Assessment of the Availability, Accessibility and Utilization of Computers on Students’ Proficiency in Word-Processing in Colleges of Education in North-West, Nigeria.
ABSTRACT
The study focused on the assessment of the availability, accessibility and utilization of computers on students‟ proficiency in word-processing in Colleges of Education, North- West, Nigeria. Four research questions and four Null Hypotheses were drawn to guide the study.
The research adopted a descriptive survey design. The population for the study was 300 secretarial students drawn from 9 (nine) Federal and State Colleges of Education, NCE III doing word-processing in North-West Nigeria. No sampling was done because of the size of the target population.
However, out of the 300 OTMstudents, only 278 of them responded validly to the questionnaire. A structured questionnaire tagged AAAUCWP designed by the researcher was used for data collection.
Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for the four research questions, while the 4 (four) null hypotheses were tested using logistic regression at 0.05 level of significance. The entire four (4) null hypotheses were rejected. Findings revealed that most laboratory computers/ICT resources were not available, inadequate, obsolete and non-functional.
Thus, the few available ones could not commensurate with the number of students. This situation made it impossible for OTM students to have proper practical knowledge to acquire the proficiency for speed and accuracy of 60 words per minute in word-processing required for today‟s job acquisition.
Similarly, disruptions caused by irregular power supply and the absence of an alternative power supply such as power generators or solar energy to drive these resources and lack of technical support staff kept students from utilizing the laboratories computers and their resources.
The study recommended that alternative power supply such as power generators or solar energy to drive these resources should be provided in the colleges.
Similarly, Federal and State Government should endeavor to make sufficient funds available for the colleges to enable them procure enough functional computers for the acquisition of these skills. Where this is not forthcoming, colleges should appeal to business organizations within their school localities for either financial or material support.
INTRODUCTION
Modern offices have rapidly changed as a result of office automation, which has brought new methods in carrying out functions performed ordinarily by people with conventional manual typewriters in organizations.
At the centre of the new trends in schools and colleges, is the computer word-processing equipment brought about by Information and Communication Technology.
The impact of this technology in teaching and learning is gradually gaining ground and affecting the production of knowledge and transforming the world in an unexpected way.
This has facilitated the paradigm shift from the traditional instructional materials or traditional pedagogical methods to a more modern and innovative technological based teaching and learning methods.
Word-processing is a business subject in office education and one of the core courses. There is the need for students to acquire the skills to enable them cope with the new technological development and also exposing them to career awareness by exploring usable options in the world of work and enabling students to have an intelligent understanding of the complexity of technological resources (Chigbuson, 2009).
Perhaps no other technology has had a great impact on education as computer or word-processor. Not only does word-processor offer high versatility and flexibility, it also has instructional software that reflects no particular instructional approach. A teacher can use it to support any kind of instruction or activity (Brierley and Kemble, 1991).
Word- processor as an aid to teaching and learning, is universally acknowledged and has become the most commonly used hardware in education. It offers many general relative advantages, unique benefits over and above other methods to teachers and students.
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