Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a Catalyst for Women Development in Africa (Published)
The paper examines the opportunities information and communication technology presents for women in Africa. No doubt that information now flows to African women with less distortion; it equally provides access to same information as their male counterpart on the continent. ICT has proven to create and re-create new opportunities by expanding information horizon and educational thereby making communication more flexible and accessible. Data for this paper came from secondary sources while it adopted the strategic model as its theoretical framework and its core argument is that beyond the opportunity presented by ICT, women must tap into its full advantage. It was discovered that the gap between men and women in terms of access to development-oriented information has been drastically reduced, as such women, voice their opinions, demand for their rights and have more control over their destiny cannot be said to be hidden by the men. ICT today has proven to be a veritable tool in transforming socio-economic and political life globally, African women inclusive. Findings shows that ICT is a Veritable tool for empowering women of all status The conclusion of the paper is that African women now have an opportunity in ICT to maximize their potentials for the overall development of the continent. The paper however recommends among other things that to mitigate further economic marginalization women must wholly embrace all the opportunities presented by ICT.
Keywords: Africa, Development, Information and Communication Technology, Women
Information and Communication Technology Integration in Higher Education: Inequitable Access in Nigeria (Published)
The study was designed to investigate the availability of Information and Communication Technology facilities among undergraduate students. Descriptive survey method of the cross-sectional research design was used for the study. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 600 from the population of undergraduate students in Rivers state Nigeria. A self-assessment instrument, ICT Facilities Availability Inventory – IFAI, developed by the researcher was used to collect data from the sample. The reliability of the instrument was determined through the test-retest method and a reliability coefficient of 0.82 was obtained. Three experts in the field of Educational Technology and two in Measurement and Evaluation confirmed the face and content validity of the instrument. Six research questions were answered using frequency and percentage while five hypotheses were tested with Chi-Square at 0.05 alpha. The results showed that undergraduate students had more access to laptops and mobile phones and less access to tablet PC and broadband connectivity. Also, over thirteen percent of students do not have access to ICT facilities. There was significant difference found on gender, modes of study, age, level of study and course of study. The conclusion is that there is inequitable access to ICT facilities among undergraduate students.
Keywords: Access, Computing device, Higher Education, Information and Communication Technology, Internet facilities
The Use of New Information and Communication Technologies in the Learning Process (Published)
Not only in the field of education but also in many other forms of social expression and action, a period of fundamental changes can be observed due to the incorporation of new data imposed by the technological revolution. However, the process of integrating Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the learning process requires coordination, system change and radical transformations. These changes should be incorporated into curricula, while active teachers should have ongoing training on new technologies. In such a context, this paper comes to explore the views of secondary education teachers on the use of information and communication technologies in the learning process. In particular, a sample survey was conducted to determine the degree of utilization of new information and communication technologies in the learning process, especially in secondary school teachers in the Prefecture of Aitoloakarnania. The statistical software SPSS 23 was used to analyze the data obtained from the questionnaires. Tools and methods of descriptive and inductive statistics were used. The results highlight the low percentage of teachers who have received Level B certification and demonstrate the low level of ICT use by teachers, identifying at the same time all the factors affecting negatively their use and application.
Keywords: Certification, Educators, Implementation, Information and Communication Technology
ICT Adoption Attitude of Lecturers (Published)
With ex post facto research method, this study investigated the attitude of lecturers towards the adoption of Information and Communication Technology, abbreviated as ICT, in teaching and research in federal and state-owned universities in Nigeria. Four research questions and null hypotheses were respectively, answered and tested. A stratified sample of 400 lecturers (251 males and 149 females) was randomly drawn from one federal university and one state university. A factor analyzed 55 items instrument with high construct validity and three-factor loadings was used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument, using the Cronbach alpha method, showed reliability coefficients of 0.67, 0.62, and 0.51 for attitude, competence, and accessibility factor loadings, respectively. Data analysis was done with the use of independent samples t-test and One-way ANOVA for testing the hypotheses. Results revealed that gender and area of specialization have no significant difference in the attitude of lecturers’ towards ICT adoption in teaching and research. On years of experience, moderately and less experienced lecturers are more competent in the use of ICTs than their highly experienced counterparts. ICT facilities are significantly more accessible the Federal university (University of Port Harcourt) than the State university (Rivers State University of Science and Technology). University management should motivate and encourage lecturers to participate in ICT training programs, lecturers especially highly experienced should be well motivated to develop their ICT competence.
Keywords: Area of specialization, Federal Universities, Gender, ICT, ICT competence, Information and Communication Technology, Lecturers, State universities, Years of experience, and ICT access; Adoption of ICT, attitude
An Adaptable Business Intelligence Model for Security Organizations (Published)
Business Intelligence (BI) shows prospect both in private and public sectors. It answers the questions of how things can be done and what result it holds. It was observed that most of the BI research centered on private sector with little or no attention to public sector like security organizations. With security organizations representing the heart of any society, the need arises for a well-integrated model that could aid security personnel towards an effective security implementation of any society. The paper studied one of the existing and popularly used model in Information System and observed the need to integrate a feasibility study for an effective BI system in the security organization. In conclusion, the paper developed an adaptable model that could help security organizations create better decision system and provision of a data warehouse of information.
Keywords: Business Intelligence, Information and Communication Technology, Knowledge Acquisition