Pattern of Computer and Internet Use among Teachers in Higher Institutions in Nigeria

This research borders on assessing teachers’ competences in the use of ICT tools in teaching and research in Nigeria. Two common ICTs: the computer and the internet were selected, and the skills and attitudes of teachers in 7 Nigerian higher Institutions were assessed. About 760 questionnaires were distributed to 7 higher institutions comprising 4 Universities, 2 Polytechnics & one College of Education; a response rate of 67% was achieved. Our result showed that about 96.7% of the teachers have access to a PC and 84.9% have self-owned PCs. Access to Internet stood at 88.6% and the point of access was traced mostly to cyber cafés (49.8%), although slightly over half of all respondents (54.4%) claimed to have access point in their offices, and one out of every 5 have Internet connections at home. Encouragingly, 40.8% and 37.5% have more than 5yrs experience using both computer and the internet respectively and a paltry 8.5% have used both the computer and the internet for less than one year across the institutions. About 53% of these teachers were found to be frequent with the use of the computer out of which 45% spend up to 5hrs on a weekly basis. On the overall, time spent online per teacher is calculated at about 5hrs per week. A good number of the teachers were found to be proficient with varied computer applications and several Internet services (mean=3.51, S.D 1.08). To foster improved access and use of both Computer and the Internet, a number of useful policy directions are advanced. This tends to increase Teacher's productivity in all higher school of Learning.