Thesis Abstract

People over time, have devised various techniques for communicating their thoughts, needs and desires to others in every aspect of life. The emergence of ICT has affected all aspects of human life, including education at all levels. ICT knowledge, accessibility and use are linked with higher efficiency and higher productivity. Undergraduate nursing students and their teachers occupy a central position in both educational and health care systems of any country. This study was carried out to investigate the knowledge, accessibility and use of ICT among students and teachers in the Department of Nursing Sciences, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus. A descriptive cross sectional survey design was used. All the 454 undergraduate students in the Department of Nursing and 23 teachers comprised the subjects for the study. A researcher-developed questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. Data were subjected to descriptive statistics and anayzed using student’s t-test and Chi square. Probability value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Majority of the students 346 (80.5%) and majority of the teachers 20(90.9%) had knowledge of ICT. Respondents had access to the following ICT computer; students 314(73.0%), teachers 20 (90.9%), Internet; students 343(79.8%), teachers 22(100%) and e-mail; students 248(57.7%) and teachers 17(77.3%). The Internet activities mostly performed by the students were browsing 386(89.8%), chatting with friends 274(63.7%) and e-mailing 262(60.9%). The Internet activities mostly performed by teachers were browsing 22(100%), e-mailing 20(90.9%) and downloading articles 18(81.8%). Google is the most common search engine used by students 393(91.4%) and teachers 20(90.9%). High cost of ICT 281(62.2%) and irregular power supply 258(57.1%) were major factors that affect accessibility to and use of ICT negatively. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in the access to ICT types among teachers and students. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in the constraints associated with ICT use among students and teachers. There was significant difference (p < 0.05) in the use of ICT between students and teachers. Findings of this study revealed that there is still need to provide ICT materials and training at subsidized rate in order to encourage use in university education.

Thesis Overview

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

People over time have devised various techniques for communicating their thoughts, needs and desires to others. In early civilized times, people achieved adequate communication through speech and written messages. Communication in teaching and learning situation were mainly done using a teacher-centered education system in the past few years (Adeyinka, Adedeji, Majekodunmi, Adika & Adeyinka, 2011) when the conventional way of teaching was the order of the day. The teacher was seen as the sole source of knowledge and the students were “mere rec eipients” of his/her information. Chalk and talk methods were used in delivering lectures to students and pupils in schools.

The emergence of information communication technology (ICT) has affected all aspects of life (Nadira, Kamal & Banu, 2010). ICT has become an indispensable part of our contemporary world. No wonder the use of such terms as e-nursing, e-commerce, e-banking, e-medicine, e-government, e-learning and e-education just to mention but a few, to show how such aspects of life revolve round technology. ICT materials are adapted to carry out some routine activities in almost every aspect of life.

ICT includes any equipment or interconnect system of equipment that is used in the automatic acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission or reception of data or information resources (National Information Technology Policy, 2010). This policy equally sees ICT as computers, ancillary equipment, software and firmware (Hardware) and similar procedures, services (including support services) and related resources.