able to see a new way of doing things and they try to adapt and the process of adaptation requires interaction, so students ask questions on the materials highlighted and through that interaction they have with their colleagues and teachers, they are able comprehend better and faster.

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 Through ICT, the teachers are able to see the main difference between a traditional lesson and a computer based lesson: through ICT, most lecturers are able to see that the traditional method of standing in front of the class and dictating /lecturing students is just a waste of time compared to the ICT based method of using power point and other gadgets to aid the teaching process ,also they are also able to realize that students are more inclined to learn when they see new methods of learning and this would go a long way in motivating students to learn through new mediums.

—  Most lecturers have ICT skills: most of the lecturers in educational administration and planning if not all, possess basic knowledge in ICT and this allows them to operate computers with ease, at least they have an idea of what a computer is, the characteristics of a computer, the functions a computer can perform and what to do with a computer when given one to perform a certain task, so in a general term, most lecturers are computer/ICT literates.

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  The development of students’ skills to use ICT for their lifelong learning activities: ICT has always been taught in one form or the other starting from primary- tertiary institutions and these skills which are taught to students, are at one stage or the other used in the life of that student, because the world we live in today is highly influenced by ICT.

—  ICT helps in making quality plans/ proper decision making in administration and planning.